Filmmaker Fighter Pilot Dies

World War II fighter pilot Quentin Aanenson, who produced a documentary on his wartime experiences that aired widely on public television, died Dec. 28 of cancer, reports Associated Press. He was 87. According to a Washington Post report (requires free registration), Aanenson flew some 75 combat missions, the first on D-Day, mostly in P-47s of the 366th Fighter Group. He left the Army Air Forces after the war, becoming a life insurance executive, but in the early 1990s, he documented his war experiences in a video titled “A Fighter Pilot’s Story” that first aired on WETA in November 1993. Later, Aanenson would work with filmmaker Ken Burns on his 2007 documentary “The War.”