re: Have you ever known a fighter pilot that was shot down….

Shot down, no, but crashed and survived?.. yes

My uncle was a fighter pilot for the USAF

He was flying a plane (idk if F-15 or F-16) on a routine flight here at home when the hydraulics failed on his back left landing gear... he was told to ditch the plane in the ocean and bail out... he said frick that and landed the motherfricker on two wheels!!!

They promoted him to Major General, and shortly after and he was one of the people who decided which bombs, at what time, and where we were going to strike Sadam
Didnt hurt that he had a Masters in Aeronautics...

A few years after he became a math teacher for a few years, then became principle of his school... He won Principal of the Year from the state a year after that, then retired.