High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Thomas Buchanan McGuire Jr. (August 1, 1920?January 7, 1945) was the second highest scoring American ace during World War II, whose memory was preserved by the naming of McGuire Air Force Base in Burlington County, New Jersey. McGuire was born in Ridgewood, New Jersey, on August 1, 1920. He and his mother moved to Sebring, Florida in the late 1920s and McGuire graduated from Sebring High School in 1938. He enrolled at Georgia Tech and joined Beta Theta Pi fraternity, but left after his third year to join the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1941, reporting to a contract flying school in Corsicana, Texas, as an aviation cadet. He later earned his wings after finishing his flight training at Randolph Field, Texas.