Editing Ted Stevens (section)

===Military service===
[[File:Ted Stevens Military.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Stevens while serving, 1943]]
After he graduated from Redondo Union High School in 1942,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://patch.com/california/redondobeach/redondo-remembers-ted-stevens | title=Redondo Remembers Ted Stevens | date=August 13, 2010 }}</ref> Stevens enrolled at [[Oregon State University]] to study engineering,<ref name="Mitchell 2001"/>{{rp|221}} attending for a semester.<ref name="whitney-formative"/> With World War{{spaces}}II in progress, Stevens attempted to join the [[United States Navy|Navy]] and serve in [[naval aviation]], but failed the vision exam. He improved his vision through a course of prescribed eye exercises, and in 1943 he was accepted into an [[United States Army Air Forces|Army Air Force Air Cadet]] program at [[Montana State University – Bozeman|Montana State College]].<ref name="whitney-formative"/><ref name="Mitchell 2001"/>{{rp|221}} Stevens said that, after scoring near the top of his class on an aptitude test for flight training, he was transferred from the program to preflight training in [[Santa Ana, California]], and he received his wings early in 1944.<ref name="whitney-formative"/>
[[File:Plaque honoring Ted Stevens' wartime service.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor]] displays a collection of Stevens's wartime photos and souvenirs in connection to his flying supplies to the [[Flying Tigers]]]]
[[File:President George W. Bush and Senator Ted Stevens welcome World War II veterans of the 322nd Troop Carrier Squadron (87).jpg|thumb|right|Stevens and President [[George W. Bush]] with World War{{spaces}}II veterans of the 322nd Troop Carrier Squadron, 2006]]

Stevens served in the [[China Burma India Theater of World War II|China-Burma-India theater]] with the [[Fourteenth Air Force]] Transport Section, which supported the "[[Flying Tigers]]", from 1944 to 1945. He and other pilots in the transport section flew [[C-46 Commando|C-46]] and [[C-47 Skytrain|C-47]] [[transport plane]]s, often without escort, mostly in support of Chinese units fighting the Japanese.<ref name="whitney-formative"/> Stevens received the [[Distinguished Flying Cross (USA)|Distinguished Flying Cross]] for flying behind enemy lines, the [[Air Medal]], and the Yuan Hai Medal awarded by the [[Republic of China|Chinese Nationalist government]].<ref name="whitney-formative"/> He was discharged from the Army Air Forces in March 1946.<ref name="whitney-formative"/>