<Begin Segment 16>

KL: He was in the military, he was active duty?

KP: He was in the air force before it was actually the air force. He went into control tower school, and then he wanted to become a pilot, so he became a pilot and he flew the RF-80 jet, one of the early, some of the early jets that were used in Korea, so that's what he was flying. But he was going to do a hundred missions, and they figured that would take a year of sorties where you were taking film up in northern Korea. And he finished in seven months because he wanted to come home and get married. [Laughs]

KL: When did he come back?

KP: So he came home in March (1952) and we got married right away. And then we went to South Carolina to the base for two years, (Sumter Air Force Base).

KL: What year were you married?

KP: '52.

KL: So when did he go into the air force?

KP: He went in in '46, '47.

KL: Oh, he was in longer than I realized.

KP: Yeah, he was in... he was in active duty only about ten years before we got out of the military. Because I was part of it. [Laughs] That's why I said "we" were in the military. When you marry a military family, you're a military family.

KL: What did he say about his time in Korea, what it was like to... like what a reconnaissance photo...

KP: He was glad he wasn't dropping bombs. And one of his best buddies became a prisoner of war over there, one of the reconnaissance pilots was a prisoner of war. But he made it as easy as he could, they had their own little tent, four or six pilots shared a tent on base, and he would write me almost every day (...) telling me what he was doing and how it was going, and someone had taken some shells. And they were on the, he did Black Tuesday, he and another pilot did the Black Tuesday event where they were in North Korea and they had about fifty fighters protecting their mission all around, all around them to protect their mission so they could get their pictures and get back and not be shot down. So that was really a big thing at that time. He told us about that. He didn't tell me much about the grimy side of it at all.

KL: Where was the base?

KP: K-12? I don't remember exactly. I have pictures of it.

[Interruption]

KL: You said he had a friend who was a prisoner of war. Was this friend ever released?

KP: Yes, he finally got out. But of course it was a horrible experience for him, and his son wrote about it on the internet and all that. And Raymond was mentioned on the internet for a while, too, because he's a veteran of that war.

KL: What was his friend's name?

KP: I'm trying to remember. It's not coming to me.

KL: It'll probably come up later when I haven't asked you the direct question.

KP: Later on, yeah.

KL: You said you guys went to South Carolina after you came back?

KP: We went to a base in South Carolina and he did instructing in photo reconnaissance, and that's where our first son (Gary) was born, in the military hospital, which was basically barracks.

KL: It's a theme, huh?

KP: Yeah. So I came back to California and then I had a Carolina accent, I picked it up. He said, "Oh, you're from South Carolina?" No, no, I'm a California girl. [Laughs]

KL: Who is your first son and when was he born?

KP: Gary, he was born in '53, and he worked for UPS (as a co-pilot, then as a captain). He just retired from UPS, and he just turned sixty.

KL: Is he here local still?

KP: No, he lives in Minden, (Nevada). And then Martin is the second son that ran the motel for many years.

KL: When was he born?

KP: '57.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2013 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.