Colonel Baker was a WWII fighter veteran, earning four DFCs, a Silver Star, and numerous other awards after flying 272 combat missions and scoring 3.5 aerial victories in World War II. In Korea he flew 127 combat missions in an F-87 fighter, scoring 13 victories, becoming a TRIPLE ACE. At the time he returned home he was the leading American Ace of the Korean War. He subsequently flew 140 missions during the Vietnam War. He retired in 1975 as a U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General.