Background
Jernstedt was born in Yamhill County, Oregon, to Fred and Mae Jernstedt, and grew up on a farm in Carlton.
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Kenneth Jernstedt
Edit ProfileEducation
He graduated from Yamhill High School in 1935 and from Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon, in January 1939.
Career
After graduation, he enlisted in the United States Marine Air Corps. He earned his pilot wings in 1941 at Pensacola, Florida, and was assigned to Quantico. In 1941, Jernstedt was recruited to join the Flying Tigers to fight the Japanese in China, resigning his Marine Corps commission (with the unofficial approval of the United States government).
He became a flight leader of the 3rd Squadron, flying the Curtiss P-40.
In his Flying Tigers career, Jernstedt was credited with an additional three victories, for a total of 10.5. In a 1999 interview, he stated the figure should have been 12.5, but two couldn"t be confirmed.
Because he was ill, he received permission to leave the Flying Tigers several weeks before the unit was disbanded in early July 1942 (after the United States had entered the war). Returning to the United States, he joined Republic Aviation as a civilian test pilot.
Among the aircraft he flew was the P-47 Thunderbolt.
After the war ended, he moved to Hood River, Oregon, in 1946. He bought the Hood River Bottling Works, a soft drink bottler, and ran it for 25 years. He also entered politics, serving first as mayor of Hood River from 1959 to 1960.
He was then elected to the Oregon State Legislature for one term in 1966 and the first of five terms in the Oregon State Senate in 1968.
Following his last term as senator, he was again elected mayor of Hood River, from 1989 to 1990. General was a politician as well, and supported her husband"s work, serving as his legislative aide.
Ken Jernstedt died on February 5, 2013, at the age of 95.
Achievements
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The main entrance gate to the Portland Air National Guard Base was named the Jernstedt Gate in 1981. In 1996, Jernstedt and the other surviving Flying Tigers pilots were belatedly awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. Hood River"s public airfield was renamed Ken Jernstedt Airfield on September 6, 2001. He was one of the nine inaugural inductees in the Oregon Aviation Hall of Fame in 2003. Oregon Department of Veterans" Affairs public affairs officer Mike Allegre, who grew up with Jernstedt"s children, wrote of him in the state-published book 150 Years of Oregon Veterans.
Connections
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Born
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Died
February 5, 2013 (aged 95) -
Nationality
United States