Vermont Garrison (October 29, 1915 – February 14, 1994) was a career officer in the United States Air Force, and a flying ace credited with 17.33 victories in aerial combat.

[6][7] Following his return from World War II, Garrison was married to Reatha Mae Cuthbert of London, Kentucky, until her death in July 1959.

[9] On March 17, 1941,[1] Garrison enlisted in the United States Army and became an aviation cadet in Class 41-C at Muskogee, Oklahoma, but washed out of advanced flight training at Brooks Field, Texas, in October.

Garrison promptly enlisted in the Royal Air Force at Dallas, Texas and completed flight training at El Centro, California.

In exceptionally bad winter weather conditions, he shared credit for shooting down a Junkers Ju 88 fighter over the German-Dutch border with Don Gentile and Louis Norley.

On March 3, 1944, the 4th Fighter Group flew a bomber support mission to Berlin for the first time, resulting in several large aerial engagements.

Flying back to England at low level with two wingmen, one of whom had a damaged engine and could not maintain altitude, Garrison was shot down by antiaircraft fire near Boulogne-sur-Mer and bailed out.

Garrison formed another unit jet air demonstration team, the "Mach Riders", with Fernandez and future ace Captain William H. Wescott on wing.

Having a similar rate of fire, the cannons were expected to significantly increase the Sabre's lethality over that of the machine guns, whose armor-piercing incendiary ammunition was usually ineffective against jet aircraft above 35,000 feet (11,000 m).

[22] Garrison worked closely with the project after one of the test aircraft was lost in combat on January 25 because its engine experienced compressor stall from ingesting the cannons' propellent gases.

He regularly flew GunVal Sabres on missions before the testing ended on May 1, and despite firing limitations imposed by the stall risk, scored a MiG-15 victory in a cannon-equipped F-86F, near Sui-ho Reservoir on March 26.

Almost immediately he shot down a MiG at low altitude, followed by a second soon after, as every member of the flight scored a kill, a rare if not unique occurrence.

[27] In August 1965, Garrison returned to combat for the third time in his career, becoming deputy commander for operations (DCO) of the 405th Fighter Wing at Clark Air Base in the Philippines.

The 405th was a composite wing of F-100 Super Sabre and F-102 Delta Dagger fighters, and B-57 Canberra bombers serving temporary duty (TDY) rotations in South Vietnam.

[27] From Clark AB, Garrison was assigned as vice commander of the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing at Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand, in August 1966.

Diving down, Colonel Garrison pressed dangerously close behind the lead MIG in order that the remainder of his formation could assume attacking positions.

Then, at great risk to his life, Colonel Garrison flew directly through the debris from the explosion, in order to attack another enemy MIG and fully exploit the tactical advantage already gained.

Courageously disregarding a hail of enemy fire from behind him, and in the face of heavy odds, Colonel Garrison, after violent maneuvering, closed on the second MIG, scoring hits which caused it to explode and crash.

As a result of Colonel Garrison's intrepidity and keen flying skill, his flight was able to engage other MIGs in the forefront of the enemy formation, successfully destroying three of them.

The enemy, having lost one-half of his force in less than two minutes, and thoroughly demoralized by the heroic and telling attack of Colonel Garrison and his formation, turned and withdrew from the scene of action in defeat.