McConnell's wife, Pearl "Butch" McConnell, died in 2008 at the age of 86. She never remarried and was buried with Captain McConnell at Victor Valley Memorial Park in Victorville, California.
Joseph C. McConnell
McConnell with his F-86, Beauteous Butch II, following his last mission in Korea
The McConnell Story is a 1955 dramatization of the life and career of U.S. Air Force pilot Joseph C. McConnell (1922–1954), who served as a navigator in World War II before becoming the top American ace during the Korean War. He was killed while serving as a test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert of California. The Warner Brothers production, filmed in CinemaScope and Warner Color, starred Alan Ladd as McConnell and June Allyson as his wife. Longtime Warners staff composer Max Steiner wrote the musical score for the film. The movie was announced in May 1954, with Alan Ladd and June Allyson attached from the beginning. It was Alan Ladd's second consecutive film for Warner Bros following Drum Beat. However unlike that it was made for Warner Bros, not Ladd's own production company.
A number of months after the film was announced, McConnell died in a crash. This required the script to be rewritten.
For a sequence depicting the rescue of a downed B-29 Superfortress crew that McConnell was trying to protect, a Sikorsky H-19 of the 48th Air Rescue Squadron, Eglin AFB, Florida, was deployed to Alexandria AFB, Louisiana, for seven days in February 1955. Captain E. R. Thone and Airman First Class Ronald K. Opitz, of the 48th ARS, were the crew for the helicopter, TDY to shoot the rescue sequence.
Colonel William L. Orris, Commander Detachment No. 1, Air Force Operational Test Center at Kirtland AFB, New Mexico was the technical advisor for the film.
Shown on American Movie Classics, host Bob Dorian said that Ladd, who hated flying, filmed his scenes in mockups in front of blue screens. He also noted that Ladd and Allyson fell in love during filming; Ladd reportedly called Allyson's husband, actor/director Dick Powell, and told him, "I'm in love with your wife," to which Powell replied, "Everyone is in love with my wife."
Captain McConnell was credited with shooting down 16 MiG-15s while flying North American F-86 Sabres. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star, and the Distinguished Flying Cross for his actions in aerial combat. McConnell was the first American triple jet-on-jet fighter ace and is still the top-scoring American jet ace. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_C._McConnell?
WWII was about The allies fighting against a world take over by three powerful dictators from Germany, Japan and Italy. We won. America was unscathed. We The People didn't feel the rumble of the bombs bursting in air and the rockets red glare. Our surviving GI's came home to a democratic society of We The People For The People. Many established small businesses. That was the beginning of the end of "We The People." The Industrial Military Complex grew out of that Victory! Monopoly had begun. The war of greed and power over the people became a reality! The Korean Police Action was the beginning of The end of the power of the people. Harry S Truman was no FDR! The lobbyist along with a great propaganda machine began. It was the beginning of the "Dumbing Down of America." With every victory over every third world nation we attacked in the name of democracy a little more of America's industrial might was lost. Today thanks to Bill Clinton we no longer manufacture anything including the bullets our soldiers load in their assault rifles. Vote Um all out. They're all corrupt and establish Term limits. The inter-structure of America today is WWII vintage. Only our military is powerful. Isn't that like a dictatorship or a socialist society with no more middle class??