<Begin Segment 26>
MA: You've had quite a life and a lot of experiences. If you have any messages, you know, for future generations or people who will see this, what would you say?
BU: The... to be a pilot in a fighter squadron is, gotta be the greatest. The esprit de corps, and I think this -- well, more so in the Air Force than the Marine Corps or Navy, because the Air Force pilot in a squadron is a pure pilot. That's all he does is train to be a pilot. The Navy and Marine Corps, they have other jobs. It might be a supply officer, adjutant, but they all have other things they must do. But in the Air Force, the pilot is a pilot. And so really for the three years or whatever the assignment is, enjoy it before you become supervisor or administrative and move yourself up. It's just, it's so much fun. And you get in a good organization, and most of 'em are, because they don't allow you to be an outcast. They have a way to bring you into the group, you know. And the wives, Yas will tell you that her greatest experience was with the fighter squadrons. Because like I said, I think earlier, you're never a stranger. When we, when we hear somebody coming in, somebody assigns a pilot to be the host for the incoming, takes care of 'em, make sure they get squared away. If you go overseas where you're not allowed to take furniture with you, and you get into a furnished apartment, more than likely your refrigerator will be stocked, you'll have milk, bread, eggs, the whole nine yards. And everybody does it for each other, and really takes care of each other. And it's just so much fun, and everybody has so much respect for each other, and mix with a great bunch of people. Well, we still attend some flight squadron reunions and have great fun. Of course, everyone talks about goof-ups everybody's made somewhere along the line. There is one incident there that I expressed that was in the, Looking Like the Enemy, but you want me to relate that?
MA: Sure.
BU: When I was a captain at George Air Force Base, and my time came up to be in the, what they call primary zone for promotion to major, I was assistant operations officer. And the promotion, I missed the promotion; I got passed over to major. And oh, I was crushed. I was just devastated. Most all my friends gave me encouragement, "Keep it up." But the biggest help I got was from my immediate commander. Harry Hancock, I think he was a (lieutenant) colonel, anyway, he said... to make a long story short, after a few days, he said, "Don't worry about it, you're gonna make the next promotion." Meanwhile, he said... well, I forgot which way it went. Anyway, he said, "Let's go to headquarters, let's go look at your promotion folder." And what the promotion folder has is your history, picture, and your last ten evaluation reports. So anyway, he said, "Set up an airplane, let's go to Colorado Springs and check on your folder." So we did, and so I flew, (he) rode in the backseat, and we landed at Colorado Springs, went to headquarters, and asked to see my promotion folder. I think we called 'em before we went. Anyway, we went to the personnel office that was in charge, brought out the promotion folder and he says, before he opens it, he says, "Captain," he says, "I may say something you may not want to hear." I said, "Oh, no, that's what we want to hear. If there's something in there that we, you know, that's causing me to miss a promotion, we want to find it." So he opened up the folder, first page is my photograph. He looks at that and he says, "That's fine." He starts flipping through all my paperwork, all my evaluation reports, closes the folder and he says, "Captain, I don't know." He says, "Normally I can spot what's caused the failure for your promotion. But in your case, looks like your numbers are right, you should have made it." "Okay, thank you." So Harry and I jumped back in the airplane, went back to George. I think that's when Harry said, "Don't worry, Bob, you're gonna make the next one."
And I got back and through the days, I hear from this real good friend of mine, we were captains together, he's black, and he has, he was at a school. And Tom calls me and he says, "Bob, you know why you didn't make it, didn't you?" I said, "No." I said, "We went to headquarters, ADC, and they couldn't tell me." He says, "It was your picture." I said, "What do you mean?" He says, "Oh, come on, Bob. You know better than that, it's your picture." Well, what had happened -- then it dawned on me -- what had happened over the years was on our, one of our forms that has all our different information, date of birth and all the personal history, there was a little square in there like your birth certificate, your race. Well, they removed that, they took that out. They took that question out, you could no longer say "Japanese" or "black," "Negro." They put a photograph in there. Well, then you don't need to ask, right? So they're looking for the blacks and the Asians. So anyway, the next promotion I made it, and Harry made sure by my evaluations that he gave me. So I made it on the next one. And somehow or another, little later, that was to major. And then I was only a major about two years, and they had an extra promotion to lieutenant colonel that got me promoted and almost catch up, caught up with my contemporaries. I just ended up a couple months behind them. But that was a covert case of discrimination there.
MA: Right, passing you over all those years because of your...
BU: Well, because I was Asian, you know. And maybe I was pretty close to the line, but it only takes one officer on the promotion board, I think, I don't know, I forgot, there are four or five officers that review the same stack. All it takes is one of 'em to throw yours out. So that, that and the fact that I -- that was the only Air Force one that I recall. Other than that, I was always accepted as an equal, and accepted for what I did rather than where I came from.
MA: It sounds like you had many positive experiences and memories from your --
BU: Oh, yeah. Most of my, most of my Air Force experiences were positive. Just had a great twenty-one years. Like I said, you were asking me what would I leave for young ones. First, work and get a commission. Go into the service as a commissioned officer, that's, as far as I'm concerned, that's the only way to go. You have to work so much harder as an enlisted to get out there where it's economically comfortable. But then, yeah, I guess that, work hard, play hard. [Laughs]
MA: Well, those are, that's a great way to end. So I want to thank you so much for sharing your life stories with us. It was just really wonderful.
BU: Okay.
MA: Yeah, thank you.
BU: Sure.
<End Segment 26> - Copyright ©2008 Densho and the Topaz Museum. All Rights Reserved.