Arthur Van Haren Jr. (April 9, 1920 – August 11, 1992) was a World War II

fighter pilot A fighter pilot or combat pilot is a Military aviation, military aviator trained to engage in air-to-air combat, Air-to-ground weaponry, air-to-ground combat and sometimes Electronic-warfare aircraft, electronic warfare while in the cockpit of ...

who is considered the top

fighter ace A flying ace, fighter ace or air ace is a military aviation, military aviator credited with shooting down a certain minimum number of enemy aircraft during aerial combat; the exact number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

from

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

. He may be one of very few highly decorated

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

fighter-pilot aces in the history of

aerial warfare Aerial warfare is the use of military aircraft and other flying machines in warfare. Aerial warfare includes bombers attacking tactical bombing, enemy installations or a concentration of enemy troops or Strategic bombing, strategic targets; fi ...

Early life

Van Haren was born in

Superior, Arizona Superior (Western Apache language, Western Apache: Yooʼ Łigai) is a town in northern Pinal County, Arizona, United States, and is the oldest town in the county. According to the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the tow ...

. His mother, Rose Valenzuela, was Hispanic. His father, Arthur Van Haren Sr., was a popular

boxing judge A boxing judge is responsible for judging the results of a boxing match, with as many as three judges typically present at ringside to score the bout and assign points to the boxers, based on punches that connect, defense, knockdowns, and other, mor ...

and baseball umpire who was inducted into the

Sports Hall of Fame. Arthur Jr. shared his father's passion for sports, becoming a star

quarterback The quarterback (QB) is a position in gridiron football who are members of the offensive side of the ball and mostly line up directly behind the Lineman (football), offensive line. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually consider ...

Phoenix Union High School Phoenix Union High School (PUHS) was a high school that was part of the Phoenix Union High School District in downtown Phoenix, Arizona, one of five high school-only school districts in the Phoenix area. Founded in 1895 and closed in 1982, th ...

and later playing for coach

Pop McKale James Fred "Pop" McKale (June 12, 1887 – June 1, 1967) was an American football and baseball player, coach of football, basketball, baseball, and track, and college athletics administrator. He is best known for his four-decade association wit ...

at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...

Tucson Tucson (; ; ) is a city in Pima County, Arizona, United States, and its county seat. It is the second-most populous city in Arizona, behind Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, with a population of 542,630 in the 2020 United States census. The Tucson ...

World War II

While attending the University of Arizona, Van Haren Jr. joined the Navy at the beginning of

, and was part of the famous U.S. Navy Fighting Squadron Two (VF-2) ''Rippers''. VF-2 was featured in the October 23, 1944

Life Magazine ''Life'' (stylized as ''LIFE'') is an American magazine launched in 1883 as a weekly publication. In 1972, it transitioned to publishing "special" issues before running as a monthly from 1978 to 2000. Since then, ''Life'' has irregularly publi ...

edition as the "ace makers" squadron. Van Haren Jr. completed his

naval aviation Naval aviation / Aeronaval is the application of Military aviation, military air power by Navy, navies, whether from warships that embark aircraft, or land bases. It often involves ''navalised aircraft'', specifically designed for naval use. Seab ...

training in 1942. However, he was considered to be such a good pilot that the Navy made him a

flight instructor A flight instructor is a person who teaches others to operate aircraft. Specific privileges granted to holders of a flight instructor qualification vary from country to country, but very generally, a flight instructor serves to enhance or evaluate ...

, and he spent over a year teaching other naval

aviators An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators because they are ...

how to fly. That year as a flight instructor proved to be invaluable to Van Haren Jr., as he was able to sharpen his flying and air gunnery skills and, at the same time, the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...

was in the process of moving from the

F4F Wildcat The Grumman F4F Wildcat is an American Carrier-based aircraft, carrier-based fighter aircraft that entered service in 1940 with the United States Navy, and the British Royal Navy where it was initially known as the Martlet. First used by the B ...

to a superior aircraft—the

Grumman The Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, later Grumman Aerospace Corporation, was a 20th century American producer of military and civilian aircraft. Founded on December 6, 1929, by Leroy Grumman and his business partners, it merged in 19 ...

F6F Hellcat The Grumman F6F Hellcat is an American carrier-based fighter aircraft of World War II. Designed to replace the earlier F4F Wildcat and to counter the Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero, it was the United States Navy's dominant fighter in the second ...

—as a way to better compete against and outclass the Japanese Zero. Based on the

USS Hornet (CV-12) USS ''Hornet'' (CV/CVA/CVS-12) is an ''Essex''-class aircraft carrier built for the United States Navy (USN) during World War II. Completed in late 1943, the ship was assigned to the Fast Carrier Task Force (variously designated as Task Force ...

, a

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Navy

aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and hangar facilities for supporting, arming, deploying and recovering carrier-based aircraft, shipborne aircraft. Typically it is the ...

of the

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class, Lt. Van Haren Jr. flew the F6F Hellcat. He downed nine confirmed enemy planes during grueling combat in the

Pacific Theater The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

skies, and had three additional unconfirmed kills. Three of his nine kills occurred in the Marianas Turkey Shoot. Some of his more notable squadron team members included Roy Voris, Daniel A. Carmichael Jr., and his commander, William A. Dean. Van Haren Jr. was awarded several medals and commendations including two

Distinguished Flying Cross (United States) The Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) is a Awards and decorations of the United States Armed Forces, military decoration of the United States Armed Forces. The medal was established on July 2, 1926, and is awarded to those who, after April 6, 19 ...

medals, the

Air Medal The Air Medal (AM) is a military decoration of the United States Armed Forces. It was created in 1942 and is awarded for single acts of heroism or meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flight. Criteria The Air Medal was establi ...

, and the

Presidential Unit Citation (United States) The Presidential Unit Citation (PUC), originally called the Distinguished Unit Citation, is awarded to units of the uniformed services of the United States, and those of allied countries, for extraordinary heroism in action against an armed e ...

. He is widely regarded as Arizona's top Navy fighter-pilot ace of World War II. A journal kept by Van Haren Jr. sheds light on the routinely dangerous lives of being a fighter-pilot in the Pacific Theater during that time. One entry reads:

Life after the war

Following his service in the Navy, Van Haren Jr. received his law degree from the University of Arizona in 1948. As part of his legal career in Phoenix, Van Haren served as a deputy

Maricopa County Maricopa County () is a county in the south-central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census the population was 4,420,568, or about 62% of the state's total, making it the fourth-most populous county in the United States and ...

attorney, legal counsel to the Maricopa County Planning and Zoning Commission, and as a

City of Phoenix Phoenix ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona. With over 1.6 million residents at the 2020 census, it is the ...

municipal judge. However, the majority of his days as a lawyer were spent as a

defense attorney A criminal defense lawyer is a lawyer (mostly barristers) specializing in the defense of individuals and companies charged with criminal activity. Some criminal defense lawyers are privately retained, while others are employed by the various ...

in private practice. In 2007, Van Haren Jr. was featured in a book entitled "A Legal History of Maricopa County," which, among other things, documented the numerous practicing attorneys from

who had proudly served in World War II. Van Haren died in 1992 at the age of 72 in Dewey, Arizona. His wife of more than 50 years, Elizabeth Van Haren, died in May 2009.Arthur Van Haren Jr., AcePilots.com, http://www.acepilots.com/usn_vanharen.html

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Haren, Arthur Jr. Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United States) Arizona Wildcats football players American people of Mexican descent History of Mexican Americans United States Navy officers 1920 births 1992 deaths United States Navy pilots of World War II Recipients of the Air Medal American World War II flying aces People from Pinal County, Arizona Military personnel from Arizona Aviators from Arizona Sportspeople from Pinal County, Arizona Hispanic and Latino American aviators

Early life

World War II

Life after the war

See also

References