His family moved to Oklahoma in 1926 and after graduation from high school in 1940, he then enrolled at Sunflower Junior College in Moorhead, Mississippi.

He was sent to Santa Ana Army Air Base in California and completed flight training and earned his wings.

[2] His second and last encounter with enemy aircraft happened on August 10, 1945, during a VLR mission escorting B-29 Superfortresses to the northeast of Tokyo.

Aust did not have an American eyewitness or gun camera film to corroborate his claim of shooting down the second Zero.

[5][6] In 1960s, with a help of his brother-in-law, they were able to collect evidence from local Japanese officials that the enemy aircraft shot down by Aust had crashed, and at the location was a grave with the pilot's date of death listed as August 10, 1945.

After submitting this additional evidence to the Air Force Board for the Correction of Military Records, the United States Air Force officially credited Aust with his fifth aerial victory and retroactively became a flying ace, thereby making him one of the last flying aces of World War II.

[4] During World War II, Aust flew a total of 14 Very Long Range (VLR) missions from Iwo Jima.

[7] After his return to U.S, Aust was assigned to 22nd Fighter Squadron at Howard Field in Panama Canal Zone, flying Republic P-47 Thunderbolts.

[8][9][10] Aust remained in the Air Force following the war and served in a variety of command and staff positions over the next 27 years, including serving as an Aircraft Maintenance Officer with Military Assistance Advisory Group in Denmark from December 1951 to July 1954.

[9] He then commanded the 33rd Tactical Fighter Wing at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida in 1967.

During Vietnam War, Aust served as an F-4 Phantom II pilot and vice commander of the 366th Tactical Fighter Wing at Da Nang Air Base, South Vietnam from January to May 1968, and then as a North American F-100 Super Sabre pilot and commander of the 31st Tactical Fighter Wing at Tuy Hoa Air Base, South Vietnam, from May 1968 to February 1969.

He later served as commander of 3rd Tactical Fighter Wing at Kunsan Air Base, South Korea.

Aust later remarried to Doris Maddox his third wife in April 2003, the day that he was sentenced on the solicitation of murder charge.

[13][14] In 2015, he along with other flying aces received the Congressional Gold Medal, in recognition of "their heroic military service and defense of the country's freedom throughout the history of aviation warfare.