Marine Captain Joe Foss had spent his life preparing for what he was about to do.

The farm boy from the landlocked prairies of South Dakota was aboard the troopship Mazzoni, a leading home heading for the deadliest war in human history.

The leader of fighter squadron VMF 121, who had once made his living tilling the soil, was about to meet his life's destiny in the air high above the waters of the Pacific Ocean.

For.

The.

Whole.

The story of Joe Foss begins 27 years and half a world away.

On this small family farm stand just outside Sioux Falls, south Dakota, the Foss family farm was the center of Young Joe's world as he revisits the farm today.

Joe recalls his childhood as a time of innocence and hard work.

It was the 1920s and times were tough.

Yes, Rome was where we lived.

And you can see there never any storm windows.

So when it was 40 below outside yet a tough time keeping warm in there and in.

And the rest of the house here in.

See, there was no heat and this was cliffs and my bedroom here and there's that shelf I've talked about many times up on top there that's there was no, no, closet in the room.

Naturally, it was too small and no place to hang anything so that we put it up there and it was a nail or two over here in the wall, but they've.

Yeah, they're still up there.

Joe was the first born son of a Norwegian Lutheran father and a Scotch Irish Catholic mother.

They were an unlikely couple who differed in both personality and politics.

Frank Foss, Joe's pop, was an outgoing, adventure loving individual known by the nickname Foxy to his friends.

Frank loved storytelling in his younger days, he'd been a boxer and wrestler in county fairs, worked for the Ringling Brothers Circus, traveled the country with his own carnival, started a car dealership and worked as a railroad engineer.

He finally settled into farming at the insistence of his wife.

Frank's children were taught right from wrong and lessons were clearly taught.

Joe learned one lesson the hard way after shooting an insulator on an electric pole with a brand new gun.

It turns out Frank had been watching his son through a telescope.

He said, yeah, I saw you shoot an insulator and so I he said, well, you know better than that.

And so he said, we'll lock the gun up for a year.

And, you know, a year from today, you can take the gun out and see if you learned anything.

So I lost my gun for a year.

For seven year old Joe, who loved hunting, the punishment was harsh, but the lesson was learned.

It's better than, well, maybe.

And maybe not.

But dad just put it the way that it was.

And, Either you respected that or you paid for it.

Joe's mother, Mary Lacey Foss, was stern and a no nonsense woman.

She had inherited the family farm from her parents and preferred working in the barn or in the fields to traditional household chores.

As with any farm of the 20s and 30s, hard work was part of daily life and the entire family was involved.

We raised a lot of hogs and a few cattle, and then, of course, pop wanted the fields cleaned.

So from the time we were just little kids, we were taught hoe and pull weeds and, go down every row back and forth on the corn and stuff, chop and weeds and cockle burrs.

We each one had an assignment.

At an early age, Joe had ambitions to own his own business.

But soon his dreams turned to flying, partly because of his father's stories of adventure.

He'd written with a man twice, and both times they crashed.

For some reason or other, they managed to hit the telephone wires and as they were coming in to land.

But then in 1931, Clyde Eyes, who is a famous aviator from South Dakota, took me, and my father up for a ride over Sioux Falls at night for a dollar and a half apiece in a Ford dry motor.

Now, that really sold me on airplanes.

I loved the sound of it and loved what you could see out of there.

As he worked on the farm, Joe watched the mail plane fly overhead every day.

His fascination soon became an obsession.

I was on the color red or some other thing with horses pulling it, and then to see somebody go by in an airplane and wave at you, you know, and they were gone, even though they were only doing 107 miles an hour in those days.

It appeared to me like a rocket ship.

The farm work continued.

Then, in March of 1933, a springtime storm that brought rain to feed the thirsty prairie also brought a sudden and lasting change to Joe's life.

He and his father had been working in the fields when a thunderstorm erupted, breaking electrical wires and leaving them draped across the road.

Pop went ahead with it.

A 1927 Buick touring car that was built like a tank.

And I had a little thing called a whippet, but I took the tractor up to uncle Frank first, and then got the old weapon and took off for, home.

And one night I came up to that corner way.

I see my dad lying alongside the car with the door open in the road and flashes of electricity, and he evidently, without thinking, reached over, grabbed his flashlight and opened the door, and when he stepped from the running board to the to the pavement, that was all she wrote.

It just completed the circuit, and he was lying there with his face down in the road.

In a flash.

Joe's whole world was rearranged.

He became the man of the house and took over his father's responsibilities, helping his mother run the farm.

Now Joe had to deal with his grief, the family farm, and loss of free time.

His final year at Washington High School was a struggle, but he managed to graduate and enroll at nearby Augustana College.

During the next year, economics and academics were at odds.

He was farming, holding down several part time jobs and trying to make it through his freshman year of college.

That was in 1934.

And of course, farming and, college.

I never paid attention to the homework.

I sort of busted a few credits, and at the end of the year old, registrar Oscar Homestead, said, you know, Joe, I think you oughta stick to farming.

And, of course, I thought maybe he was right on that.

Or so then I stayed out the next year and stuck strictly data farming.

So Joe was a farmer, but his dreams looked elsewhere.

He would soon learn that his destiny lay not in the riches of the soil, but somewhere above it, high above it.

Blue.

It was the dirty 30s in South Dakota, and Joe worked it more than farming.

He played his baritone saxophone with the Sioux Falls Municipal Band for an attractive $4 an hour, and did janitorial work at a local Presbyterian church.

One Saturday afternoon, a friend stopped by and performed a rendition of the Beer Barrel Polka on the church organ.

Members of a ladies group heard the music, and Joe's career as a janitor ended abruptly.

During a few youthful antics, Joe Foss was beginning to build a reputation for having a certain caliber of character.

His mother's work ethic combined with his father's flamboyant personality, provided the foundation for what lay ahead.

Professor William O. Farber, a friend and coworker since college days, remembers one instance when determination wasn't quite enough.

Joe entered the Golden Gloves boxing tournament.

His first opponent was a much larger man.

Well, his coach told him, be sure to whack him good at the beginning and, try to knock him out immediately.

And he's he has related that.

All that did was to irritate this guy.

And the rest of the time he was knocked down 11 times, but he didn't want to give up and was finally knocked out of the ring.

But, that was the end of his really, professional boxing career.

But it showed his determination.

He knew what he wanted to accomplish and tried to do it.

Joe was determined to get off the farm.

Younger brother Cliff had graduated from high school and was ready to take over the farm work with his mother.

Joe's poor academic record prevented him from returning to Augustana, so he enrolled at Sioux Falls College.

He was 22 years old.

It was during this time that Joe became involved in the one thing that would impact his future the most.

He began taking flying lessons at Sioux Skyways airport.

It wasn't cheap.

It cost $64 to learn how to fly.

Plus $6 an hour plane rental.

But Joe found ways to make ends meet and spend time in the air.

After a year at Sioux Falls College and with an improved academic standing, Joe transferred to the University of South Dakota in Vermillion.

He worked odd jobs, studied business, and tried his athletic skills.

He played football and so on.

But as he has recorded in his autobiography, he was playing tackle and guard.

But he was never first string and this and that.

Colter Gammage would just send him in with messages as to what they were supposed to do, and after one play, he would be back again.

Although football would someday play a much larger role in his life, flying was now Joe's main focus.

While at the university, he trained with the National Guard.

He knew that if he wanted to fly, the military was the only affordable route.

He enjoyed the lifestyle, the uniform and the camaraderie, and he understood the need for planning.

Yeah, when I went and was going to join the Air Corps and, I went and took the exam and was supposed to come back again, and, and I was forced to get my mom to sign some papers.

And mom says, I'm not signing any papers for you.

Get your college education before you go fooling around with those airplanes.

So then I just, And then I heard about the Marines.

Anyway.

And so then I decided to wait and try for the marine, Air Force or what did they call them?

Marine.

Marine aviation.

And, I'm glad I did.

Joe Foss had been blessed birth with better than 2020 vision, not only through his eyes, but also in his view of the future.

The 1940s were just beginning, and for Joe, it was clear what lay just beyond the horizon.

Oh, I knew we were going to be in war.

Any dummy would should have understood that all over there.

A lot of them said, oh, we'll never get that war.

And I tell my friends, you better get in it now, or else you're going to get end up, or a draft is going to come along and you're just going to go in as a private.

So you might as well get ahead of the ball game.

And that's when when I went off to the Marine Corps, I enlisted as a private, of course, naturally.

And you became a cadet.

And that which was lower than, private and then and then the, you know, fine graduation from flight school, you were commissioned a second lieutenant in February of his senior year of college.

Joe Foss hitchhiked to Minneapolis and enlisted in June.

He graduated from the university with a business degree and promptly reported for duty with the Corps.

After five intense weeks of training in Minnesota.

Joe was sent to the Naval Air Station at Pensacola, Florida, for primary instrument information training.

Then on to the Miami area for fighter training.

Foxy Fox, whose son was ready to fight and with youthful ambition, had his heart set on getting into combat.

But the Marines had other plans.

Joe was almost 26 years old when he was commissioned a second lieutenant, and awarded the wings of a naval aviator to old as far as the military was concerned, to become a fighter pilot.

I was dead set that I was going to fly fighters, I did not.

They sent me back to be an instructor at Pensacola, Florida.

As soon as I got my commission and I had put in for, you know, they let you put in for what you want, which you never got, but, they would decide what you're going to get.

So they said, this guy is too old, so we'll have him be an instructor.

And I, I just didn't care for instructing that much.

Although you did get to fly six hours a day, which really appealed to me.

The fact that you were always in an airplane.

And then I worked it around.

So I got to be the aerobatic instructor all the time, all the stuff, what you call the 33 hour stuff and, I got my students.

We were in that stage where they were doing aerobatics.

I got away from the soloing people, and once in a while they wanted you to just keep a hand.

And so they give you a greenie coming in, somebody fresh off the chicken farm or someplace else.

Then something happened which would change his world forever.

It was December 7th, 1941, and the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the nation was plunged into war.

Young men were fighting for their lives, but Joe Foss was still in Florida.

He began to volunteer for other assignments with the hopes of eventually seeing aerial combat.

His first assignment, a photo reconnaissance squad.

It took me 16 hours a day of work and labs and stuff to get through that and still be in the top of the class, because most of the people that were there in the class had previous photography experience, they'd come out of, out of, civilian life and gone into the service and wanted that because that was their job.

They worked for somebody, and they weren't just amateur camera people.

Most of them were pros.

And boy, what a time.

And I was glad to get out of that place.

In typical fast fashion, Joe applied himself and succeeded.

In photo school.

He was promoted to first lieuten Joe was pleased.

At his next assignment, someone special was waiting for him there in California.

June texted his college sweetheart from Sioux Falls, was now working as a dietician at a nearby medical center.

June had purposely looked for a job in the San Diego area because at the time, most Marines did end up there.

A few months later, June and Joe were married in a small ceremony at La Hoya, California.

Joe wasn't content with life in the reconnaissance group.

His desire to see combat remained strong and unfulfilled.

He maneuvered his way into training with the Advanced Carrier Training Group that was stationed nearby.

Joe was now 27.

Once again, the military's opinion that he was too old for combat almost stopped him.

But Joe told the training commander he'd do anything, even work.

Funeral detail.

In order to be accepted into the program.

Funeral duty was miserable.

Work.

These were the men who took care of funeral details, including notifying families when a pilot was killed emotionally.

The assignment took its toll.

Joe was undaunted.

He flew with the carrier training group.

He worked funeral detail.

He stole moments of peace with his new bride, and he remained focused on his goal a chance to fly fighter planes in combat.

Soon he would be put to the ultimate test.

Two weeks after graduating from carrier training, Captain Fosse's hard work paid off.

He was assigned executive officer to VMF 121, a fighter squadron headed to the Pacific.

As the troop transport Mazzone left the harbor.

The young men aboard did not know yet their destination.

They knew they were in a hot outfit.

Military jargon for a unit heading into the thick of it.

It also meant that many of them may not be coming back.

As the San Diego naval yards faded behind and the waters of the Pacific open up before them.

The men of VMF 121 were told of their destination.

They were headed to Guadalcanal.

For the past six months, the U.S.

forces had played a mostly losing game of cat and mouse, with the Japanese and the Pacific Islands.

Then in August, the first Marine Division had landed and seized a Japanese airfield in the Solomon Islands.

Whoever controlled the airfield was in a position to either protect or attack Allied supply lines from America to Australia.

The Japanese were determined to recapture the airstrip, and the allies were determined to hold on to it.

Joe Foss had a new moniker.

The guys called him Smokey Joe, due to the fact that he often had a cigar clenched between his teeth.

It was almost a Hollywood image of a tough fighter pilot tall, confident, and strong.

Each and every man at Guadalcanal would be tested by the fires of battle.

Only the lucky would emerge alive.

Life at Guadalcanal was a constant battle of planes, bombs, guns and nerves.

Somebody was shooting at you every morning, noon and night and or dropping bombs.

We were fair game.

We'd see it.

Guadalcanal.

The enemy was on three sides of the ocean on the other side.

And then the ships came in, say, on October 12th and 13th.

And the entire Jap fleet that was in that area spent all night unloading ammunition at it.

They're all a big shelter bus.

And all around they had these guys flying overhead, dropping, star shells.

So it looked like you were underneath that holding torch.

And, and and, of course, you know, they had those, personnel bombs that would anybody that had a finger above the ground died and you'd hear cries, you know, people that got hit.

Screaming and doctors trying to help.

Captain Foss and his men were part of the American effort to hold on to Henderson Field.

The dirt and coral landing strips named after one of the heroes of midway.

The Marines held tight to the small area, but Japanese attacks were frequent and lethal.

Bombs and shells, left craters and dead marines and the American camp.

When he wasn't dodging shells and bombs on the ground, Joe Foss was in the air dodging enemy planes and his Grumman F-4 Wildcat.

He was also building a reputation as a marksman.

On October 13th, he down his first zero.

The next day.

His second on October 15th, two zeros and a bomber with five confirmed shoot downs.

Joe Foss had reached ace status, but five was just the beginning.

On October 20th, two zeros on October 23rd for more, and October 25th five within 13 days, Joe Foss shot down 16 enemy planes on the home front.

Civilians were taking notice.

Journalists had been reporting daily on the successes of the South Dakota farm boy.

The American public was becoming familiar with the far away battlefield called Guadalcanal and the name Joe Foss.

At Henderson Field, many of the air battles happened directly overhead.

All of the first fighting was all over the field.

I got shot down three times that I landed on the field, so that indicates everybody could watch what was going on.

And of course, they like to see, the enemy aircraft coming down.

And fortunately, it was the majority of the enemy coming down for the people that were in their small area.

And they'd stand out there in the wide open.

I don't know how come a lot of them didn't get shot by or just killed by the ladder casings falling on their head?

Joe was shot down four times, including once in the ocean 84 miles from Henderson Field, and he nearly died during all of his military training.

Joe Foss had never learned to swim.

He struggled to unhook his parachute and free himself from his sinking plane.

He finally got out and was carried 30ft to the surface by his Mae West life jacket.

He was afloat, but afraid.

Bob Lee, who worked closely with Joe later in life, tells the story of the rescue.

It was floating around there and there was a Belgian missionary on this island who saw the plane go down, and he set out the some natives in the canoed to rescue this pilot.

And it was about dusk, and Joe was floating around there and it got dark and, he heard some voices, but he, they would speak in a strange language, and he thought they were Japanese, so he didn't say anything.

Finally he heard somebody say, well, turn that flashlight over here in English.

Well, then he yelled out, and and it was this Belgian missionary, and they fished him out of the out of the Pacific and brought him to this island.

Joe was rescued and sent back to Henderson Field, thankful to be alive.

His tally of enemy planes continued to grow by mid-November, get shot down.

23 enemy planes by the name of Joe Force was becoming famous worldwide.

Bullets and bombs couldn't bring down Captain Force, but mosquitoes did.

In mid-November, Joe was knocked out of action with a serious case of malaria.

The disease, with its chills and fever, afflicted thousands of soldiers on both sides during the war in the Pacific.

He was shipped out first to New Caledonia for medical attention, then to Australia for a few weeks of R&R.

It was here that Joe first realized he was becoming famous.

News of the battles at Guadalcanal had been front page material.

There.

In January of 1943, Joe returned to Guadalcanal.

By the end of the month, he tied the record of legendary World War One ace Eddie Rick and back with 26 confirmed kills.

The Marine Corps decided that instead of further risking his life, Captain Fox could be of more use on the home front.

In five months, he had gone from being a young man with a dream of combat to a returning hero.

His skills and knowledge would help train new pilots, and his fame could be used to promote the war effort.

And I had a very interesting, time doing it.

The first thing they, gave me, a few, main spots in the country to hit.

They gave me a, Grumman goose to fly around, which is, you know, flying boat, sort of a thing.

And that I flew, we went to all of the, naval trainings, flight training schools at the universities across the country.

And traveling with me was Gene Tunney, the world heavyweight champion and, farmer and, Dutch Hanley, the former coach at, Northwestern University and, Tom Hamilton, another very famous coach.

And we would go to these, preflight schools and, and talk to the kids, get them revved up, motivated and, actually, yeah, we.

Yeah.

And we're on into them now.

You know, they, they just they just they just thought we were gods, you know, they that these guys, you know, fly in a wildcat and we put on demonstrations for people and shoot the, oh, 50 caliber right in the middle of, a field like here.

You know, today, they'd lock you up forever.

You know, we had targets.

We'd set them up right in the middle of fields and make high speed runs.

Across the field, have somebody towing a target right down on the deck.

And, of course, we we knew where we were aiming and where we were shooting.

Joe was a national celebrity.

His face graced the covers of magazines and a radio interview with Joe, his wife and his mother was broadcast across America.

His fame opened doors everywhere he went, and Smokey Joe now became Hollywood Joe to some of his men because of his friendships with Hollywood celebrities.

Crowds gathered wherever he went.

Joe promoted war bonds and gave pep talks to factory workers.

People felt proud to catch a glimpse of the young patriot hero.

May of 1943 would bring the proudest moment of Joe Fosse's life.

He, his mother and wife summoned to Washington, DC for a personal meeting in the Oval Office with the president.

The farm boy, who had spent his childhood dreaming of flying, was awarded the nation's highest decoration, the Congressional Medal of Honor.

His remarkable flying skill, inspiring leadership and indomitable fighting spirit were distinctive factors in the defense of strategic American positions on Guadalcanal.

Sine Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

After a few more months of touring, the States Air Force was stationed in California, training new pilots.

Then, in January 1944, he was off to war again to Bougainville, then Green Island, and then Emerald Island.

Joe's dogfighting days were over.

His new squadron was primarily involved in search and destroy missions.

He now flew the F for you, a Corsair, a dive bomber that was replacing the Wildcat fighter.

But the war had not become any safer.

Dangerous night missions.

Bombing and strafing runs still required pilots to be vigilant to survive.

That summer, Joe and June became parents for the first time.

Like many wartime marriages, father and mother were an ocean apart when their baby was born.

Joe wouldn't see his daughter until he returned to the States in the fall of 1944.

Joe realized that an old enemy had not yet been vanquished.

His malaria attacks were becoming more severe.

Doctors feared the disease might prove fatal, and force was shipped back to America, weighing only 150 pounds.

After visits to numerous specialists, Joe was back on the road to good health.

He was given the position of battalion commander and contemplated a career in the Marines, but then decided on a different path.

At the end of 1945, Joe Foss returned to civilian life.

Leaving the Marines meant coming home.

Joe turned down several job offers from the East Coast, including one from the aeronautics firm Grumman.

Opting to return to South Dakota.

He wanted to start his own aviation business, and he still loved the land.

Upon returning home, Joe hooked up with Duke Corning, a long time friend from Sioux Falls who had also been a pilot during the war.

Duke Corning and I just took off hunting.

We bought a barracks over here for 2500 bucks, put a wall, and a middle duke lived in the south end.

Now.

And my wife and I and two kids, we lived in the north end of the deal, and, Today, in the winter, we had to visit Duke Grill often because all the heat blew down.

And near the end of the place, Joe and Duke floated with odd jobs for almost a year.

Joe worked here and there, was active in the marine aviation reserves, and hunted and gambled, earning enough to get by.

Times were hard for the young Foss family.

Joe's second daughter, Mary Joe, was less than a year old, and their first daughter, Cheryl, was diagnosed with cerebral palsy.

At the same time, wife June was experiencing diabetes related health problems.

She had suffered from the disease since her teenage years.

Joe needed to change roles from war hero to breadwinner.

He spent his time hunting, flying and figuring out what to do next.

We goofed off for the first year.

We were back.

Duke and I wanted to get the hunting and fishing out of our system, and, we did.

We went up in Canada, chased the ducks from there to the Gulf of Mexico, and, shot a lot of pheasants here and would bring them home in order to feed the wife and kids and, then we decided, we got to get going in business.

So we started in Forest Flying Service.

Duke owned 50%.

I owned 50%.

And then we started fires, spraying service, same set up.

And then we bought, the Packard Studebaker franchise downtown.

Started Foss Motors there, and, we were busy.

Phil resigned from the marine reserves and went to work helping create the South Dakota Air National Guard.

Lieutenant Colonel Foss was responsible for the establishment of the Sioux Falls based 175th unit, and worked to line up the best men possible to hold important positions.

The Air Force was cutting down after the war, and airplanes were available just, and Berger was one of the first to join.

I came up and, said, I'd like to.

I like to fly fighters, like, join up, but I got a, one year college left down in Nebraska.

He said, Will you come see me after after you get out of school and we'll talk about it?

So I did, and he said, well, you do you like to fly?

Do you want to fly a lot?

And I said, yeah.

He says, okay, I'll take you.

So that's how we started.

It was a flying club, really.

The, the Air Force was, was cutting down.

So all kinds of airplanes were available to come to a unit like.

So he went to he and DuPont to Washington and got the paperwork signed up that we could start a guard unit here.

Air guard.

And then the airplanes started flowing in.

And but because of that structure, initially, there was very little organized Lane.

The flying was always based on what Joe and Duke wanted us to do, what they thought would be, activities that would enhance our abilities to perform the job.

But it was very, very informal.

As the unit became more structured.

Joe's leadership abilities were the key to making it work.

Joe was a natural in his ability was to be able to get to weld a group of guys together, and to be able to get each individual within that group to achieve his maximum level of ability and to weld, weld all those abilities together was his greatest leadership quality.

You take a particular airplane that had a problem with it.

He'd go to the mechanic on the line and tell that mechanic personally, what's the matter with his airplane and what he's got and what we got to do, or what that airplane has to do to be able to achieve what he wants to do with it.

But because he could talk to that guy, he'd stimulate that, make that Mack would go over that airplane and spend hours on it if, if necessary, to get it up to tiptop condition.

And, and it didn't make any difference whether it was the medic or the guy that, you know, the guy over in the pay shop, the getting the payrolls out or out, the orderly room didn't make any difference.

He could talk to those guys and get them to do their job the best way they knew how.

Members of the 175th Air Guard spent summers thrilling crowds across the state with aerobatic demonstrations.

We probably participated in 80 some airfields.

Where we would come in is a diamond and do our our things.

And whether we'd start high in, so we could do the loops and we do that in the diamond, and then you do cloverleaf and, and then he'd break us up and we'd do some initial on, and we'd be right echelon and do a roll and come out and let this man.

But I think we did 80 some air shows one summer.

And, he was so good at that.

Joe's leadership abilities would come in handy in his next career turn.

A movement was afoot in Sioux Falls to encourage the war hero to run for the state legislature.

At first, boss wasn't interested, but after a while, he gave in, saying he'd run.

But he didn't intend to make any speeches or spend his own money.

He faced a large field of contenders and one.

Bob Lee, who worked in PR as a reporter, remembers how Joe fit in at the Capitol.

Well, he was kind of a hail fellow.

Well, Matt, you know, he was, among the legislators, whether they were or Republicans or Democrat.

It always be a cluster of people around him.

And, they'd be talking, hunting and fishing stories, you know, that type of thing.

Maurice Halleck, who would become Force's budget director, agrees.

Well, forest had all of the characteristics of a leader.

When, when Joe force hit a room full of people, he suddenly was in control.

He had command, and he was that way in the legislature.

He was a, Well, he was wasn't a senior member of the legislature.

He was, very powerful.

Undoubtedly, his popularity put him in the state legislature to begin with.

And then after he got there, people found out, hey, this guy had a brain on him and knew what he should be doing and what government should be doing and what government shouldn't be doing.

While Joe enjoyed success in public life, his private life was a different story.

He and June shared different political views, and tension grew between the young couple.

Joe was defeated in his next race, the 1950 Republican gubernatorial primary, and he returned to private life the next year.

Joe and June had a son, but fear and concern soon replaced Joy.

The baby, Frankie, contracted polio.

June quit her job as a hospital dietitian to stay by Frankie's hospital bed.

Joe felt helpless.

The Can-Do war hero was ill at ease around a sick child that he could do nothing to help.

Frankie recovered and Joe returned to politics.

In 1952, he was again elected to the state House of Representatives.

During the 1953 session, the Foss family again faced crisis.

Fire destroyed the flying service.

There was no insurance, and the two partners had to borrow money to rebuild their operations.

The next year, Joe announced his second bid for the governorship of South Dakota.

This time, the 39 year old war hero turned businessman turned politician was successful.

All at the time, he was the youngest governor in South Dakota history.

Over 7000 people attended his inauguration in Pier.

One of the great characteristics of a Joe for us was his willingness to seek out advice and seek a good people to have around him.

He knew his own limitations, and that's a great, trick to have asset to have.

And the men in the office, Hoadley, Dean and, Bob Lee, even his is secretary were extremely capable people when he was, was governor, but he learned to, I think, respect the advice of those who knew he was kind of a, gung ho guy.

His war record followed him back home.

And, and he lived life with the passion, with the real zeal to accomplish something.

And, didn't have very many failures.

Most of the time, he was highly successful.

He was recognized by leaders all over the country that would come to him and talk to him.

And, and I and he just drew on those experiences.

The years Foss spent in the governor's mansion were good ones for the state.

He faced controversy over some taxation and equalization issues, but was reelected to a second term in 1956.

As a moderately conservative Republican, he enjoyed some bipartisan support.

One of the hallmarks of the administration was the formation of a state agency to promote business growth and economic development.

Although being the state's chief executive was a constant challenge, Joe always kept the challenges in perspective.

The way I always looked at politics, I compared it to life and death.

And when you compare the problems in politics, the life and death, there's nothing there.

I mean, sure, I'm out there working to get the program that I want completed, but I'm certainly not going to die over, some dumb thing they're talking about.

While serving the people at home in South Dakota, Joe Foss remained a national celebrity.

In 1956, during a business trip to California, he was surprised on Ralph Edwards This Is Your Life.

November 7th, 1942.

Joe, you're with me.

Yes, sir.

And here's the family, John.

Hey.

Hey.

Oh, hey.

Come on, put mother up here, I tell you.

Right there, right there.

Woman.

If there ever was one.

What?

Mrs.. Boss, what were farming days like for young boys like, Joe there and Clifford?

Oh, there's Freddie, just, you know.

Yes.

What about that one time around when he's four years old?

Well, Evelyn thought he'd find the windmill on.

Come down.

Finally, he stayed up on top of the windmill.

Yeah, well, for a while he took to the air at an early age.

Well, I should say Joe and I first met in Sioux Falls, a high school band, when we were playing a, alumni concert.

I was playing the tenor sax, and he was playing the baritone right next to me.

Yeah.

Here to surprise you from your home in Pierce, South Dakota.

Your lovely wife, June here is fine.

Oh.

Come on, sit down there with your husband, Jim.

Yes, indeed.

Your partner in the Flying Service and your lifelong friend, commander of the Air National Guard here from Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Duane Duke Corning here?

Yeah.

It Joe is in the legislature here.

At the time of the fire, wasn't he?

That's right.

And he had everything he owned, invested in the business.

Yeah.

So I telephone him, call him off the floor of the house and get him the bad news.

He didn't let you know he was upset.

Not especially.

He'd asked if anyone had been hurt, and I told him no.

And he said, well, I'm not coming home.

The fire's over his way of taking adversity on the chin.

Thank you, Duke Corning.

Thank you Cheryl, Mary, Joe and Frankie.

Here they are there again.

Well, again.

Frankie, you sit over there.

Joe is going to get behind you.

Daddy, you sit down.

They all know where to go.

If you sit down, your future governor, Joe Foss, begins with a party arrangement.

Back at home, Governor Foster's passion for aviation remains strong.

Once, at a Republican rally in Rapid City, Joe reminisced with a fellow ace.

So I went out to this rally in Worcester when we were staying in the Alex Johnson Hotel, and Eddie, Rick and Becker had the adjoining room.

While this was in the wintertime.

And, after the the rally or any other sport, we went back to the hotel and they had a kind of reception there for Eddie.

Welcome back.

And then it was getting pretty late, so we went up to bed and Joe was getting undressed and the door opens.

Eddie, welcome back.

And he comes in and he's in his underwear, and there's a long Johns insignia, and Joe's in his underwear, and he has a drink in his end.

And, they sat there for about two hours exchanging more experience.

And here I'm trying to sleep, and, I wish I had a recorder at that time.

And and I'm glad I didn't fall asleep because to hear the ACS of leading cases of World War one and World War Two exchanging war experiences, talking about their combat activities, that's a memorable, occasion I'll never forget.

That show wasn't all planes and politics, though.

At the start of his political career, he had begun what would turn out to be a lifetime commitment to providing care and support to the disabled.

Joe and Joan's experience of parenting one child with cerebral palsy and another with polio, led to the organizing of the Crippled Children's Hospital and School in Sioux Falls, known today as the Children's Care Hospital and School.

Joe went on to become the president of the South Dakota Society of Crippled Children and Adults, and after that, president of the National Organization.

Throughout his time in office, Joe kept his passion for the outdoors and a favorite spot.

Just, near his, on on a little ranch.

Just, it'd be north of of Hayes there and, after work, like, we'd often go out there, he'd pick up Frankie and take him along.

And then, every fall, I would like to go up in the Watertown area to go duck hunting.

Foss also kept his sense of humor and enjoyed the occasional practical joke with his staff.

Once, when he was too busy to go pheasant hunting, he provided a special box of shotgun shells to his friend Harry Tunji Faucet, giving him a whole box of shells that didn't have a shot in them until he went all day and he could knock any birds down.

And finally we saw one in the ditch and said, well, roll a window down in Arkansas.

That pheasant, and you haven't killed one all day.

And of course we knew what was it done.

And, so then he discovered, he said, I don't see any shot.

He said, somebody dragged me.

That was a was, you know, a man with his high gear would need some release from that constant slam bang, go go go.

And, it was his sense of humor, and, we enjoyed being around him.

He was.

He was fun to be with.

At the end of his second term as governor, Joe took a job with Raven Industries in Sioux Falls.

The company made high altitude research balloons and had located in South Dakota, in part because of Foster's economic development efforts as governor, a chance meeting while on a business trip would soon lead to Joe's next career.

As a major investor in Raven Industries, HP Skoglund was also involved in the upstart American Football League.

He invited Foss to a cocktail party when both men happened to be on a business trip.

During the course of the evening, somebody said, would you like to be commissioner of the American Football League?

And I said, I don't know anything about it other than a clip I've seen in the paper and, if I could see a constitution and bylaws to know what a commissioner really does, he said, sure, we'll give you a copy if you want to be interviewed.

Coming tomorrow afternoon.

Joe's resume looked good.

War hero.

Governor, a lot of organizations would have been more than happy to have a man like Joe Foss on their team.

And the new league had managed to find him in the right place at the right time.

The AFL was just getting started.

It was entirely separate from the firmly established National Football League.

More than a few skeptics thought this new league would never get off the ground.

But for Joe Foss, getting off the ground was never a problem.

Maxine Eisenberg had served as Governor Foster's executive secretary and also worked with him at the AFL, and she remembers the challenges they had.

Coaches who weren't too sure that they would ruin a career if they came aboard.

There were others who were absolutely delighted to come and made their careers and, drafting ball players was quite different.

It's all done by computer now.

At that time, they would be looking at, like I say, in the back of sports magazines, looking for quarterbacks or halfbacks, fullbacks and I knew it'd be a challenge to him because the AFL was having some problems at that time, but I felt them on mine.

They got the right guy that, he could put it.

He put the organization together and get it stimulated and working as a unit, cohesive, and would be able to if anybody could pull it out of their problem, Joe could do it.

Joe faced more challenges on the home front.

Tensions had continued to grow between Joe and June Foss.

She disapproved of his new position with the League.

The two had finally reached a conflict that could not be resolved.

The couple separated in 1959, and Joe moved to Dallas, where the AFL offices were located.

Joe Foss was just what the AFL needed for the next seven years first in Dallas, then in New York.

He worked at bringing the new league to a level of respectability, seven years that would ultimately see the AFL merge with the NFL.

At the time, Joe mingled with generals, politicians and movie stars.

I remember the day Bill Holden was going to come in.

I thought, this is really neat.

I was going to be really, really cute, really sophisticated, really, charming and and efficient and, so, sure enough, Joe brought Bill Holden in to my office, and he said, Bill, I'd like to have you meet my secretary.

Oh, Mert and I could have killed him, but he always.

He did that a lot, you know, you got really mad at him.

And then you thought, oh, it's kind of funny.

It's kind of silly.

Shortly before the American football League and the National Football League merged, Foss became involved in television as host of The American Sportsman on the ABC network, on As You Go Through the Field.

And then you press the old safety off and let her go.

Well, what about, some common mistakes hunters make in shooting pheasants?

What would you say are 2 or 3 of the common mistakes?

Well, the first one, I think there's a lot of room by shooting at the bird.

Too quick.

A marvelous shot by Joe Ford.

Holy cats.

Look at the birds that.

Fly right.

Look at them.

Joe's lifetime passion for the outdoors had led him to his dream job.

He would travel to exotic locations, hunt and fish with sportsmen and conservationists, and get paid to do it.

Yeah, that really was like a dream job to be getting paid for hunting and fishing.

Yeah.

And all Doak and all my old buddies, they just they couldn't believe it, you know.

Then after three years, he went on to star in his own weekly syndicated series, The Outdoorsman.

Joe Foss.

Sure.

I want to let you old pros do some of the blowing.

Why don't you, You sound a lot better than I do in these trees, Often the lessening numbers of a dwindling species is blamed on the hunter.

This is isn't so.

The pressures of civilization diminishing feed weather extremes do far more to decimate the vanishing animal or bird than does the hunters kill.

Actually, the hunters dollar fights are far stronger.

Battle for conservation.

And do the cries of cruelty.

It's while finding fulfillment in his professional life.

Joe's personal life was also changing.

Years earlier, on a trip to Arizona, he had been introduced to Donna Wild.

A friend of mine called me when Saturday morning we were living in Phoenix, Arizona, and she said, oh, I've got the neatest guy for you to meet.

And I said, thank you after lunch, but no thank you.

And so during our conversation, she said, well, at least you could do is help us out.

We have to entertain this gentleman tonight.

And she had never met him.

And I had heard about a Joe Fox, of course, and read about a Joe for us.

So I asked him, do you wear a little chickens on your shoulders?

And he said, grin this South Dakota grin and said, yes.

And so we just had a good time.

Joe and Donna Didi, too.

Her friends had remained acquaintances for years and began dating.

Joe taught Didi to hunt.

I didn't know anything about, guns.

I didn't know the difference between a shotgun or a rifle or a shell or a bullet.

So he taught me all I knew about that.

And he started with with a rifle.

And that pleased him so much that he continued that until he taught me to learn how to shoot the shotgun as well.

Didi was responsible for a significant transformation in Joe's life, his dedication to his Christian faith.

Well, I was raised in a Christian home, and, so of course, by the time I met him, I was a born again Christian.

And, then I used to ask him all of the pertinent questions.

And so finally, he came to church with me in Scottsdale, Arizona, and he heard the true gospel story, and he accepted Christ there.

Joe indeed traveled and worked together on The Outdoorsman series.

While filming in Hawaii in 1967, Joe proposed marriage and Deedee accepted.

Deedee has always taken life with a celebrity in stride.

You know, we are no different from anybody else.

And, I know sometimes people just feel like they're in awe of him in his presence, and they're always surprised it's me.

It never ceases to surprise me.

He's a very special person and I love him very much.

But, he's not different because of all of his honors.

In 1972, Joe began yet another career, working the next six years as the director of public affairs for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.

He was named a member of the President's Council on Physical Fitness, and a member of the white House Conference on Handicapped Individuals.

In 1984, he was inducted into the Aviation Hall of Fame.

From 1988 to 1990, he served as the president of the National Rifle Association and continues to be politically active, promoting the right of sportsmen and gun owners.

In 1995, a permanent memorial was dedicated to South Dakota's most famous flying son.

A statue of Joe Foss was unveiled at the airfield that today bears his name, Joe Foss Field in Sioux Falls, the very city where a young dreamer had once looked to the sky.

The most interesting thing that I've ever done, and the greatest thing I've ever done, is the day that I prayed to receive Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.

Now that will shock some people, but when it comes right down to it, that's the most important answer on the face of the earth.

A yes or no?

Where are you going to do?

For what are you going to do for eternity?

You're going to go to a place where it's hotter than Arizona.

On a bad day in the summer, you're going to go to a nice place.

That's for eternity, which is a lot longer than a short span of life we have on this earth.

From the peaceful plains of South Dakota to the bloody skies over the Pacific, from young dreamer to celebrated national hero in private life and in public life, the story of Joe Foss continues to inspire as a man living up to the American ideals of strength, honor, and citizenship.

As an American hero, as an American ace.

I. Join South Dakota Public Television for a look at the amazing life of one of our state's most famous citizens.

Join us for American Ace the Joe fostering from the prairies of South Dakota to the skies over Guadalcanal.

To the South Dakota capital, to national celebrity.

The Joe Foss Story is an inspirational one.

Tune in for a look back American Ace The Joe Foss Story tonight at eight central seven Mountain Time on South Dakota Public Broadcasting from.