Richard Asbury was born in Maryland [Annotator's Note: Prince Frederick, Maryland in September 1920] and had a good boyhood on the banks of the Patuxent River. His father ran a tobacco farm. There was lot of wildlife on their land. Asbury learned to shoot while hunting. In the winter, they had oysters and fish and in the summer they had a lot of crab and fish. They had a large garden. He did not go to college until he was in the military. Before that, he worked in a film library for the Civilian Conservation Corps. Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, 7 December 1941] came along and Asbury applied to be an Aviation Cadet [Annotator's Note: on 28 April 1942]. He passed the exams and was put in a Reserves. He got tired of waiting so he bought whiskey and took it to the house of the recruiting sergeant on a Friday. Monday, he left for Nashville, Tennessee [Annotator's Note: Army Air Force Southeast Training Center, Aviation Cadet Classification Center] for classification. He went to Maxwell Air Force Base [Annotator's Note: then Maxwell Field, now Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama] for preflight training and Carlstrom Field, Florida for primary training. He graduated in Marianna, Florida [Annotator's Note: Marianna Army Airfield on 28 May 1943] flying the T-6 Texan [Annotator's Note: North American AT-6 Texan advanced trainer aircraft]. He did well in gunnery and was asked to tell the class how he was able to score high.

Richard Asbury graduated from Mariana, Florida [Annotator's Note: Marianna Army Airfield] and went to Hamilton Field, California [Annotator's Note: now Hamilton Air Force Base in Novato, California]. He went in a squadron of P-39s [Annotator's Note: Bell P-39 Airacobra fighter aircraft] to San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California] in June 1943. He had fun flying the P-39. They had training in ground gunnery on the mud flats. They would fly under the Oakland Bridge; they never got caught. He was in the 327th Fighter Squadron, 346th Fighter Group. The P-39s were used planes from the South Pacific. They lost some pilots due to engine failure. They formed the 363rd Fighter Group at Santa Rosa, California and he was assigned to it [Annotator's Note: 382nd Fighter Squadron, 363rd Fighter Group]. The whole group got on a train for New Jersey. They boarded the RMS Queen Elizabeth and crossed the Atlantic. They took a train from Scotland to Keevil [Annotator's Note: Keevil, England] into Rivenhall, East Anglia, England [Annotator's Note: Royal Air Force (RAF) Rivenhall, Silver End, Essex, England]. They formed a fighter group of P-51s [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft]. Just before the invasion [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944], they had a lot of ground attack target missions. He ended his first tour in July 1944 with 62 missions. He was sent back to the United States for R&R [Annotator's Note: rest and recuperation] for a month. He crossed again on the RMS Aquitania. He went to the 363rd which had been changed to a photo-recce [Annotator’s Note: photo reconnaissance] squadron and were in Belgium. Asbury was then assigned to the 354th [Annotator's Note: 354th Fighter Group] in eastern France. He flew 126 missions. He came home May 1945, just before the war ended in Europe.

[Annotator's Note: Richard Asbury went to England and was checked out in the North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft.] It was not that difficult to him. One of the great aces was Blakeslee [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Colonel Donald James Matthew Blakeslee] and he told his pilots they could get their training on the way to the target. He flew with Jabara [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Colonel James Jabara; also known as "Jabby" or "Jimmy - The Ceegar Kid"]. The two of them shared downing the first Fw-190 [Annotator's Note: German Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter aircraft; this victory was scored on 25 June 1944]. He flew ground support missions softening up the landing area for the invasion [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. Asbury had a pass [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] to go town and stayed at an English family's house. They told him the next morning that the invasion had started. He was disappointed. That night, he escorted gliders in. It was a spectacular sight to see all the ships and the flames from the projectiles being fired. He escorted C-47s [Annotator's Note: Douglas C-47 Skytrain cargo aircraft] pulling gliders [Annotator's Note: WACO CG-4A glider] and then covered the beach. They flew out of southern England, from Staplehurst. That was his only time flying at night. He had one big battle on his first tour, on 18 July [Annotator's Note: 18 July 1944; Falaise, France]. They flew a fighter sweep looking for targets of opportunity from about 10,000 to 15,000 feet. The sky was suddenly full of 109s [Annotator's Note: Messerschmitt Bf-109 fighter aircraft] and 190s. A guy got on his tail. Asbury used a maneuver he had learned and got on his enemy's tail. Asbury followed him and closed into firing range. Only one of his guns worked. He was in the P-51B. The g-force [Annotator's Note: g-force is a measurement of acceleration force] had stopped the ammunition feed on his other three guns. He did down the aircraft. That was Asbury's first real big air battle. His squadron [Annotator's Note: 382nd Fighter Squadron, 363rd Fighter Group, 9th Air Force] shot down ten enemies and lost only one of their own aircraft. While home [Annotator's Note: on rest and recuperation leave], the fighter group was changed. He came back and joined the 354th [Annotator's Note: 354th Fighter Group].

Richard Asbury went to Saint-Dizier, France when it was being flooded. He got there expecting to see P-51s [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] and they had P-47s [Annotator's Note: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft]. They were told to go fly one, so he did. The next day he went on a combat mission. The 354th [Annotator's Note: 354th Fighter Group, 9th Air Force] had changed aircraft because the P-47 could take a bigger beating than a P-51. Asbury got 37 holes in a P-47 in the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945], and it did not stop flying. He had dropped his bombs on the targets. He was cruising going home and the air became full of flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire] from the ground. He landed and looked it over. He took off and flew it back to the base. The hardest thing he had to do was strafe the horses the Germans were using to haul artillery. He did not like that. He flew the P-47 for a month or two covering Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] crossing the Rhine [Annotator's Note: Rhine River]. They had gotten pretty cocky as pilots. They were told eight Ju-88s Annotator's Note: German Junkers Ju 88 multirole combat aircraft] were coming and they were glad they got to do something, but they did not show up. They got the P-51s back and finished up flying those. He did not have any air-to-air kills in the P-47, but he got some trains. They knocked out eight on one mission. Pretty late in the war in the P-51, he was lead south of Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany] and came across an air battle. Asbury closed on one, shot, and the pilot bailed out.

On the way back [Annotator's Note: from a mission], Richard Asbury was north of Gusten, Germany. He saw two Fw-190s [Annotator's Note: German Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter aircraft] strafing an armored column [Annotator's Note: on 14 April 1945]. Asbury shot one down. In 2005 [Annotator's Note: May 2005], one Sunday morning, his telephone rang. A woman said she was calling from Switzerland. She asked if he was a fighter pilot in World War 2 and asked if he flew P-51s [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft]. She asked him more questions before saying he had shot down and killed her father. Her father had been a test pilot for Junkers [Annotator's Note: Junkers Aircraft and Motor Works, German aircraft manufacturer in Dessau, Germany] who had been drafted into the Luftwaffe [Annotator's Note: German Air Force] due to their pilot shortage. A researcher had found the names. She found Asbury through a Vanity Fair [Annotator's Note: American monthly magazine] magazine article [Annotator's Note: October 2003 issue] on his attending a reunion. She wanted to visit him. About half of his friends and family said he should not meet her. She was 13 years old when that happened and had had a hard life. She visited and Asbury met her at the airport. She stayed a week and they got along well. She knew both men were doing their jobs. After she returned home, there was a 363rd [Annotator's Note: 363rd Fighter Group, 9th Air Force] reunion in Arizona and Asbury invited her. She had a stepdaughter in New York and had friends in Kansas. They did not talk about the mission too much. She was fond of her father; he had taken her for a ride in a Ju-52 [Annotator's Note: Junkers Ju 52 transport aircraft].

Richard Asbury flew 126 missions in the war. He only got into fights six times. He thought he was unlucky in encountering enemy airplanes. He had ground attack missions before the invasion [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944] and before that he had been on bomber support missions. He does not recall the bombers being attacked a single time. In one of the six fights, he cannot really count it. There were two Me-262s [Annotator's Note: German Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter aircraft] that made a pass by them while dive bombing in Germany. He had dropped his bombs and was flying cover. The two jets came by and kept going. He tried to cut them off but that was useless as they were fast. He saw an Me-163 [Annotator's Note: Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet, rocket-powered fighter aircraft] once way above them. He did not get close to it as he was still on the ground readying for take-off.

Richard Asbury does not know how he came up with the name "Queenie" [Annotator's Note: North American P-51B Mustang fighter aircraft, bureau number 42-106519 C3+R] for his airplane in the 363rd [Annotator's Note: 363rd Fighter Group, 9th Air Force]. Another pilot flew that plane one day. The engine quit over the North Sea and that pilot drowned. Asbury named his next plane "Queenie II". With the 354th [Annotator's Note: 356th Fighter Squadron, 354th Fighter Group, 9th Air Force], the plane was named after his wife [Annotator's Note: North American P-51D Mustang fighter aircraft, bureau number 44-63782 AJ+S; nicknamed "Merle Maureen"]. The guy who painted those also painted it on Asbury's leather jacket. Some people came up with good names. Care [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Captain Raymond Care] had "Stars Look Down" [Annotator's Note: P-51B, bureau number 43-6877]. Asbury flew Howard's [Annotator's Note: later US Air Force Brigadier General James Howell Howard, Medal of Honor recipient] wing once. He saw him at reunions after that. [Annotator's Note: Asbury looks at pictures.] Asbury called himself and three other pilots the "Four Musketeers." George Lamb [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Lieutenant Colonel George M. Lamb] was Operations Officer of the 356th Fighter Squadron. He was a nice guy. The two of them commandeered a German vehicle for the squadron. He knew Jack Bradley [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Colonel Jack Tarleton Bradley] well. He as a fun guy and easy to get along with, a little wild like fighter pilots tend to be.

Richard Asbury flew both in Korea [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 1950 to 1953] and Vietnam [Annotator's Note: Vietnam War, or Second Indochina War, 1955 to 1975]. He retired in 1972 [Annotator's Note: 1 May 1972] as a Lieutenant Colonel. He came back to New Jersey after World War 2 and was given 15 minutes to decide whether to stay in or get out. He told his buddies he was staying in. They told him he was crazy because he would go to the Pacific. So he got out. He went to work for the Internal Revenue Service as a tax collector. He was not making much money, so he quit and went to Florida to go to school. They ran out of money and went to Illinois. He got a job as a locomotive fireman. He was in a Reserve unit and was recalled for the Korean War. In Korea, he was assigned to a T-6 [Annotator's Note: North American AT-6 Texan advanced trainer aircraft] unit of forward air controllers. He then went to the Korean Air Force [Annotator's Note: Republic of Korea Air Force, 10th Fighter Wing] as an advisor flying P-51s [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft]. After a year, he was assigned to an ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps] unit at the University of Illinois [Annotator's Note: in Chicago, Illinois], followed by Perdue University [Annotator's Note: in West Lafayette, Indiana]. He laughed at the other fighter pilot there who had been assigned to B-52s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-52 Stratofortress strategic bomber]. A week later, Asbury was assigned to the same place [Annotator's Note: Ellsworth Air Force Base in Rapid City, South Dakota]. He flew for three or four years from Texas [Annotator's Note: Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita County, Texas]. He went to Panama [Annotator's Note: Albrook Air Force Base, Canal Zone Panama] followed by a humanitarian assignment to Washington D.C. for three years. He was assigned to 13th Air Force at Clark Air Base, Philippines. He flew the Sabreliner [Annotator's Note: North American T-39 Sabreliner trainer aircraft]. He had fun flying that airplane for the 6th Air Division all over the Far East. He went to Vietnam as a forward air controller flying the O-2 [Annotator's Note: Cessna O-2 Skymaster observation aircraft]. He was made Base Commander at Pleiku, Vietnam [Annotator's Note: Pleiku Air Base, now Pleiku Airport] where he finished his tour. He was assigned to B-52s in Texas, followed by the 24th Air Division Headquarters in Montana [Annotator's Note: Malmstrom Air Force Base in Cascade County, Montana]. They had a guard unit of 102s [Annotator's Note: Convair F-102 Delta Dagger interceptor aircraft], but he could not fly them. He went to Rock Island [Annotator's Note: Rock Island, Illinois] in 1970 and has been there ever since.

Richard Asbury's favorite aircraft to fly was a toss-up between the P-51 [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] and the Sabreliner [Annotator's Note: North American T-39 Sabreliner trainer aircraft]. He liked all of them. The B-52 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-52 Stratofortress strategic bomber] was a good airplane but being a fighter pilot he did not like flying it. Asbury feels that it is important for children and middle-aged people to be knowledgeable about World War 2. He sees no reason to go into depth about it. He feels The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana] is important. It is a very good re-creation for people. Many of the pictures he has have never been published. The photographer in the 363rd [Annotator's Note: 363rd Fighter Group, 9th Air Force] lived in Illinois not far from Asbury. He brought him his negatives one day, probably 2,000 of them. Asbury gave 600 to the Air Force Museum [Annotator's Note: National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio] and some to a World War 2 buff. [Annotator's Note: He gives the rest to the interviewer.]