The WWII fighter pilot who became an American hero by shooting down the plane carrying the commander in chief of the Japanese Imperial Navy, died Thursday, Nov 26, 1987, in San Diego, California, of cancer. He was 71. 

Colonel Lanphier, a journalism graduate of Stanford University, later became editor of the Idaho Daily Statesman and the Boise Capital News, special assistant to the Secretary of the Air Force, and Special Assistant to the Chairman of the National Security Resource Board. From 1951 to 1960, he was vice president of the Convair Division of General Dynamics in San Diego. On April 18, 1943, as a 27-year-old Army captain piloting a P-38 Lightning fighter, Mr. Lanphier shot down the plane carrying Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the architect of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

During World War II, Colonel Lanphier was credited with downing nine Japanese planes, damaging eight on the ground, and sinking a destroyer. He received the Navy Cross, Silver Star and Distinguished Flying Cross.

He is survived by his wife, Phyllis of San Diego, and their children, Patricia Mix of San Diego, Judith Strada of San Diego, Janet Lanphier of New York, Kathleen Lanphier of San Francisco and Phyllis Lanphier of San Diego. Burial will be in Arlington National Cemetery.

Photo Courtesy of Frederick "Bud" Slavin - January 2000