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Birth:          7 Jun 1918 Reform, Pickens Co., Ala.
Death:          8 Jun 2001 Mobile, Ala.

Notes
obit of Margaret French Myers Bruce
of Birmingham, Ala.
McArthur Fam Tree on ancestry

World War II ace Paul McArthur dies 


World War II ace Paul McArthur dies Decorated flier picked up U2 pilot Francis Gary 
Powers after Cold War exchange with Soviets By RENA HAVNER 

 Staff Reporter 

 FOLEY - Lt. Col. Paul Graham McArthur knew the significance of the flight he took in 
1962 to bring home American U2 pilot Francis Gary Powers, who had been held 
hostage by the Soviet Union for two years. 

 "He fully understood the risks of it, the implications," said Jill Dumeresque McArthur, 
his wife. "When he flew to Berlin, to make the swap, they didn't expect him to make it 
out of East Germany." 

 McArthur, of Foley, died Friday at Mobile Infirmary after one of his lungs collapsed. 
He was 82. A memorial service is set for 2 p.m. July 6 at the Holy Spirit Episcopal 
Church in Gulf Shores. 

 On May 1, 1960, the Soviet Union shot down Powers, who was flying a 
reconnaissance plane near Sverdlovsk, in the Ural Mountains. Powers was convicted 
of espionage by a Moscow tribunal in August of that year and was held hostage for 
almost two years. In February 1962, American and Soviet leaders agreed to trade 
Powers for Col. Rudolph Ivanovich Able, a Soviet spy held by the United States. 

 McArthur, who at the time was stationed in Weisbadden, West Germany, and who had 
already racked up combat flight experience during World War II and the Korean 
conflict, made the flight. 

 Born and raised in Reform, Ala., McArthur joined the Army Air Corps in 1940, just in 
time for World War II, where he served as a fighter pilot with the 79th Fighter Group in 
North Africa and Italy. He returned home after he was shot down off the 
Mediterranean Coast in 1943. 

 McArthur received the Air Ace award after he shot down five enemy planes in June 
and August of 1943, according to Air Force records. McArthur also received the 
Distinguished Service Cross, Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal with multiple 
Oak Leaf clusters, records show. 

 "There wasn't much he did that didn't make us proud," said Rawdon McArthur, Paul 
McArthur's son, who was inspired by his father to become an Air Force pilot himself for 
five years. "Everyone has a lot of hits and misses, but with my father, it was mostly 
hits." 

 In 1962, McArthur was stationed at Maxwell Air Force Base, in Montgomery, where he 
helped design war contingency plans during the Cold War. He retired in 1966 and 
attended Jones School of Law in Montgomery, "as a mental exercise," Jill McArthur 
said. He passed the Alabama Bar in 1967, and practiced law one year. 

 He moved to Baldwin County in 1991, and was active with the Weeks Bay National 
Estuarine Research Reserve, the Alabama Water Watch and the Wolf Bay Watershed 
Watch, monitoring the quality of area waters. 

 He remained very active, riding his bicycle regularly into his late 70s, Jill McArthur 
said. 

 McArthur also is survived by his son Dr. Frank Graham McArthur of Birmingham; a 
stepson, Edward Shelswell-White of Dallas; a stepdaughter, Eva Jane Shelswell-White 
of Birmingham; a grandchild; two great-grandchildren; and a godson. 

 A private committal service was held Tuesday at Fairhope Funeral Home. cutlines 
McArthur 
Mobile Register (AL) - Thursday, June 14, 2001 


Marriage To MYERS Emily Springs (24 Sep 1921 - 4 Jul 2010)
    m.  

Notes

Parents
MYERS Rawdon Wright (11 Jun 1884 - 20 Oct 1967)
MILLER Emily Springs (18 May 1887 - 13 Nov 1960)

Children by MYERS Emily Springs 24 Sep 1921 - 4 Jul 2010
MCARTHUR Rawdon W. ()

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