Flying high — WWII ace is inducted into the Utah Aviation Hall of Fame

To be designated an "ace," a fighter pilot must shoot down at least five enemy aircraft.

Not many do it in one day, but Alden P. Rigby came close. He earned that designation on the morning of Jan. 1, 1945, when he added four additional planes to the one he had previously downed.

On that morning, Rigby was part of what has since become known as the "Legend of Y-29," or, as Rigby terms it, "The Miracle of Y-29." It was part of the Battle of the Bulge, a desperation move of the increasingly desperate Nazi regime, and Rigby ended up right in the middle of it.

Ace is not a designation to be taken lightly. Starting with World War I and going through Vietnam, some 1,450 Americans in all branches of the armed forces have become aces. "Now there are less than 300 still living," says Rigby. "I'm honored to be one name on the list." There is even an organization called the American Fighter Aces Association.

Rigby's experiences in the war, as well as a lifetime of service in both the Utah Air National Guard and with the Federal Aviation Administration as an air-traffic controller and supervisor at the Salt Lake International Airport, have also earned him induction into the Utah Aviation Hall of Fame, which is based in the Hill Aerospace Museum.

Rigby is the 21st Utahn inducted into the hall.

That is "the ultimate honor for a fighter pilot, or any pilot," says Rigby. "If I had any word better than awesome, that's what I would say."

Rigby's story began near Fairview in Sanpete County, where he grew up on the family farm. At that time, he had few aspirations about flying. He had certainly never been in an airplane, and if the occasional one flew over and caught his attention, it was only part of a world that seemed far away from farm life.

But Rigby knew the limited acreage of the farm could not support more than one family, and he began to look beyond it. After graduation from North Sanpete High School, he enrolled at Brigham Young University. As it did for so many others, however, life changed on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, with the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He will never forget the next day "being in geology class and listening to President Roosevelt declare war on Japan. All of a sudden there was a big question about more school for me and many others. That changed a lot of plans."