Royce Williams
retired United States Navy aviator
Elmer Royce Williams (born 4 April 1925) is a retired United States Navy (USN) naval aviator and Medal of Honor recipient. He is known for his solo dogfight with seven Soviet pilots during the Korean War in 1952, which military experts have called "one of the greatest feats in aviation history". Originally awarded the Silver Star in 1953 for his conduct during the dogfight, in 2023 he was given an upgrade to the Navy Cross, the USN's second highest decoration.
On February 24, 2026, Captain Williams received the Medal of Honor. Captain Williams is the last living Medal of Honor recipient of the Korean War.
Early life and military career
Royce Williams was born on 4 April 1925, and grew up in Wilmot, South Dakota and Clinton, Minnesota. He earned the rank of Eagle Scout, and was a corporal in the Minnesota State Guard before joining the Navy. He and his brother aspired to become pilots; both enlisted during World War II, although Royce Williams' flight training was deferred while he attended college in Minnesota. Williams trained on the Naval Aircraft Factory N3N at Murray, Kentucky and Conway, Arkansas in 1944; and in 1945 on the N2S, SNV, SNJ and SBD at NAS Memphis, Tennessee and NAS Pensacola, Florida. He qualified as a naval aviator at NAS Pensacola in August 1945.
The public source identifies “Royce Williams” as retired United States Navy aviator. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Royce, Williams and retired.
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This entry incorporates text from “Royce Williams” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.