Sound interested and engage him. Get as much detail as you can, written down if possible. What service was he in? What squadron was he with? What type of airplane did he fly? From what airbase or aircraft carrier? What rank was he? What did he do before he flew at Toko-Ri? Where did he take his various pilot training courses? If he gets curious, tell him you told your kids about him and they thought it was cool, and you’re getting the info for them. Once you have simple information like that, you can research using an Internet search engine.
I’m a civilian, but I’ll say this much—it’s always been my impression that in that time period, he’d have to have been a Navy or Marine pilot to win a Navy Cross. Pilots were commissioned officers, which generally (but not always) means he’d have to have had a college degree. Realistically, when you factor that in, plus the time it’d take to train a fighter pilot, I don’t think he could be any younger than 22 and be a Navy/Marine officer pilot of a single-seat or two-seat fighter/attack aircraft. But I’d defer on that to some of our military experts.
}:-)4
Not all of them. The Marine Corps alone had 131 enlisted pilots in 1952.
Tell him your kids have to do a report on a military hero and you immediately thought of him. Then you have an excuse to write down everything he tells you so you have it "right" for the kids' report!