H.P. “Bud” Rouse
58th “Gorilla”
Fighter Pilot SQDN.
He was known as “Big Boy.” a name referring to his more than six-foot and 200-hundred-pound frame. He describes the maneuvers of past campaigns with a mix of excitement,suspense and sorrow for his fallen comrades. Ran away from San Jose at age 11 and got a job at a cattle ranch. He took a cadet exam at age, 17 and later tried to enter the Marines, but was then drafted by the Army. He decided to enter the Army Air Corps, where he gained a reputation for hotdogging and cockpit skills that followed him throughout his career. He was assigned to single-engine advanced flight school, mostly because it fit his style of pushing airplanes to the limit. Rouse said, “I was kind of wild back then.”. He was apart of the Air Apaches but not the Air Apaches 500 group he flew P-40’s, P-47’s, P-38’s, and P-51’s.