The red brick home of Alden P. and Eleen Rigby in Bountiful, Utah, is not unlike the homes of other Latter-day Saints who have reared their families, served missions and are now enjoying their grandchildren. The front doorstep leads into an entryway where portraits of ancestors are displayed on a table. The wall leading to the basement is adorned with pictures from their travels in India, Israel and Egypt.

Alden P. Rigby

Photo by Julie Dockstader Heaps

Alden and Eleen Rigby, married in 1942, work in the Bountiful Utah Temple, where he is a sealer.

Alden P. Rigby stands on the wing of his P-51 Mustang, with the names of his wife and daughter painted on the side. He was transferred from England to Belgium during Battle of the Bulge.

You would never know that quiet, unassuming Alden Rigby was once a 22-year-old P-51 Mustang fighter pilot who took part in one of the most legendary air battles of World War II — a battle that lasted only some 30 minutes but in that short, frenetic time made him an ace.

You wouldn't know this unless you were shown the small room in the basement where his silver star hangs in a wall shadow box with his leather fighter gloves and a black-faced silver watch stopped at 10:35. On one wall hangs black-and-white photos of a confident, young lieutenant sitting in the cockpit of his Mustang and grainy battle photos taken from a camera mounted in the wing of his fighter.

On the side of his Mustang are painted the names "Eleen and Jerry," his wife and then-baby daughter he left back home when he was shipped overseas to England to join the 352nd Fighter Group of the 487th Squadron. His wife was the "wind beneath my wings" during the dark days of World War II and, especially, during the bitter winter days of 1944-1945 when his group was ordered to Asch, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge.

Alden and Eleen Rigby have held together — at times through well-worn letters — since their marriage in 1942 in the Manti Utah Temple. Today, after four children, 25 grandchildren and 40 great-grandchildren, one is not far away from the other. They have served missions twice — one in the International Mission to India/Sri Lanka from 1980-1981; their other a service mission in 1991-1992 to the Jerusalem Center.

But sitting on a couch in their study during a Church News interview, they looked back to the day in May 1944 in Salt Lake City when he embraced his wife and their 11-week-old daughter, Jerralyn, and climbed aboard a D-3 for the first leg of the journey to Europe.

"I cried all day. It was really hard," Sister Rigby recalled. "We relied a lot on prayer."

Prayers and letters saw the couple through the ensuing months. "The gospel is everything. We have an eternal marriage," Brother Rigby added, speaking of the strength his temple covenants meant to him in those days.

In England, he quickly saw action — and the tragic results. His closest military friend and the only other Latter-day Saint in his fighter group, Cliff Wilcox from Salt Lake City, went missing on Aug. 6. "(Losing) Cliff was a real shock. I had the responsibility of gathering his personal belongings and shipping them to his folks and writing to his fiancee."

On Nov. 27, the new Mustang pilot, a lieutenant who would be promoted to captain and later major, was pulling up from a strafing pass on a train believed to be carrying ammunition. Right below him an ME-109, a Nazi fighter, flew by. "All I had to do was make a hard left."

After firing a few rounds, Brother Rigby saw the canopy pop off the other aircraft and the pilot leap from the stricken plane. Brother Rigby circled, watching the pilot safely land. "We had an unwritten rule that we would never shoot a defenseless pilot."

Then, on Dec. 16, the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium opened with heavy Allied losses. On Dec. 23, Brother Rigby's fighter was sent to a small airstrip in Asch, Belgium, named Y-29. It was only some five minutes from the front lines. What is now called "the legend of Y-29" occurred within days.

At 9:20 a.m. on Jan. 1, 1945, Brother Rigby and other P-51 pilots were on the runway preparing for a fighter sweep of the front lines when they were attacked. The Nazis "had amassed some 900 fighter bombers to strike 16 bases in the Netherlands, France and Belgium, to hit each base at 9:20.... The next thing we see is our own gun emplacements shooting."

The young father from Utah gunned his engine despite the "prop wash" from the preceding Mustangs and lifted off. Even as his wheels snapped up, he saw a Folke-Wolfe 190 fighter on the tail of a Mustang just ahead of him. "Break left!" he yelled into his radio. The other pilot led the 190 right into Brother Rigby's gun sights. The 190 went down.

During his next battle, also with a 190, his gun site light bulb went out. He continued to fight, however, and shot down a total of four planes that day. With five total victories, he was an ace. Of the 16 airfields attacked that day, only Y-29 repelled the attack, with only one lost aircraft on the ground. The 352nd Fighter Group received the Presidential Unit Citation, and Brother Rigby was awarded the silver star.

Now, 60 years later, that day is alive in his memory — especially since Utah Gov. John Huntsman inducted Brother Rigby on May 28, 2007, into the Utah Aviation Hall of Fame at Hill Air Force Base north of Salt Lake City.

In reflecting on his life, however, Brother Rigby returned to the same principles that saw him through those earlier days. He referenced his love for temple worship and said, in that sacred edifice, you receive your "Ph.D. — peace, hope and direction."

Values a fighter ace would hold dear.

E-mail to: julied@desnews.com