Flier Who Shot Down Yamamoto Dies

SAN DIEGO —  The World War II fighter pilot who became an American hero by shooting down the plane carrying the commander-in-chief of the Japanese Imperial Navy, died Thursday of cancer. He was 71.

Thomas G. Lanphier Jr., a journalism graduate of Stanford University, later became editor of the Idaho Daily Statesman and the Boise Capital News, special assistant to the secretary of the Air Force, and special assistant to the chairman of the National Security Resource Board. From 1951 to 1960, he was vice president of the Convair Division of General Dynamics in San Diego. He held other corporate posts before starting a consulting business in 1963.

On April 18, 1943, as a 27-year-old Army captain piloting a P-38 Lightning fighter, Lanphier shot down a plane carrying Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, the architect of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

During World War II, Lanphier was credited with downing nine Japanese planes, damaging eight on the ground, and sinking a destroyer. He received the Navy Cross, Silver Star and Distinguished Flying Cross.

He is survived by his wife, Phyllis, of San Diego, and their children, Patricia Mix of San Diego, Judith Strada of San Diego, Janet Lanphier of New York, Kathleen Lanphier of San Francisco, and Phyllis Lanphier of San Diego. Burial will be in Arlington National Cemetery.