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Welcome to Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg
Corumbus. Our guest this week is retired

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US Air Force Colonel Joe Peterburgs.
He's a veteran of World War Two,

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the Korean War, and the Vietnam
War. In all, he spent more

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than thirty six years in uniform.
This is the second half of our conversation

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with Colonel Peterburgs. In our first
installment, we learned about his service as

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a P fifty one fighter pilot in
the European theater, starting in late nineteen

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forty four. Peter Burs flew forty
nine missions while escorting American bombers towards their

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German targets. On his forty ninth
mission, Peter Burs shot down one of

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the most prolific German aces of the
war. But on that very same mission,

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he was also shot down and became
a prisoner of war. Please be

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sure to listen to that part of
our profile of Colonel Peterburgs. Today we

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look at his service following World War
Two and how he returned to the air

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and combat during the Korean War in
a very different but critically important role.

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We'll also examine his years in between
Korea and Vietnam, which included the only

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ejection from his many years in the
service, and once in Vietnam, Colonel

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Peterburgs will share the vitally important role
he played during the air campaign there.

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But we begin in the immediate aftermath
of World War II, as Peter Burs

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returns home and moves forward with his
life while staying in uniform. When I

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got back in the nineteen forty five, I got buried at thirteenth to June

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to by Yeah, i'd say Joseph
Pede, who I named my air craft

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after, and I had an extended
leave of sixty day leave. After the

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honeymoon, we were transferred to back
to Douglas, Georgia, and then I

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mean Napier Field doth in Alabama,
and that clothe We got there and we

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were there for about ten days and
they then that base close. So then

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we were shipped off to Truexfield,
Wisconsin, and we're there for probably two

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months and that closes, and then
we end up at Chanute in Illinois.

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So that was the first part.
But anyway, and then I started getting

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jobs. I mean I didn't have
time to get a job at any of

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the other places, and so at
Chanute, I was made adjut to the

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group, the housekeeping group that ran
the base. And then I was in

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early nineteen forty seven or late forty
six, it was right in that time

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period. I was made command of
the Squadron F and of course segregation was

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in effect at the time. Then
it was an all African American the unit,

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and I'm the only white person.
And fortunately the the first sergeant,

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by first sergeant was a he had
a two twenty year of debt print and

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he was, you know, really, I'm twenty one years old and I

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don't know, you know, run
it out that. So he taught me

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everything I knew and then we got
along good. But that about six months

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after I took commed of the outpit. Then Truman desegregated the armed forces.

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So it was my job to integrate
by unit into the various white units.

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Now, the difficulty of this is
is that all the white units that they

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are now and I always have been
in the in the services that they were

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organized by trades, like you had
a squadron of engineers, so you had

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a squadron of cooks and bakers.
You had a squadron of MPs where the

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black unit. It was segregated based
upon color period, and you had engineers,

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you had bakers, and you had
MPs, and you had all,

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you know, all the skills all
in that one year. So my job

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was to take the proper skill and
get it into the proper whites unit.

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And so that was meant, you
know, there were just a small you

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know, maybe fifty fifty guys would
go into one unit and twenty guys or

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three guys or whatever. So the
first hard and I worked out sort of

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a feedback system where we would be
able to tell, you know, how

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they're treaty guys. And it was
really difficult. It did not go smoothly

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as far as the but my unit, what fruit. We got it.

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Anyway, that must have done fairly
condicent because in July of forty seven I

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was promoted to captain twenty twenty one, twenty two years ago something like that.

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And then after that I went into
accounting and finance. I was a

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finance officer and I went to Shepherd
and I was there for a while.

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Then I went back to Chanute.
That was in nineteen fifty one. I

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was the accounting and dispersing officer at
Chadout that I got orders for Korea the

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fighter pilot. But all I've been
doing is flying. I hadn't flown the

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fighter since the day I was shot
down, and I was flying B twenty

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five and stuff like that, mainly
just to get maintain my proficiency because I

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had an administrative gentleman didn't ever fly
job. But even you know, the

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thing was, you still flew.
You flew at least four hours a month.

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That probably ended up getting about twenty
twenty five hours a month of flying

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time that average. Anyway, I
got the orders overseas, and I got

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the side to the eighteenth Pight of
Barber Squadron twentieth PARTIT group stationed at Pussan

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and with a forward operating based up
at hank Song, a K forty six

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a month or probably forty fifty miles
from the DMZ. So I get over

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there, and then the first thing
that happens to me is I just twelve

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to the general's officer as General Rogers, and he said, well, well

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you're going to make you the fineout
officer, And I said, I've been

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sent over here as a pine a
bottle. He said, well, you

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got to here. Two brothers that
were killed and we know you're not going

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to go to combat. And I
said, well, I said you the

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Sullivant Act, you know, didn't
pass that. And I said, the

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Sullivan Act says that is the load
surviving sun. And I said, I've

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got about three other brothers, three
other brothers. That's home yet, I

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said, I'm not this old surviving
son. But anyway, after probably a

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day or two of discussions and stuff
like that, they said, okay.

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So I went got five hours in
the P fifty one and we checked out

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the fifty one, got five hours
of start to flying combat. And it

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was the fifty one that that you
know, we in the World War Two

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we were the Knights of the Sky, you know really, and then Korea

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and we're given this ground support road
worth aircraft in the Air Force inventory for

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that type of road, you know, close air support. Very vulnerable there.

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The fifty one was very bold to
ground fire and as I could attest,

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tore too. Anyway, I put
seventy six missions and had some had

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one that had the cannon. I
was doing a rocket well, I was

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doing the dapile brown and troops and
trenches along a ridge and the mountain ridge,

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and I let that day, Bob
attack through that and what good?

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Then I came around with the rocket. We had four or five inch rockets,

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but they were not controllable. They
went for you via aircraft was pointed

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and that was about yeah, no
sights and that anyway, in order to

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do that, to be effective,
you had to be straightened level, you

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know, you can't be the slip
and turn stuff like that. Then they

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get the rockets and go fly off. So I'm level and I pop off

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by first two and then on ready
to pop the third one and buy a

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canopy explodes and uh they reach out
and I got a handful of blood,

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and I don't know what, you
know, what, how bad I've heard

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or anything. So I called the
called base. I'm only about thirty five

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miles away from pace, and I
called base that said what the problem was.

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And coincidentally by wingman had radio lost
his radio. So I there's just

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a way of maneuvering that tells you
can talk to each other that way.

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So I wobbah by wagons. He
comes in and George and I've said heading

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back to base, and so we
go back to base and then we get

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to over the base and he feels
off ahead of me and lands, and

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all the meat wagons I've called,
you know, the meat wagons, the

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pirate engines and all were out by
chasing down the run. So anyway,

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I land non Shalotley and go to
my truck on my parking place that I'm

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down to the cockpit straightened up,
but you know, you get the messy

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cockpit with the maps are down on
the floor and stuff. I'm there.

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Who cheaps up on the legies waiting
for my report, and I go up

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and I startle them because I had
blood, and he slips and falls off

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the way. Anyway, what it
was when the small arms went it through

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the wing route and then you know
through the academy he had that exploded the

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Plexi glass and then bounce off my
armor plating behind my head and and I

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had plexi glass all around my faith. So about four or five hours of

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flight church and picking the plastic class
out of my face, and then I

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was flying another couple of days later, So it wasn't that bad. That's

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retired US Air Force Colonel Joe Peterburgs
still ahead. In this edition, we'll

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learn about the critical role that Colonel
Peterburgs held in Vietnam and how he barely

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escaped serious injury there. But up
next more on the close air support that

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he and the other P fifty one
pilots provided during the Korean War, specifically

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whether it was a tough adjustment after
the work he had done during World War

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II. I'm Greg Corumbus and this
is Veterans Chronicles sixty Seconds of Service.

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This sixty Seconds of Service is presented
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affecting their population. Earlier this month, the city council approved the creation of

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the Veterans and Military Affairs Committee and
outlined its duties. We have a very

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vibrant and active veteran and military community
within our community, said Mayor Palomo Agiar.

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I think having this committee will help
us just guide our work better.

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Aggiar, whom voters elected as mayor
last year, introduced the idea of establishing

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such a committee after campaigning and hearing
across the board there was a need for

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that. The coastal city of about
twenty six thousand people is home to more

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than sixteen hundred veterans. For more
great veteran stories, just go to National

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Defense Network dot com. This is
Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our

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guest this week is retired US Air
Force Colonel Joe Peterburgs. Still to come,

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we'll discuss the colonel's service in Vietnam
and his close call during that war,

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But first we continue in Korea.
As Peter Burs explains whether it was

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a big adjustment to use the P
fifty one for close air support, It

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would appear to be a tough justiment, but I did not have eight I

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had never dropped a bomb uh and
never fired a rocket. And the closest

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thing that we came to close air
support was fighter sweeps in Europe. You

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know, after the bombers dropped their
their bob's, usually a squadron would be

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cut news to go hip targets of
opportunities, opportunities or there were also fighter

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sweet missions in which the fighters to
go over and just and straight all the

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air fields, but known targets.
It was that idiot. This close air

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support where the troops are in contact
with other with enemy troops and they need

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air support, and you go in
and uh, you know that's that's sort

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of close combat and also bobbing artillery
positions, and it just came natural to

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me. It just I didn't be
firstly, whether did you ever have to

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deal with enemy support aircraft or did
you usually have superiority where you were Well,

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you know, we were hit by
bigs a couple of times, but

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you know the fifty one was well, of course more maneuverable than the big

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the big ends speed as at any
jet. You know, the f eighty

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six is were supposed to be escort
against that time. Well, we had

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the big missions and axequent missions up
around the Riyalu and we were supposed to

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get a support but with the eighty
six is. But in fact I had

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some harsh words form. We had
a meeting and you know if I told

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them, but their job was supposed
to be is escorted us, and of

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course they were more interested in getting
the the tagli with the bigs that they

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were with protecting US. So we
occurrent quite a few losses without that support.

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So between Korea and Vietnam, what
were you focused down? And well

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after after Korea, I, uh, I thought that well it was able

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to be much of a The awards
are all over itself. The PO be

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such a demand for fighter pilots.
I decided to go into command and control.

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And I was at Tendall. I
was running a I was operations officer

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for the support for the Air Weapons
Control of the school at Tyndall, and

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I had I had a P fifty
one h s there and then we later

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got F E, d's, a's
and b's and I was the first American

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jet operational jet and then the T
thirty three, which was basically a prove

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you know, a two seat F
eight and uh so we were flying that.

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And then I decided after a while, I I'd go to the Air

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Weapons Controller School and then get into
commanding control. And that's what I did,

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and then from there I just keep
kept progressing into the commanding control field.

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And then in the nineteen fifty six
it was I think it was yeah,

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I was transferred to Newfoundland to the
sixth to fourth Nora D Region,

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it had air defense responsibility for the
whole lot east. The major routes between

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Europe and America were in that area. They had come along that area in

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the northern northern and so that was
a pretty big job I had. And

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then from there what to Dora had
headquarters. Was a staff officer there and

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commanding Control did a lot of work
and commanding control there. And then I

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was aside to that is, an
officer to the ri Yeah Fighter Command and

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where I was responsible for the operation
of our BBus Buldistic Missile early warning site

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at Filing nails More in England.
And I spent a two year tour there

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and then I got orders to Vietnam. After the completion in nineteen sixty seven,

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I made lutenant colonel and then I
was transferred to Vietnam. And what

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role did you have in Vietnam?
Well, I was the operations staff,

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as are responsible for coordinating the airspace
over the war zone. Now, this

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entailed a lot of different things,
and it means that you know, during

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Vietnam there were still so minion aircraft
flying in and out of Vietnam, and

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like the Philippine Airlines, the Thai
Airlines and in the American airlines were still

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uh flying in it out. That's
one aspect. I mean, that wasn't

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too bad. You know, they
they stiff stayed pretty well clear, but

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they still had to coordinate their activities. And then you had the various You

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had the Vietnam Air Force, and
then you had the Army air you know,

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the Army had a lot of their
old aircraft, and then of course

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the Air Force's aircraft were and you
had to coordinate make sure that they weren't

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uh, targets weren't overlapping and this
sort of thing. And then you also

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had the artillery, you know,
the army and Marine artillery that would be

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firing at targets and you don't want
them firing their targets. So it was

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a pretty big, pretty big job. And uh so, uh that was

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that was it. And I had
the the radar. I had commit of

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the staff responsibility for for all the
radars and the regular surveillance ralars as well

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as the precision radars that were providing
the ArcLight, the B fifty two information

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on targets, stuff like that.
That's retired US Air Force Colonel Joe Peter

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Burrs. When we come back Colonel
Peterburgs shares more of his service from Vietnam,

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his close called during an enemy attack
there, and much more. I'm

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Greg Corumbus, and this is Veterans
Chronicles. This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm

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Greg Corumbus. Our guest in this
edition is retired US Air Force Colonel Joe

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Peter Burs. He's a veteran of
World War Two, the Korean War,

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and the Vietnam War and spent more
than thirty six years in service to our

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nation. Just before the break,
Colonel Peter Burs explained the critical role he

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performed in terms of air traffic during
the Vietnam War, but he would not

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be back in the air as a
fighter pilot this time around. Oh no,

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Well, I flew a lot flying
up to my sights at the Dagh,

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which was right on the border,
and every time I went up there

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we got artillery fire. And then
during tent my room was blown apart by

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one rocket that a piece of shrap. Little I was. It was the

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middle of the light. A piece
of shrup will hit right along my head

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of my bed, and I had
that as a souvenir for a long time.

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All right, let's back up a
little bit here. I feel like

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this is being downplayed. Explain,
explain this explosion and how close it was

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to you and how you responded.
Well, it was it was like I

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say, I was sleeping and it
was within oh, I say, ten

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yards of my barracks. Previously to
that, we had one of the barracks

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one of my units hit on twenty
two and were akia in that one.

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And this week came like I say, probably ten fifty yards right outside my

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room, and the splattered my room
with shrapnel. And so that was one

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of the pieces at the hit right
above the head. And so that was

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close call, I guess, So, Colonel, for our last several minutes

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here, I want to circle back
a little bit to World War Two and

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a couple of things that we talked
about. First of all, we talked

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briefly about how you were at first
not permitted to fly in Korea because you

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had lost to brothers in World War
Two. Tell me a little bit about

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them and their service and what happened
to them. My dad was born in

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November of eighteen eighty four in Germany
and Ebbs, Germany, and he was

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in the German cavalry out of a
Munster when he was sixteen seventeen years old.

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Then he became a merchant seaman and
then he and then nineteen oh six

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he was in the New York doc
in New York and he decided to join

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see if he could join the United
States Army. And he went over signed

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up and took the physical and stuff
as aid. In the end of December

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of nineteen oh six, he became
a member of the second Calvary of the

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United States Army and then was later
transferred to the sixth Calvary and he was

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shipped to the Philippines around the nineteenth
seventh nineth teen eight time period, and

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he was a fight He fought Tomorrows
during the Morrow Uprising that were defeated in

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nineteen oh nine, and then he
came back and then with the assignment in

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Iowa. He was in the sixth
Cavalry at that time, and he during

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the up the Mexican Revolution, Pato
Billo was coming across the boy about overisent

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Hell that the American side and his
unit was set down to Fort Ucci in

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Texas and no Arizona in that area
anyway, that he was chasing Potchovilla Footill

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and then they had the nineteen fourteen
I think it was they started in the

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American Putative Expedition led by Blackjack Persian, and he was part of that incursion

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to to Mexico, and then World
War two one came along, and being

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of German extraction and of being able
to speak four or five languages, he

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was transferred to counterintelligence and he was
infiltrated into the pow camp at Port Leavenworth,

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Kansas, where he collected and he
had some other Claddstine operations, not

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really familiar. I don't know that
he had them though, And then he

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got out about nineteen twenty four something
like that, and became a Sumlion was

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electrical steem manager until Pearl Harbor,
and he was able because of his influence

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with his friendship and a lot of
guys back in the early part of the

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century, he was able to put
Gil himself, at sixty years old,

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back into the army. Had ended
up. Long story short, he ended

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up in the Pacific in nineteen forty
three and island hopping and wounded twice,

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and in the Battle of the Philippine, so that my death my oldest brother

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George, and he joined the army
in nineteen thirty six. I think it

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was when World War two started.
He was promoted to a lieutenant and he

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spent time in Iceland, and then
he was in the invasion of southern France

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just that occurred just after Neda,
the major invasion, and he spent the

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rest of the war fighting in Germany. And then Korea came along, his

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unit was sent home, and then
when Korea came along and teen fifty,

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he was transferred to his entire unit
was transferred to Korea, and he was

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up in the northern the northern part
of North Korea. And on the second

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of November of nineteen fifty, his
unit, on the eighth Cavalry was overrun

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by the Chinese. Of the eight
hundred, only two hundred survived, and

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so he's lost in the dust step
in North Korea. And then the brother

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just older than me was Paul.
He was born in nineteen twenty two,

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and we were the best friends as
far as brothers. He joined the navy.

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He graduated from high school at sixteen, and then before he went to

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college, he wanted to get experience, so he joined as sort of the

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Navy reserve. And then the war
came along, and then he was stuck

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in the navy and they recalled everything, and so he was ticked off because

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all of his brothers were officers.
He was a master. But she just

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made a subchaser and he was escorting
the convoy from New York down to Quatallibo

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and they were torpedoed off the shore
of North Carolina, and uh, just

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about all of them were killed.
Of course, he was a Machidas based

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so he hadn't been down out of
deck at the time, so he was

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killed there. It's an incredible legacy
of service from your family. Your father

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serving in two World Wars and more. And he had six sons and all

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of us served, and there are
five of us have served in World War

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Two. And then the youngest was
in Korea and he made he was a

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paratrooper and he made several jumps at
the north and fortunately he was able to

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bump into my oldest brother about a
week or two before he was killed,

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and so they had at least that
little time together. One thing else that

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you did in Korea was having to
reject Oh no, I wasn't in Korea.

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That was after the after Korea.
So T thirty three, like I

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said, earlier. I was an
operation officer for the unit, and we

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always did a weather check to make
sure the area was clear so we could

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run our operations. And I took
off I think it was about five thirty

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something like that, and it was
pretty thick soup and seely was about three

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00:28:52.279 --> 00:28:59.640
hundred feet and I was climbing through
the weather at about eighteen thousand feet and

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uh, I got a warning light
blunted chamber, the fire warning light amber

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light, and said something was wrong. So I immediately called the bass that

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said I've returned to the base.
And I pulled the throttle back and it's

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going to make a dead stick back
in and uh, I made the turn

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of heading down. A few seconds
later, the red light came on and

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then blinked. It was blinking and
uh, so I immediately stopped, cocked

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the fire thotvel which cuts off all
fuel to the engine and uh and then

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it came on bright and I said, I want to so I have to

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punch out. So you're setting basically
out of thirty seven millimeter canny shells.

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So you're set there and and so
you blow the canopy, uh, and

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you bring the armbrust up and pulled
the trigger and you're blown out, and

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of course you're still strapped to the
seat, so your seat is tumbling.

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And as it's tumbling, you got
to figure out, well, I got

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to release myself from the seat.
So you release your seat hardness and then

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you throw it away from the seat, but you're both still tumbling. So

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then you have to figure out what
should I pull my ripcord because you don't

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want close it up to the seat
where your parachute will get tangled with the

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rip You know, with the parachute. Everything worked perfect, and I've tumbled

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00:30:37.559 --> 00:30:41.079
it. I pulled the ripcord and
shoot open, and I was in the

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weather and came down, broke out
about three thousand feet and uh I was

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swinging at a real high rate.
You don't of course you're vertigo. You

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00:30:52.079 --> 00:30:57.079
don't know this is happening. When
you've you know, you're you're in the

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weather. And uh So, anyway, uh I been able to get the

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00:31:03.799 --> 00:31:10.839
lanyards and slow it down and and
get it and anyway, I landed the

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00:31:10.920 --> 00:31:14.720
swamp and the helicopter was there in
about five minutes to pick me up.

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So and then uh I had a
little compression of the spy that I did

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00:31:22.200 --> 00:31:26.119
recognize it. That's what I got
hold after I finished a hospital. But

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I got home and uh, my
son, my oldest son, said,

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00:31:32.279 --> 00:31:37.359
what where'd you get that bump?
Buddy? And I had a big knot

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00:31:37.400 --> 00:31:41.839
and there's a turn blue, I
guess, but they didn't notice that at

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00:31:41.880 --> 00:31:47.559
the hospital. But anyway he noticed. But it was just a little black

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00:31:47.599 --> 00:31:53.039
eye. When I released from the
seat, the oxygen tube was still hooked

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up. That I think that just
you know, that broke loocid popped me

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in the head. There's a couple
of questions before we go, Colonel,

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after more than thirty six years in
uniforms, serving in three different wars,

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00:32:06.839 --> 00:32:09.200
what are you most proud of from
your service. I'm most proud of my

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00:32:09.319 --> 00:32:16.400
last tour at Germany, where I
was companed of several thousands of troops and

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I was able to make their professional
board recognized and working with the troops and

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00:32:25.119 --> 00:32:31.319
spending time with them and getting the
job. And we did a fantastic job

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00:32:31.799 --> 00:32:38.599
there, and we built a complete
structure and with dedicated men and women,

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00:32:39.279 --> 00:32:46.960
and integrating women into my units,
the combat units, was a great achievement,

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I thought, and I felt that
that probably was my most meaningful job

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00:32:54.440 --> 00:32:58.519
that I had in the airport.
The other job, yeah, I was

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00:32:58.559 --> 00:33:01.839
a combat pilot. It's a comb
yeah, and you know, you do

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00:33:01.920 --> 00:33:10.799
things you're you're lucky sometimes, your
skill sometimes and but but this took a

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00:33:10.839 --> 00:33:15.720
lot, I think, a lot
more humanity to come out, to be

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able to to to work with people. And my poudest thing was that at

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00:33:21.519 --> 00:33:27.480
the end of my tour I was
affectionately called Colonel Pete by all my men

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00:33:28.240 --> 00:33:31.559
and women. So they became better
service members and they loved you for it.

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So that's a that's a good combination
right there. Lastly, sir,

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00:33:35.839 --> 00:33:39.519
what does it mean to you to
have us at the American Veterans Center record

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00:33:39.680 --> 00:33:45.440
and share your story. Well,
I think you know, it's a job

359
00:33:45.039 --> 00:33:51.839
that had to be done, and
it was very reluctant for uh, you

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00:33:51.920 --> 00:33:59.000
know, most of the or many
of the veterans of the wars to to

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00:33:59.359 --> 00:34:05.279
come out explain it. But it
is so important that that we who experience

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00:34:05.400 --> 00:34:08.400
these things, you know, give
it to you from the horse's mouth.

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00:34:08.440 --> 00:34:14.039
You know, just exactly what our
feelings were and how you know, how

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00:34:14.079 --> 00:34:21.239
we we related to the times,
and how we uh have made mistakes and

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00:34:21.239 --> 00:34:25.880
and made tremendously heroic acts. At
the same time, you know, it's

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00:34:25.519 --> 00:34:32.559
a it's a necessary part of humanity
to to know what has gone before so

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00:34:32.639 --> 00:34:38.079
you can adjust and learn from the
past, so you don't keep reputing the

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00:34:38.119 --> 00:34:45.000
same mistakes over and over and over
again and letting that pendulum swing back and

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00:34:45.039 --> 00:34:50.960
forth, back and forth with the
whole human race. To live in ignorance

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00:34:51.000 --> 00:34:54.039
of the past, I think is
one of the saddest things that a person

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00:34:54.079 --> 00:34:58.719
could do. Well side, Colonel, thank you so much for your time

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00:34:58.760 --> 00:35:00.119
today, and most of all,
thank you so much for your many years

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of honorable service to our country.
Heekku retired US Air Force Colonel Joseph Peterbergs.

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He's a veteran of World War Two, Korea, and Vietnam. In

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00:35:09.239 --> 00:35:15.039
all, Colonel Peterburgs spent more than
thirty six years in uniform to our nation.

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I'm Greg Corumbus. This is Veterans
Chronicles. Hi, this is Greg

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00:35:29.599 --> 00:35:34.440
Corumbus, and thanks for listening to
Veterans Chronicles, a presentation of the American

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00:35:34.519 --> 00:35:39.840
Veterans Center. For more information,
please visit American Veteranscenter dot org. You

379
00:35:39.840 --> 00:35:45.519
can also follow the American Veterans Center
on Facebook, and on Twitter we're at

380
00:35:45.719 --> 00:35:51.920
AVC update. Subscribe to the American
Veterans Center YouTube channel for full oral histories

381
00:35:52.159 --> 00:35:57.880
and special features, and of course
please subscribe to the Veterans Chronicles podcast wherever

382
00:35:57.960 --> 00:36:01.159
you get your podcasts. Thanks again
for listening, and please join us next

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00:36:01.159 --> 00:36:02.960
time for Veterans' Chronicles