Warbird Information Exchange

BARTOW, FL — The curious case of World War II hero Abner Aust is expected to come to a head in a central Florida courtroom.

The 87-year-old former flying ace is expected to find out Tuesday if he'll finally get out jail or go back to prison for what is likely to be the rest of his life.

Aust has been behind bars for the past eight years after prosecutors say he tried to hire someone to kill one of his ex-wives. Supporters say he's a national treasure and should spend his last years as a free man.

Prosecutors in Bartow, east of Tampa, say he's a menace who should be in prison.

Aust was a 23-year-old captain from Mississippi when he flew 14 combat missions in a P-51 Mustang from the captured island of Iwo Jima to the Japanese mainland in 1945.

According to numerous accounts, he shot down at least five enemy fighters and damaged three more in dogfights over Japan. The five confirmed "kills" certified him as a flying ace, one of the last of World War II.

"On my last mission on 10 August 1945, I hit one (Japanese fighter) at 25,000 feet, the aircraft caught fire and the pilot bailed out," Aust wrote in a matter-of-fact account of his military career. "I damaged a second fighter and then attacked a third one. ... When my bullets hit the engine and cockpit area, I saw him throw up his hand. He flew into the ground and blew up."

Aust served in various posts around the world after the war, making colonel in 1963. He was sent to Vietnam, where he logged 300 combat support missions and commanded a tactical fighter wing in 1968-69. The Pentagon was among his last postings before he retired in 1972 with the Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star and other decorations pinned to his chest.

Friends acknowledge that Aust has got an obstinate streak a mile wide, despite standing only 5-foot-3. Over the years he has been married three times, alienated most of his family and has tried the patience of authorities in the rural county where he lived east of Tampa, racking up a list of arrests but few convictions.

He went to prison for 23 months in 2000 for trying to hire someone to burn down his ex-wife's house. While he was there, prosecutors said, he talked to a fellow inmate about hiring someone to poison Brenda Aust. He was convicted and got six more years.

Aust was released from prison but has been detained in a county jail since. Prosecutors say he violated probation from his first conviction when he committed the second crime in prison.

From our news partners at TCPalm.com

Thank goodness Abner didn't try to have his wife spanked!