Mayhew Foster Mayhew Y . " Bo " Foster ( October 9 , 1911 – March 21 , 2011 ) was an American soldier who flew captured Nazi war criminal Hermann Göring from Austria to Germany for interrogation by the 7th Army . For his actions in World War II , Foster was awarded both the Silver Star and the Légion d ' Honneur . At the end of the war , Göring surrendered to the Allied Powers in the Bavarian Alps . On May 9 , 1945 , Foster transported Göring back to Germany on a 55 - minute flight in an unescorted , unarmed L - 5 , a larger plane than the L4 he normally piloted , because Göring weighed more than . According to " China Daily " , in a letter to his wife , Virginia , written at the time , Foster describes his first impression of Göring as " effeminate [ and ] gave me the creeps . . . Several times I had the impulse to turn the plane over and see if I could shake him out , but he was wedged in like a champagne cork . " Foster said that Göring , who spoke some English , avoided any talk of Adolf Hitler , with whom Göring - as the commander of the Luftwaffe - had fallen out of favor as the total German defeat neared . " He acted as though he was going on a sightseeing tour , or really as though I was going on a sightseeing tour , and he was showing me where he grew up . I had a . 45 in a shoulder holster , but he couldn ' t reach that . But neither could I , because I had two hands controlling the plane . " Foster further recalled Göring as having been sharp , friendly , and witty , having joked when Foster asked him when Germany began manufacturing jets . " Too late , " Göring was said to have answered . Foster continued : " I could see that he was like one of our officers if he ' d been picked up . I wouldn ' t say it changed my view of the war , but it showed me that there are [ He did not finish the statement . ] . . . Well , I questioned all that we knew about these vicious people . " Göring was convicted of war crimes and committed suicide in October 1946 by taking a cyanide capsule before he could be hanged by the Nuremberg authorities . By October 1945 , Foster was back in the United States , having flown seventy reconnaissance combat missions during his wartime service . He returned to his adopted home state of Montana , where he was appointed lieutenant colonel in the Montana Army National Guard . He was thereafter promoted to brigadier general , a rank that he held from 1963 until 1971 . A native of Richmond , Virginia , Foster graduated in 1937 with a degree in English from Yale University in New Haven , Connecticut . He and his wife , Virginia Lou Foster ( February 15 , 1916 – May 7 , 1993 ) were married in 1940 . The couple had one daughter , Susan Carol Foster Korkalo ( 1944 – 2007 ) . Foster received the Silver Star for his wartime service in southern France in 1944 . It was not until 2009 that he received the French Legion of Honor , when Pierre Vimont , the French Ambassador to the United States , released a letter hailing Foster for his " personal , precious contribution to the United States ' decisive role in the liberation of our country during World War II . " Foster died at the age of ninety - nine in a nursing home in Missoula , Montana . His last city of residence was Livingston in Park County , Montana . Survivors included son - in - law Roy E . Korkalo of Livingston , grandson Chris Korkalo , and a sister , Priscilla F . Howell .