George H.W. Bush will be remembered as the last veteran of World War II to serve in the Oval Office. Sworn into the Navy on his 18th birthday on June 12, 1942, he would become their youngest pilot 10 months later. Bush died late Friday evening. He was 94.

To say that Bush cheated death in the Pacific Theater and from the cockpit is not a cliche. It is a fact backed up by official military statistics. Bush and his single-engine torpedo bomber — a Grumman TBF Avenger with the name of his sweetheart, Barbara, stenciled onto the fuselage — were forced from the sky twice.