Welcome to Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbas. Our guest this week is retired
US Air Force Colonel Joe Peterburgs. He is a combat pilot who served in
World War Two, Korea, and Vietnam. In the final weeks of World
War Two, Peterburgs shot down one of the most prolific German aces of the
war, but that very same day he was shot down as well, and
then became a prisoner of war. In all, Colonel Peterburgs spent more than
thirty six years in uniform in service to our country. Today we will examine
his service in World War II. Next week we explore his time in Korea
and Vietnam, and Colonel Peterburgs began his time with us by discussing his roots
in the Upper Midwest. I was born in the Saint Paul, Minnesota,
on the twenty fifth of November nineteen twenty four, and when I was about
five years old, we moved from Minnesota to Wisconsin in the Milwaukee area.
Basically my childhood and my grammar school there. Years was spent there. When
I graduated from the eighth grade, I entered the Salvatorian Seminary in Saint Naisy
in Wisconsin to become a Catholic priest, and I was there for a couple
of years before World War two start. It was a Sunday and I was
coming home, I mean it was after a Mass and breakfast, and I
was going to the gym to shoot the pool down in the basement. And
there I was going down the steps and we had speakers throughout the gym,
and an announcement came over the loudspeakers saying that Pearl Harbor has been bombed.
And at that time I knew I'd be leaving the joining trying to get into
the Navy aviation program. Why in the Navy, because they took you at
seventeen, the Air Force was eighteen. So anyway, I was not accepted
because I had some eye problems, so that I waited the until I turned
eighteen, which was only about four months later, and I took the competitive
exam for aviation cadet program in the Army Air Corps and I was accepted,
and on the thirtieth of November nineteen forty two, I was swarned as an
aviation cadet and started on a life of aviation. Where did you train,
and how easily did it come to you? Well, it came fairly easy,
but actually I had a lot of minutia ground schools and stuff like that
before I really started a flying trading. But it was about three months three
four months after I elisted and I started by flying trading. I started at
Douglas, Georgia flying PT seventies Steerman's biplane cloth and open cockpit, and I
soloed in six hours, which was pretty good. And then I really took
the fly and I loved I had one of the best I think one of
the best instructors of the were on, the real old guy about forty I
was eighteen, and he taught me tremendous about that things that probably saved my
life several times in my future and combat. So how soon did you had
overseas? From Primary? I went to AIX and fluid another aircraft BT thirteen
and then advance at Napier Field Dufa in Alabama. I was an advance and
we blew the T six Texan and I graduated there on the fifteenth of April
of nineteen forty four and was checked out P forties and P forties for a
while, and then in October of nineteen forty four, I received ors to
go to England and I went to we landed. We traveled by boat ill
de Frosts, in fact a luxury later that was transferred to have preferred it
into a troop ship, and there were I think thousands of us that we
were packed really, but we didn't have to go with the convoy because it
could out out run the sub. So anyway, I landed in Scotland and
I think it's about the fifth or six o'clock of November nineteen forty four,
and then was chipped down to Kingscliff near Peterborough, which is about ninety miles
north of London, to the twentieth Fighter Group fifty fifth Fighter Squadron flying P
fifty one. So I've never seen a P fifty one before, so I
checked out the P fifty one B and then flew C Milele and D Midl
got about a little over fifteen hours of five time, and then started flying
combat. Flew my first combat mission on the twelfth and December of nineteen forty
four. How much of an upgrade was that P fifty one, Well,
it was considerably, you know, more advanced than the P forty of course
more horsepower, more moverability, real faster clives and a lot of a mother
thing. But the basic aircraft of flying it was very similar. Had the
torque that the the Pea party in and uh, all you know all the
characteristics of a signal engine or inline engine and that's sort of so it came
easy for me. I had no problem with it. And it was exciting
and exhilarating. This got out of my first mission and started flying. That
was well, that's what I was there for. Tell me about that first
mission and how it compared to what you expect. Well, it was.
It was fairly uh what we call a milk run. We were escorting several
hundred bombers to targets and I think it was in the cloned area and uh
we had a lot of some heavy flag but no enemy action and there nothing
you know, significant, It was one of the board in't significant. I
flew forty nine missions and uh there were quite a few really exciting ones.
And how did you deal with the flack? The flat was was lethal to
the bombers, but we were maneuvering around and you know, we knew where
the batteries were. We could see where the batteries are fine, But the
hardest part was seeing the bombers. They had to be straight level and zill
maneuver if they understand their formations, and uh, you know, flack buddies
being blown up, and it's see aircraft going down and parachutes in the air
and that sort of stuff. And then uh, actually the you know,
to get tribute to the the barber crews. Uh, they were the bravest
of the brave in the air. They I never saw them the turf of
a target. They would be always on even when we were hit pipe fighters,
they'd keeped their formations and onto the target. And I remember that I
was seeing them. I just was hoping I could sustain that sort of bravery
in byfly. Now on these flights, were you in communication with the bombers,
how did the no well, the echelon, you know of chain of
command, the group commanders. You'd like our group, the twentieth Fighter Group,
we had three squadrons. We'd put up three squadron you would have a
group leader that led all three squadrons. Then you'd have squadron leaders, which
would be about twelve forty sixteen eighteen aircraft and that would be a squadron leader,
and then you had the flights, and then each flight was four aircraft,
and then you would have a flight leader for that and the group in
the Sometimes the squadron commanders depending upon the missions, would be in contact with
the bombers. But in the control authority, you know, all we were
We just flew the mission and did our job there. But if there was
any coordination or anything that would come down from the fight and you were talking
about, you know, missions where there are two thousand bombers and a thousand
fighters in the air all at the same time and escorse and then being hit
by two three hundred enemy fighters and it was just mayhem. It's just confusion
all over the place. But it was exhilarating. I had a couple of
really it's a neat instances, neat occasions when I was met enemy fighters and
really exhilarating experience. Now, I was nineteen when I arrived SAT to fly,
and I turned twenty in late November, and so I was twenty years
old, and you know, twenty year old kid with a two thousand horsepower
engined and six fifty camelberbersikas, three in each week and you know, and
you you know, you know you're the best, and so you don't I
anyway, he didn't, don't worry about it was almost the other guy that's
going to get it with b. That's retired US Air Force Colonel Joe Peterburgs,
a veteran of World War Two, Korea and Vietnam. In our next
segment, well here, Colonel Peterburgs describe how he shot down one of the
greatest German aces of World War Two and how he was shot down and taken
prisoner on the very same day. But right after the break, he tells
us all about his first mission in late nineteen forty four, as he took
the skies as a P fifty one pilot escorting bomber groups through intense fire from
the ground and the air. That's next, I'm Greg Corumbus and this is
Veterans Chronicles sixty Seconds of Service. This sixty Seconds of Service is presented by
T Mobile. T Mobile offers exclusive discounts for veteran and military families and are
proud supporters of the National Defense Network. Visit t mobile dot com to learn
more about how they support our military community. The Green Bay Wisconsinnarios about to
get its own veterans village to help local veterans get back on their feet.
The project has been in the works for two years, and it's expected to
get the go ahead this week. The Brown County Board will vote to approve
the land for the homes Wednesday night. The idea came to Gail Nor,
a US Navy veteran herself, after she visited the Veteran Tiny Home Village in
Racine. Nor worked at the Brown County Veteran Services Office for six years and
would get calls from veterans every day who were about to lose their homes or
couldn't find an affordable place to live. She said. With a degree in
substance abuse counseling and having also worked as a councilor in a veterans shelter,
she understood the struggles veterans face. For more great veteran stories, just go
to National Defense Network dot com. This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbas.
Our guest in this edition is retired US Air Force Colonel Joe Peterburgs.
In just a few minutes, we'll hear all about is very eventful. Forty
ninth and final mission. But first Colonel Peterburgs tells us what it was like
to fly into combat for the very first time. Well, it was a
large mission. It was I think it was something like fifteen hundred bobbers and
about nine hundred fighters and we were going to put targets in the Magnaburg Berlin
area. And we were right about the Magnaburg area. Will we were hit
by first a couple hundred one on nines and the German tactics when the the
one O Nines and they came in from altitude. The one nines would come
in and hit and run and you know, do whatever they could and their
their past to get a bomber, and then uh, they keep going and
then they had this would draw our fighters to chase them, and then uh,
they had the one the one nineties. Uh, after the first attack
by the one O nines, the one nineties would come down and then chew
up the bombers. That was their concept. But our group in particular,
there's no chasing, you know, now there through there none. You stay
with the bombers and you protect the bombers. And that's what we did.
And it was just we I mean we were getting lots of losses. We
could see the bombers and the wings floating down and the parachutes to the air,
and I was more concerned about hitting something in the air some to breathe
in another fire. Anyway, the way things happened, I came, I
saw one one ninety, and we come and head on and I could see
his twenty millimeters cannon blinking around his nose, and my fifty were going there
and I got saw a few hits on his wing, and then we passed
about fifty feet apart. I went under him. He went over me and
my flight leader. He was chasing the one ninety, but he couldn't fire
at him because I was coming to He could have hit me. So as
soon as I passed under him. He's active, and so he got so
and that was and that's one of the one of the missions, the first
mission that I really saw how bad the bombers were taking it and came to
the conclusion that they were there previous to the Brave. Now, did you
develop a certain strategy when you did engage with the enemy or was it mainly
reacting so the trading trading treaty, you just reacted to the fifty one part
of your body you think about the aircraft and two that you know. And
the thing about the aircraft was, of course the large part of the of
the major part was a pilot. You know, a good pilot, experienced
pilot in a less capable aircraft could out do an unexperienced pilot in a advance.
More so it was the pilot. The trading we got, our training
was superior than the Romans was at the stage of the war that I was
in, because there were different stages. Of course, I came in late,
although becoming in late and reduced the casualties of the thirteen guys I came
over with we had all were casualties except one, and there were three of
us that were POW's shot down at POWs and then the other nine were KIA.
So even at that stage of the war, so it was it was
still battle, but no comparison to what the losses were at the beginning of
the war. Our entrance at the war, the bombers were being slaughtered mainly
because they didn't get they didn't have any aircraft that could bring them to the
target, escorting to the target, and that and then the German bollots.
They were really experienced of all these years of actual warfare starting with Spain even
you know, all right, well, let's you mentioned that you were a
prisoner of war, so let's move to that forty ninth mission. We're talking
April tenth, nineteen forty five, which is obviously not that far before the
end of the right. You obviously didn't know that then, So explain what
was happening that day and what happened Well, I like to lead up to
that that I flew on the thirty first of March, the thirty thirty first
of March, per second, third, fourth, sixth, seventh, eighth,
ninth, and tenth of April every day and had I was in missions
that were engaged by one of my cousins in the Luftwaffe. At least four
of the missions we were in the same air space at the same time.
And then come ten April and we were on our heavy force of about twelve
hundred bombers were bombing was scheduled the bomb Magdeburg, Botchdam, Berlin, uh
and Oranienburg, and we all were one big group until we got just outside
of Magdeburg, and then the bombers split off to their particular targets. Our
particular target, the one is you that we were escorting. The first division
of the UH of the bombs bombers was four hundred, four hundred and fifty
bombers that we had some nice two hundred some odd fighters Escortium and our group
had I think it was about seventy of our fighters were Escortium. So uh,
everything was normal, you know, flak and stuff like that, until
we got to the target and the release were almost simultaneously releasing their load.
And then I saw a and I was flying the high cover about five thousand
feet above the barbers, and I saw a gaggle of I mean two six
two's turbojets. I hit the formation, I latched on eyeballs onto one two
sixty two, and it just blew up the seventeen and it was coming in
after another one. And I, of course, as soon as I saw
him, I rolled over and started down at him with thotals wide open,
and I came into his six o'clock position, and just as he blew up
his second B seventeen and I got some hits in his left wing, I
saw some fire smoke, and he rolled over and started down to the deck.
Well, I followed him and U and he disappeared into some clouds.
Well I wasn't going to follow him into the clouds and h So I've broke
off the chase. And as looked over and I saw this airfield just loaded
with aircraft, and I thought, well, what's better than that? So
I just went in the model of the fire pilot is you know, one
pass hall ass when you straight into air deromel. I made about probably four
too many. I made about five passes and I blew up four the first
four passes, I blew up four fighters on the ground and then started a
hangar on fire. And that's coming around for my last pass, and I
latched on to a f W two hundred, which is a Condor big four
engine part of Hitler's fleet of you know, transport type of aircraft. As
I was coming in at I felt the thud. Then that just as I
blew them as start my pull up, and I felt another thun and I
saw some oil coming over my windscreen. And so I made it up to
ten thousand feet and I called the group commander and I said, you know,
I was hit And I didn't know whether I was going to go east
or west. I was making it by mine, and I explained a situation,
told them where the airpeel was. Then the group went after it,
and they eventually destroyed fifty some odd aircraft and had airdrome. But anyway,
I decided to go west. We were breathed ahead of time that the Allied
forces were be fighting in Magdeburg, and it was about ninety miles from where
I was, just outside of Berlin, and so I decided to head towards
Magdeburg. Well, I got within probably thirty forty miles, and I was
down to one thousand feet and I knew I wasn't going to make it,
so I was getting ready to bail out and unhooked. And then as just
as I unhooked, I looked over at three o'clock position in the one ninety
was coming after me. So I was able to turn into him. My
aircraft was burning on the right side. I was able to turn into him
as he fired and he missed. And by that time I was down to
five hundred feet, and I said I could tooad to bail out. I'd
better bully this thing in look the places, and I'm thinking of course,
this is all milliseconds going on in your mind, you know, and all
your treating and everything you know guiding you. And I said, hell,
I'm going to kill myself. I unstrapped. I was going to bail out
and found a feat so unstrapped and I don't have time to strap up again
and do atlantic. So I had to go over the side. I could
go on to the right side because it's burning, and that's side. Just
go because it'll the chork will throw you away from the air aircraft. So
I go on on the left side and I hit the tail with my knee
and I have about three about three three fifty feet what I bailed out,
hit my knee and then pull the rip cord to shoot open. I s
fog once it hit the ground hard. So that was it. And I
get up and I said, I got to find out what. As I
get up and I look around, it as just as farm land, you
know, nothing no buildings, nothing, no trees, nothing. There's a
group of civilians, about fifteen civilians coming after me, and oh they're about
twenty yards away. And I hear a noise behind me, and I look
around and as most prophty sounded in a motorcycle and he pulls up alongside me
and he pulls out a fire just a couple of shots in the air and
holds the civilians off. He says I'm his prisoner, and that was it.
And then some muckymucks from the town, the burgermister, the chief of
police and stuff. They come out and they've talked to the sergeant and want
they want to question me, to target me. So they bring me to
town some kind of official buildings and I'm in the They're they're getting really ticked
off at me. The chief of police wants to shoot me around the spot,
and there's all arguing going on between the lost office sargeant and the crowds
gathering outside, you know, ready to do me in. So he says,
let's go then, So he takes me in, puts me onto the
motorcycle and we go and bird there was a big u bas at berg.
So we go there and I put in a local lock up and I'm questioned
for some gestop will come in and they questioned me for about four five hours.
Nothing yellow physical or they just intense catch questioning. And then I'm there
for two couple of nights and each night the RIF is bombing airs. I'm
in this bomb shelter for the old the stuf. It looked very good for
me. That's retired US Air Force Colonel Joe Peterburgs, a veteran of World
War two, Korea and Vietnam. In the next segment, we'll hear Colonel
Peterburgs talk about being sent to a German prison camp and how he ended up
fighting alongside the Russians before the war was over and decades later a very unlikely
but amazing reunion. That's next. I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles.
This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbas our guest this edition is retired
US Air Force Colonel Joe Peterbergs. We now conclude the World War II portion
of his story with a fascinating account of how Peterburgs went from German prisoner of
war to fighting alongside the Russians before the war ended and much later a very
unlikely reunion. Anyway, the next day they shoot me off to Stolling eleven,
which was a British pow cab. It was on our trade ride.
I think from burg and I get there in the most ninety nine percent of
the Brits had left, you know. They were evacue in front of the
Alone trush to give a further into Germany. But there's still about one hundred
hobbies there and they were scheduled for the next morning to start to march back
toward Berlin. So they put me in with that group, and so we're
on the march. It was just pandemonium. It was Bearmark armies going east
and retreating, and then others going west trying to reinforce the Western Front,
and motorcycles going up, and then thousands of refugees going east and west depending
upon their nationalities and stuff, and the motorcycles going up and down the road
trying to get some kind of order. And then the top of all off,
we get strafed a couple of times by firefighters. Of course they don't
know they see the arby vehicles there and stuff. But anyway, family made
it to Stall like three to look in Baldy and there I'm there for about
probably five six days and security was completely relax, you know, and I
just paidas clean one under the fence at night and started towards Berlin and he
got about five six miles away from the camp and I hear this rumbling and
I was walking along a ditch and hear this rumbling. I see it.
I see it's a Russian tank, and go out and wave down in some
way. I can't have a dull idea. We communicated, but this Russian
lieutenant and I were able to communicate, and he tells you to hop on,
and so he was. They were going to Wittenberg. Their target was
Wittenberg on the ELB, and so I hopped on the tanks with them,
and it fought with them until through Jitterbug and then up through to Wittenberg on
the ELP. Did you still have your uniform on or did you just say
American? American? Well, I could speak a little German. I know
he could speak some German, so that that helped a little bit. And
I'm sure that he probably do some English and uh. And then of course
the old side language almost comes to the handy too, And it was obvious
I was an American, so based by flight shooting stuff. Yeah, what
was it like, essentially serving with a different countries? Millitary, Well,
it was just we were just a bunch of guys. You know, going
around zone, fight down the line, and they were a wild bunch.
I went on several patrols with them, and the one, the sergeant that
was in charge of the patrol, he we get into this really nice complex,
apart complex, and it was building a square and then in inside of
that square was sort of a green area, you know, park, and
uh so we go in and uh oh, he's really getting pissed off,
you know. We go up and then we get into one of the rooms
and he says it get out, tells the rest of us to just get
out. And how he goes into the center of the room with his purple
gun, stands there laughing and shooting and destroying everything in the apartment. And
I'm thinking, well, what have I gotting myself into now? But anyway,
we get to Windenberg on the Alb and then I get the American patrol
comes across the Elb to meet with the Russian American patrolled. The It was
a little reluctance from the Russians to release me, and you know, Potstam
was going on at the time, and intensions were getting high, and I
don't know if it was you know, anyway, this is this is the
American sergeant had saw me in the background. This could tell I was an
American but by flight suits, and there was some discussion going on between he
and the lieutenant. Anyway, they released me to him, and then I
went on some patrols with them and before where we got back to their headquarters
at Holly, and then I spent the day or two with them, and
I took off and said, I'm going to see you. And I was
walking towards the west, and after several miles I've come across the seat forty
seven parked in the field picking up a bunch of political prisoners, you know.
They were striped and emaciated, and they said, where you go and
these to Paris. It's better than that, you know. So I hop
a ride with them and get back to Paris. And then I get stopped,
I get stabbed, and the laoist and know all that sort of stuff
I could do you to form and I'm under control. So my wandering days
are over well, Colonel. Unfortunately we're almost out of time, but we
have to conclude with the aftermath of the story we talked about on your forty
ninth mission, where you were you had shot down on a German fighter and
then you had to bail out, interrogated, sent to a prison camp,
and eventually spending time with the Russians. Many decades later, you find out
that there was somebody who was studying what happened that day, and somehow you
and the other pilot, the German pilot got reunited decades later explained how that
happened. Yeah, Well, there was a German youth of about thirteen years
old, a Verder Dietrich, who was hiding in the ditch watching the air
battle go on over Berg, Germany, in the bag the Berg area,
and and he saw this P fifty one pilot being at low altitude and being
hit by this FW one to ninety being attacked by the one ninety. He
saw the one ninety miss and he saw this pilot bail out and was picked.
And he was a part of the crowd that was hanging around, you
know, the house after the war. Berg is in East Germany, and
of course until the wall came down and they joined the West, you know,
they could do anything as far as World War two, it's concerned the
Germans. And then after reunifications, the television stations in that area decided to
start doing specials on recovery of World War two aircraft, and so Werler goes
to the station and he said, hey, I saw this aircraft bail out
and I know exactly where it is and all that sort of stuff. And
they said, okay, we'll make a special. So they went and got
their big backos and their big magnets and stuff like that. They found the
aircraft that they excavated it, and it was deep, it was about ten
feet and anyway they excavated it. And then he says he's going to find
the pilot of that aircraft. So it takes some a little over a year
to find out or get the lead to me, and I get a letter
out of the blue in nineteen ninety seven, I think it was he started
that. This project was about nineteen ninety six when he recovered it. Late
ninety ninety five, early nineteen ninety six when they recovered the aircraft. So
he had the whole year trying to find it, a lot of false leads
and then he finally got one that was a good lead, and he got
my name, and so he wrote me this letter and he explains everything,
and I said, well, yeah, that's where I landed. That's what
happened. You know, sounds I can buy aircraft, and it was me
and so uh and he we don't. He doesn't have a computer, so
it's held snail mail. So it's you know, ten days to get another
there, ten days to get the back. So this is going on for
a month or so. And and then I get a call from Germany.
It's the producer of the TV station. They say, we want to make
a follow on documentary about, you know, recovering the the PI pilot and
that sort of stuff. Well, my wife had had a stroke and I
wasn't about to leave. They wanted me to come to Germany, so they
said, okay, if we come over there, I said yeah, So
they came over. So they get over there, and of course, uh
Burner thinks that I'm part of the Magdeburg raid. And he has no idea
about you know, oriany and Burg and shooting its yet down and stuff like
that. And so I the story of what happened to me, and he
said, what do you When they lived, they spent about four or five
days in the Colorado Springs. I was living in Colorado Springs at the time.
And he said, when he left, he said I'm going to find
that jetpot and so he goes back. And then about a month later I
get a letter from him and said, eureka, I found him as Walter
Shook two hundred and six confirmed aerial victories, one of the top German Asius
nights cross with Palms and H. I said, oh, yeah, I
really did. I thought, well, maybe fifty to fifty of the fog
of war and all that sort of stuff. It's just so I looked at
that at that and that went out for and then I got a leather letter.
No, I got an email because he had computer from a a gentleman
from Iranianberg who was studying that particular raid and he was looking for anybody that
was on that raid. And I answered, I said, yeah, I
was on that raid. And so then the association and all this sort of
came came about and UH and then that went on for a couple of years,
and then in two thousand, I think it was two thousand and two,
Christer Bergs from a prolific writer of UH the air war in Europe,
the World War Two. He wrote me and he said that he had just
said that he was doing the Walter's uh Walter Shuk's biography. And then he
said that I under said that he wrote down a sort of after action report
of what happened on your mission. He said, I said, yeah,
I said, he said, what you buy, said it to me as
I I emailed it to him, and then about three days later I get
a he says, one hundred percent super of your shot. You had,
the one that shut down Walter Shuck. I said, how can you be
one hundred percent sure? Everything he's He said, everything in your stories matched
to the second you know everything that happened. I said, well, still
you know? He said, yes it is. He says, because Walter
shook as the only the Germans that shot down to B seventeens in a row
on the same mission at Orienburgh, and that you saw both of those Achilles.
He says, in fact, he shot down four during that time because
he had shot down to be seventeens in another box before he went over to
your box. So so, and then Walter in his books he devotes the
chapter to me shooting him down, and he knows I've shot him down,
and I know I shot him down, and that's all that counts so that's
that's it. And then we then in two thousand and five at Vista,
California, Walter had a buddy, Kurt Schultchi, who migrated to the US
and the fifties, and he was visiting him as well as a Canadian artist
had drawn a depiction of be shooting down Walter and there's big siding plan.
They wanted me to go, Well, I have just lost my wife.
I really wasn't capable of doing anything. And my granddaughter Sabritish, she kind
of she talked anyway, she talked me into coming out and I finally agreed
and I came out there and we met at Pistol, California, with Walter
on the first time in person on the eighteenth of May of two thousand and
five, and he became close friends from that day on and we spent until
his passing in twenty fifteen. We spent many, many happy hours of discusing
and he became part of my family, and my great granddaughter's little tots at
the time called him Papa Walter. What does it mean to you? I'm
sure you're glad that you know he survived now since he became good friends,
but how proud are you about the fact that you forced down one of the
best German It was both Walter and I who we had explained it this way,
he said, Walter hit his job. His job was to protect his
homeland from the bombers. Now I understand that at my job was to protect
the bombers from him. And we both did our jobs and that was it.
You know, there was no animosity between the pilots and this stuff.
He was he had a job to do and I had a job to do.
And just like I got a an email one time is said, a
guy was wondering about kills. How do you know you killed the pilot and
stuff? How do you count the kills and stuff? I said, you
don't count. A kill doesn't mean you killed the pilot. A kill means
you destroyed another aircraft. That's the kill. Is the aircraft, not the
pilot, because there would be that very many because the many many of them
that were shot down that were killed, the pilot survived by bailing out and
surviving. That's retired US Air Force Colonel Joe Peterbers, a veteran of World
War Two, Korea and Vietnam. In our next edition, Colonel Peterburgs shares
his stories of service from Korea and Vietnam as part of a military career spanning
more than thirty six years. I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles.
Hi, this is Greg Corumbus and thanks for listening to Veterans Chronicles, a
presentation of the American Veterans Center. For more information, please visit American Veteranscenter
dot org. You can also follow the American Veterans Center on Facebook and on
Twitter We're at AVC update. Subscribe to the American Veterans Center YouTube channel for
full oral histories and special features, and of course, please subscribe to the
Veterans Chronicles podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks again for listening, and
please join us next time for Veterans Chronicles