UNC alumnus Littleton Cole Selden is approaching his 100th birthday, but this milestone alone does not capture his many accomplishments.
Just months before his graduation and the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, L.C. Selden decided to join the U.S. Army Air Corps.
L.C. Selden, born in Jackson, North Carolina, in 1920, arrived at UNC as a pre-pharmacy student. With no previous flying experience, he left school to join the Army Air Corps as an aviation cadet in April 1941, before the Air Force was established. He began his pilot training on small, crop-duster planes in Oklahoma.
“He was so close to getting his degree, but he went and had to save Western civilization,” Steven Ford, a close friend of his son, said.
During his 30 years of service in the military, L.C. Selden became a colonel. He provided air support during D-Day and the Battle of Normandy with the 406th Fighter Group, and his unit received two Presidential Citations for service in WWII to honor the group for their courage and heroism.
"The extraordinary achievements of the airmen of the 406th Fighter Group on this occasion reflects the highest credit upon the entire organization and is in keeping with the finest tradition of the Army Air Forces," the First Presidential Citation given to the 406th Fighter Group read.
He also spent two years working in the Pentagon and, at one point, briefed President Eisenhower.
“He went all the way from flying that little crop duster to B-52 fighters, the bombers carrying nuclear weapons,” Ford said. “You can imagine what a career that is.”
In 1971, L.C. Selden retired from the military and opened an antique furniture repair and refinishing shop in Marietta, Georgia, where he worked until he was 96.
