Are there any ace fighter pilots on active duty?

Answer 1

Having researched this to some depth, the best answer that I can give is, I don't know, but I doubt it.

One of the best sources of information I found was a 2009 article from The Atlantic by Mark Bowden (the author of Blackhawk Down: A Story of Modern War--yep, the book on which the 2001 movie is based). Bowden focuses on the closest the US has had to an ace since we were fighting in Vietnam, Cesar "Rico" Rodriguez, the Last American Ace. Rodriguez retired from the US Air Force in 2006 with three confirmed kills, the most of any active duty US pilot since Vietnam. Actually two shy of an actual ace.

The fact is that US pilots fly some of the most technologically advanced fighter planes in the world, and are some of the best, most highly trained of any nation's military. This contributes greatly to the reduction of actual air combat that most American pilots see. The typical result of a meeting between American pilots and those from combatant nations is the exiting of the scene by the other guys. Most enemy nations want nothing to do with American pilots, and the picture that is reported to hang over Rico Rodriguez's desk tells the story of what happens to those who don't run away:

"It is a large framed picture, a panoramic cockpit view of open sky and desert. A small F‑15 Eagle is visible in the distance, but larger and more immediate, filling the center of the shot, staring right at the viewer, is an incoming missile."

This is the last image seen by the pilot of the Iraqi MIG-29 Rico dumped into the desert 19 January 1991, salvaged from the Heads Up Display (HUD) of the wreckage.

Sadly, or blessedly, there are no more American aces. The job of the American warrior is almost done, and peace through superior firepower has been achieved on at least one front.