Just before 3:30 p.m on Tuesday, 12 May 2026, Fordice was flying his P-51 Mustang, a propeller-driven World War II fighter jet, when the plane crashed. NTSB is investigating the cause and no formal information was given as of Tuesday evening.
Fordice is one of four children of former Mississippi governor Kirk Fordice, who was in office from 1992 to 2000.
The younger Fordice served in the U.S. Army and Mississippi National Guard for 13 years as an engineer and special forces officer. He was the vice president of his family’s Fordice Construction Co., and president of Delta Construction, LLC., as well as a former president of the Associated General Contractors of America.
Building things was what Fordice did for a living, but he did a lot more in his other pursuits. He was an experienced pilot with more than 5,000 hours of flight time, and the chairman of the Southern Heritage Air Foundation. He owned three small planes, according to Federal Aviation Administration records.
In addition to working with the organization that is based out of the Tallulah Vicksburg Regional Airport in Mound, Fordice flew at air shows around the country and for various charitable causes. In October 2024, when SHAF held a donation drive for victims of Hurricane Helene, Fordice personally flew them to North Carolina in his own plane.
Fordice also became deeply involved with several veterans groups after leaving the Army in 1994. He joined the Quiet Birdmen, a fraternity of pilots, and started recording stories from World War II veterans. Some of the keepsakes those veterans left him became the core of the Southern Heritage Air Foundation’s museum in Mound.
In 2012, Fordice founded the Warrior Bonfire Program. The nonprofit organization gathers small groups of veterans for outdoors retreats to help them deal with various challenges they face after leaving the military. Besides hunting, skiing, or kayaking, the soldiers talk about their military experiences with fellow soldiers who can share their own and relate.
The weekend always ends with a bonfire where ashes from every previous event are added, and participants are invited to honor fallen comrades by throwing a strip of either red, white, or blue fabric into the flames.
More than 30 Warrior Bonfire events are now held each year.
In 2021 Fordice received the American Spirit Medallion from the National World War II Museum for his work in preserving the history of World War II and helping wounded veterans through the Warrior Bonfire Program.
“They’ve removed my ability to have a bad day,” Fordice, in a November 2025 interview with The Vicksburg Post, said of the soldiers in the Warrior Bonfire Program. “I cannot have a bad day anymore because I’ve got hundreds of pictures right in front of me. The most humbling thing I’ve ever done in my life.”
Fordice is survived by his wife Ann Claire, and their children Nathan, Alaina and Erin.