At the end of the war, Vraciu ranked fourth among the U.S. Navy's flying aces, with 19 enemy planes downed during flight and 21 destroyed on the ground.

In December 1944 Vraciu was shot down during a mission over the Philippines, he parachuted and spent five weeks with Filipino resistance fighters before rejoining American military forces and returning to USS Lexington.

[3] Afterward, the family returned to Indiana, where Vraciu resumed his education, graduating from East Chicago's Washington High School in 1937.

At DePauw, Vraciu was active on the school's sports teams (football, tennis, and track) and became a member of the Delta Chi fraternity.

[7][8] In 1939, he garnered national attention for a prank in his psychology class: during the final exam, he threw an eraser at his professor Paul J. Fay, shouted, "I just can't stand it any longer!

[16][17] Vraciu's first air-to air combat took place over Wake Island in October 1943, flying from the light aircraft carrier USS Independence.

(During his earlier training with O'Hare, Vraciu had learned to use the high side pass maneuver when attacking a Betty to avoid the lethal 20mm cannon wielded by its tail gunner.

The ship's nickname of "The Evil I" because of its reputation for bad luck did not affect Vraciu's combat success; he began downing Japanese aircraft in multiples.

[citation needed] When USS Intrepid returned to Pearl Harbor for repairs in February 1944, Vraciu had an opportunity to rotate back to the United States, but he preferred to stay in the Pacific and requested additional combat duty.

[21] Vraciu's most successful day as an aviator occurred on June 19, 1944, during the First Battle of the Philippine Sea, also known as the "Great Marianas Turkey Shoot."

)[29] On June 20, 1944, while escorting bombers in an attack on the Japanese Mobile Fleet (Kido Butai), Vraciu downed his nineteenth plane, making him the leading U.S. Navy ace, although he held that title for only four months.

Vraciu ended the war as the U.S. Navy's fourth highest ranking ace, credited with downing a total of nineteen enemy aircraft and destroying twenty-one on the ground.

Promoted to commander, Vraciu led his own fighter squadron, VF-51, for twenty-two months, from 1956 to 1958, and won the individual gunnery championship at the U.S. Navy's Air Weapons Meet at El Centro, California, in 1957.

[39] In his later years, Vraciu declined invitations to write an autobiography; however, he agreed to be interviewed and participated in oral history projects at the Indiana Historical Society and the University of North Texas, which eventually resulted in the publication of his biography, Fighter Pilot: The World War II Career of Alex Vraciu (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society Press, 2010).

[41] Historian Barrett Tillman acknowledged that Vraciu's mild-mannered and easy-going demeanor in his everyday life was atypical of his "steely aggressiveness" in combat.

Vraciu's decorations and awards include:[43] The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Commander [then Lieutenant, Junior Grade] Alexander Vraciu, United States Naval Reserve, for extraordinary heroism in operations against the enemy while serving as Pilot of a carrier-based Navy Fighter Plane in Fighting Squadron SIXTEEN (VF-16), attached to the U.S.S.

By his devotion to duty, Commander Vraciu reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.