Harold Fischer Jr., 83; pilot was Korean War ace, POW

Mr. Fischer grew up on a farm in Iowa and enlisted in the Army after two years at Iowa State University. He transferred to the Air Force in 1950 and achieved a remarkable combat record during 105 missions. He was credited with shooting down 10 Soviet-made MiG-15 fighters, enough to qualify him as a double ace.

In his last dogfight before his F-86 Sabre Jet was hit by a Chinese fighter pilot, Mr. Fischer downed his 11th MiG. He parachuted into enemy territory just north of the Yalu River, which separates North Korea from China, on April 7, 1953.

Mr. Fischer, a captain at the time, was taken by Chinese soldiers to a prison outside Mukden, Manchuria, where he would spend the next 25 months. Three other American pilots were being held in the same prison. The four made headlines across the United States as a symbol of Cold War tensions, their imprisonment continuing months past the signing of the armistice and cease-fire that stopped the fighting July 27, 1953.

Nine months into his captivity, Mr. Fischer said, he used a nail to dig a hole through the wall of his cell and escaped. Intent on stealing a MiG, he was deterred by a guard and then tried to reach the railway station, where he was recaptured and placed in solitary confinement.

He and the other pilots were released May 31, 1955, after being tried by the Chinese in a mock trial in which they were found guilty of participating in germ warfare and immediately deported to the United States.

The release of the aviators might have been a strategic move by China to reduce tensions with the United States that had risen sharply during an early crisis over the Taiwan Straits, said Doug Lantry, a research historian at the National Museum of the US Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.

Harold Edward Fischer Jr. was born May 8, 1925, on a farm outside Lone Rock, Iowa. From a young age, he had an interest in aviation and often spent his 10-cent allowance to buy issues of Flying Aces, a magazine about World War I. He later accumulated model airplanes and launched them from a windmill on his family's farm.

After his release from prison in 1955, Mr. Fischer returned to Iowa State University to pursue a master's degree in industrial administration. During the Vietnam War, he flew 200 missions, primarily in helicopters. His final active-duty assignment, in 1978, was with the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency.

His decorations included the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star, the Legion of Merit, and the Distinguished Flying Cross.

He leaves his companion, Tsai Lan Gerth of Las Vegas; four children, Harold III of San Antonio; Dana L. of Ames, Iowa, Kurt of Tivoli, N.Y., and Clint of Ankeny, Iowa; and five grandchildren. A daughter, Katherine, died in infancy.

Lantry, the historian, said of Fischer: "He not only survived an incredible and strange ordeal but went on to pass his knowledge of what he learned on to future airmen. That is one of the reasons he's so important to the Air Force. He gathered an awful lot of knowledge of how to fly, how to fight, and how to survive."

Mr. Fischer eventually found out that Chinese ace Han Decai was credited with shooting him down in 1953.

"When I found out that Han had been given credit for me, I tried to contact him through Chinese embassies," Mr. Fischer said. "In 1996, I joined a group of [World War II-era] Flying Tiger pilots who had been invited to visit China. There, I met General Han and presented him with an F-86 model. We've met again since then. And we have become friends."