Floyd Fulkerson Jr. has the best stories, but some he rarely tells.
The 95-year-old flew his P-38 Lightning fighter alongside the greatest American fighter pilots in World War II.
He survived for a month with a broken back stranded behind enemy lines after his plane was shot down.
"That was long ago and far away," Fulkerson of Little Rock often says.
Now, his stories will be prominently displayed in The 1836 Club's Pilot's Lounge in Little Rock. A collage of his photos adorns the walls beside pilots like Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson will be on hand at the club tonight to unveil the tribute wall on the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor that drew the U.S. into World War II.
The date of tonight's occasion is fitting.
Fulkerson, then 20, remembers sitting in in the living room of his family's downtown Little Rock home on Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941. The New York Philharmonic Orchestra played on the radio.
The music stopped, and Fulkerson learned that the Japanese had attacked the U.S. through the emotionless voice of a newscaster.
Spurred by the attack, Fulkerson enlisted in the Army a few weeks later, receiving an assignment to the U.S. Army Air Corps. He had never been on an airplane before, but his military experience kick-started a lifelong love for flying.
In the Pacific theater of the war, he flew the P-38 Lightning, "the hottest plane out around."
He earned the nickname "Wingman to Aces" after flying beside two Medal of Honor recipients, including Richard Bong, the deadliest fighter pilot in American history.
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"They were a different breed of cat," said Avay Jaynes, Fulkerson's longtime assistant.
Fulkerson earned four victories in the war -- one short of becoming an ace himself.
A 2012 article in Flight Journal, though, gave him a lot of credit.
"There are no great aces without great wingmen," the author wrote.
The great wingman was in pursuit of his fifth victory when an enemy fighter shot his plane down.
Fulkerson crash-landed on a Japanese-held island about 25 miles south of Manila, the Philippines capital. With his plane destroyed, anti-Japanese natives took Fulkerson in.
They rubbed mud on his white skin, and he walked hunched over with a large hat to disguise his American identity, according to his wife, Brenda Fulkerson.
While stranded, he helped demolish a railroad bridge used by the Japanese to transport supplies.
He managed to establish communications with allied forces to arrange a rescue mission. He fashioned a runway with a plow and a water buffalo that the natives used to farm.
Fulkerson returned home in a full-body cast after doctors discovered that the impact of the crash had fractured his back.
He was awarded 11 combat medals, including the Silver Star Medal from the U.S. Navy after he shot down a kamikaze aircraft aimed at a troop ship. Ben Combs, a longtime friend who has researched the matter, believes Fulkerson is the only Army pilot to receive the Navy's honor.
Fulkerson also may be the last highly decorated P-38 Lightning fighter pilot still alive from the war, Combs said. Most of Fulkerson's comrades were shot down and killed.
The Little Rock native farmed his family's land about 15 years after the war.
He later started buying and selling real estate, establishing his own firm, Fulkerson & Co. He was a driving force behind the development of west Little Rock's Pleasant Valley neighborhood four decades ago.
The fighter pilot in Fulkerson never left. He flew planes into his 70s, and he often performed daring flybys to startle his friends.
In his private plane, he flew friends, a U.S. president and an Egyptian ambassador.
Even at 95, Fulkerson's mind remains sharp. He recently finished reading a 1,000-page book about Gen. Douglas MacArthur.
His wife could spend hours telling countless stories about her husband.
"You just have a lot of fun around Floyd," Brenda Fulkerson said.
Mark Camp, co-owner of The 1836 Club and a pilot himself, has heard all the stories, but he's excited to finally meet Floyd Fulkerson tonight.
"The whole thing is just amazing," he said. "It's amazing."
Metro on 12/07/2016