Ken Taylor earned the Distinguished Service Cross and the Purple Heart for his heroic actions during the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Taylor and fellow pilot George Welch were two of the first decorated heroes of the war.

Taylor died of natural causes Nov. 25 in an assisted living home in Tucson, his son Ken Taylor Jr. said.

He said his father was born and raised in Oklahoma, where he attended the University of Oklahoma for two years before he decided to join the military. His first assignment was in Hawai'i at Wheeler Field.

On the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, Taylor woke up to the sound of planes flying low overhead. Once it became clear the Japanese were attacking, Taylor and Welch called to have their planes prepped for takeoff, Ken Taylor Jr. said.

Once they took to the sky, Taylor shot down two Japanese planes and Welch shot down four.

Taylor ended his Air Force career in the mid-1960s, his son said.

Taylor later became commander of the Alaska Air National Guard for three years. He retired in 1985 after a run in the aviation insurance industry.

Ken Taylor Jr. said is father decided to split his time between Tucson and Alaska in the mid-1990s. He said his father's health began declining in the last couple of years after he broke his hip.

Taylor is survived by his wife, Flora, a son, a daughter, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

"He would want to be remembered mostly as a good father, husband, grandfather and great-grandfather," Ken Taylor Jr. said. "He was very loyal and dutiful, and to him, that was more important than what he did in the war."