Dean Hess
Dean Elmer Hess was an American minister and United States Air Force colonel who was involved in the socalled Kiddy Car Airlift, the documented rescue of 950 orphans and 80 orphanage staff from the path of the Chinese advance during the Korean War on December 20, 1950. He is the subject of autobiography Battle Hymn, published in 1956, which later served the basis for the 1957 film of the same name, where he was played by Rock Hudson.
Hess was born in 1917. He attended Marietta College, Ohio, graduating in the class of 1941. Following this, he was ordained as a church minister in Cleveland, Ohio. Following the December 7, 1941 Attack on Pearl Harbor, Hess enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces. He served as a combat pilot in France after the Normandy landings, and flew a total of 63 combat missions in P47s.
Source: Wikipedia