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In order to make sure pilots were combat ready and effective, the Army Air Corps required Instrument Flight Tests be completed every six months. This one, completed at Wheeler Field, Hawaii, just 6 months and a day before the Japanese attack at Pearl…

Although war was on the horizon, the US military did not know when it would arrive. This certification of enlistment in the Army Air Corps Reserve states that then-Lt. Laughlin would serve in the Reserves for five years. By the end of that period,…

In order to make sure pilots were combat ready and effective, the Army Air Corps required Instrument Flight Tests be completed every six months. This one was completed at Wheeler Field in Hawaii, four months before then-Captain Laughlin would be sent…

In order to make sure pilots were combat ready and effective, the Army Air Corps required Instrument Flight Tests be completed every six months. This one was completed at Wheeler Field in Hawaii, just under a year before the attacks at Pearl Harbor…

With one leg in the cockpit of his P-47, Colonel Laughlin shakes hands with his commander, Colonel Magoffin, the two of them sharing a laugh amidst the stresses of training for war.

Colonel Laughlin, pictured here with grounds crew members of the 379th Fighter Squadron, knew he could rely on his men to do their jobs. He often credited the success of the group to the men who never got the glory because without their skill and…

Colonel Laughlin was able to meet with the Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Forces, General Eisenhower, it seems by chance. There is no indication that this was planned, and it has not been discussed in any sort of detail that has been seen.…

This picture shows Colonel Laughlin and his crew chief, Sgt. Chodor, talking before Laughlin prepped for flight. There had to be a lot of trust between a pilot and his crew chief; not only were they responsible for the overall maintenance of the…

Captain Rarey's renderings were very important to Colonel Laughlin and the airmen of the 362nd. Colonel Laughlin was so enamored with his nose art that he asked his crew chief to salvage them off of every plane he flew. His crew chief, Sergeant…

The P-47D that sits in the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, was painted to represent the P-47 flown by Colonel Joseph Lyle Laughlin, Five by Five. The museum's curator, Jeff Duford, put forth several pilots for the…