Jerome "Jerry" Yellin[1] (February 15, 1924 – December 21, 2017) was a United States Army Air Forces World War II fighter pilot who fought in the Battle of Iwo Jima and who flew 19 Very Long Range (VLR) combat missions over Japan.

On January 29, 2014, Texas Governor Rick Perry honored Yellin's military service and commitment to help veterans by making him an honorary Texan.

[2] After graduating from high school in Hillside, New Jersey, he worked night shift at a steel mill, saving money before starting college.

On March 10, 1944, 15 miles off the coast of Haleiwa, Oahu, Yellin parachuted out of his P-40 at 5,000 feet after the engine failed and he spent 9 hours in a life raft before being rescued.

For the remainder of the battle for the island, Yellin flew strafing and bombing combat missions in support of the Marines who were fighting the well-entrenched Japanese soldiers.

Yellin's final combat mission was executed five days after the U.S. Army Air Forces Boeing B-29 Superfortress Bockscar had dropped a second American nuclear weapon on Japan, on the city of Nagasaki.

Yellin emerged from the cloud cover, but Schlamberg had disappeared, apparently shot down, and became the final known combat death of World War II.

[11][12] Short on fuel, Yellin began his four-hour flight back to his home base on Iwo Jima, where he learned that the war had ended.

At 703 PM, August 14, 1945, just hours after Yellin's final mission, President Truman announced Japan's surrender to the nation, setting off celebrations all over the United States, including in New York's Times Square.

World War II officially ended on September 2, 1945, with the Allies accepting Japan's formal written surrender documents on the decks of the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

[17][18][19] They appeared again together on August 3, 2017, at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California to discuss the book and Yellin's experiences in the war.

[20][21] On June 11, 2018, the popular magazine and website Townhall named Last Fighter Pilot as one of "10 World War II Books Every American Should Read.

But after learning that Jerry was a P-51 fighter pilot and had flown combat missions on Iwo Jima and against Japan, he told his wife to arrange the marriage so that the blood of a brave man could flow in the veins of his grandchildren.

[26] In 2010, Yellin returned to Iwo Jima for the first time as a civilian to participate in the joint Japanese-United States Reunion of Honor ceremony commemorating the soldiers from both countries who fought in the historic battle.

He returned home suffering from restlessness, depression, and suicidal thoughts due to post-traumatic stress disorder, though the affliction would not be recognized as a medical entity until 1980.

The film describes Yellin's war experiences and his return home filled with hatred for his former enemy and suffering from severe PTSD.

And 42 years after the war, Jerry was confronted with his decades-old fear and hatred when forced to face his enemies once more when his youngest son moved to Japan and married the daughter of a Kamikaze pilot.

Many years later, in 1971, a Shizuoka citizen learned of the raid and the memorial erected in 1945 and began an annual ceremonial service for the dead Americans and Japanese that continues to this day (citation).

Senators Daniel K. Inouye and Frank Lautenberg to get Congress to unanimously vote for Spirit of '45 Day, honoring the men and women of the WWII generation, which is observed during the second weekend in August and coinciding with the anniversary of the end of the war and Yellin's final combat flight.

His remains were interred with full military honors, including a flyover by A-10 Warthog fighter jets and a P-51 leading the missing man formation, at Arlington National Cemetery on January 15, 2019.