Bill “Tiger” Lyons enlisted in the Army Air Force within months of graduating high school in 1942. Although he had never learned to drive a car, he was trained to fly a P-51 Mustang, flying 63 combat missions over Europe with the 355th Fighter Group in 1944-1945, protecting U.S. bombers from German fighter planes. During his tour, he shot down two German fighters and damaged one of the most elusive and fast German Fighters of the war, the Messerschmidt ME-262 jet. As a Jewish soldier fighting in the skies over Nazi Europe, the consequences of being shot down were even greater than most. By the end of the war, Bill Lyons had been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal with eight Oak Leaf Clusters, five European Theater of Operations Battle Stars and two Presidential Unit Citations.

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