Abner Aust looked anything but dangerous as he shuffled into a courtroom wearing an orange jail outfit and an elaborate hearing aid.

The highly decorated flying ace who shot down enemy fighters over Japan in the waning days of World War II, pleaded with Circuit Judge Randall McDonald to free him so he can get the help he needs for a litany of medical problems.

"I'd just like to be out, sir," the diminutive, baldheaded Aust told the judge, who sentenced him to time served for violating probation and ordered him to spend the next two years on house arrest.

"I hope I'm not making a mistake," McDonald said.

Aust was "beside himself" over finally getting out, said his attorney, Ronald Kurpiers, who had argued that the elderly man was a national hero who deserved to live the rest of his life in freedom.

Kurpiers said Aust would no longer be a threat to his ex-wife, even after being convicted in separate cases of trying to hire someone to burn her house down and have her killed.