Legends & Heroes Autograph Tent

Col. Joseph "Joe" Peterburs

www.americansinwartime.org/explore/voices-of-freedom/joe-peterburs

From the Americans in Wartime Experience, Voice of Freedom(R):

Cold War, Korean War, Vietnam War, World War II

Joe Peterburs served his country as a member of the Army Air Forces during World War II.  As a P-51 Mustang fighter pilot, Joe shot down a German fighter ACE who was flying the Me-262, the world first operational jet fighter.  After shooting down the German, he too would be shot down.  He became a POW, but escapted and hooked up with a Russian tank unit before being reunited with American forces.

Joe would become a member of the United States Air Force when it became a separate branch of the military in 1947.  He would go on to serve during the Korean, Vietnam and Cold War.  He retired in 1979 at the rank of Colonel.

Among his many awards are the Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star and Purple Heart.

BM1 Albert Jowdy

www.jowdy.com/_Cart/al-jowdy/home/

From an oral interview by the National Museum of the Pacific War (The Portal to Texas History):

Jowdy enlisted in the Navy in July 1942 at the age of 15, with his parents’ consent. His first assignment was pulling bodies out of sunken ships in Pearl Harbor. At Guadalcanal, his ship was torpedoed. Due to the presence of enemy subs, he could not be rescued initially and spent two weeks floating in a raft. Then he joined a rescue effort to aid the USS Wasp (CV-7), only to be torpedoed again, spending another four days in the water. Jowdy was then assigned to the USS Salt Lake City (CA-25), patrolling the Bering Sea and participating in the Battle of the Komandorski Islands as a second loader on a 40-millimeter. After witnessing the Marianas Turkey Shoot and also seeing MacArthur film his famous return, Jowdy participated in the bombardment of Iwo Jima, amidst kamikazes and suicide boats. After the war, he survived a typhoon and served occupation duty in Japan, later transporting troops as part of the demobilization effort before being discharged in January 1946.

Info from: https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1605471/

Col. James Harvey III

www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3585077/wwii-airpower-legend-receives-honorary-promotion-to-colonel/

James H. Harvey III is a retired United States Army Air Corps/U.S. Air Force (USAF) officer and former African-American fighter pilot with the 332nd Fighter Group’s 99th Fighter Squadron, best known as the Tuskegee Airmen, “Red Tails,” or among enemy German pilots, Schwartze Vogelmenschen (“Black birdmen”). He is one of the 1007 documented Tuskegee Airmen Pilots.

Harvey is best known as the first African American USAF jet fighter combat pilot to fight in the Korean War. Harvey and his 332nd Fighter Group Weapons pilot team won the USAF’s inaugural “Top Gun” team competition in 1949. Harvey — along with every member of the Tuskegee Airmen — received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2006. Harvey, along with Dr. Harold Brown, George Hardy, and fellow 1949 Top Gun winner Harry Stewart, Jr., are among the last surviving members of the Tuskegee Airmen.

On November 4, 2023, at the age of 100 years old, he received an honorary promotion to the rank of Colonel.

Capt. Theresa Claiborne - USAF KC-135 pilot (Ret.) and United Airlines pilot (Ret.)

unitedaviate.com/updates/captain-theresa-claiborne/

Theresa M. Claiborne retired on May 25, 2024 as Captain of the Boeing 787 (Dreamliner) at United Airlines. She was one of 24 Black women pilots out of 17,000 + at United. Her career in aviation began on June 20, 1981, when she was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force. She graduated from Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT) at Laughlin AFB, on September 16, 1982, as the first Black woman pilot in the history of the Air Force. Theresa was also the first Black woman to serve as an aircraft commander and instructor for the KC-135 during her seven years on active duty and 13 years in the Reserves.

On January 15, 1990, Theresa joined United Airlines as a flight officer. She started as a flight engineer on the Boeing 727. She has since been qualified on and flown as first officer on the Boeing 737, 747, 757, and 767. In January 2018 she became a captain on the Boeing 757/767, and will retire in May 2024 flying the Boeing 787., She has accumulated more than 22,000 flight hours throughout her career.

Although now retired from her flying position at United, Theresa is the President of Sisters of the Skies, a nonprofit 501 (3)(c) organization with the mission of developing pathways and partnerships to increase the number of Black women in the professional pilot career field. She is also a member of the Board of Directors for the for the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) Museum in Sweetwater, Texas and a board member of the Grand Dames of Aviation.

Theresa has a degree in communications with a minor in journalism from California State University of Sacramento. She also attended the University of California at Berkeley for Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC).

USMC Major Katie Higgins Cook

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katie_Higgins_Cook

USMC Major Katie Higgins Cook is an American aviator and officer in the United States Marine Corps. In 2015, she became the first female Blue Angels pilot, and flew the Blue Angels’ C-130 transport plane Fat Albert for two seasons.

Higgins became a naval aviator with Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 252. She served in Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. At age 26, in her first action against the Taliban in 2013, she piloted a KC-130 (call sign “Filth02”), which fired two Hellfire missiles and eliminated an enemy position, saving the lives of a group of Marines. She also deployed to Africa with Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Crisis-Response in support of contingency operations. By 2015, she had flown nearly 400 combat hours in seven countries.

Major Katie Higgins Cook was recognized in American Valor: A Salute to Our Heroes, an Emmy-winning television special produced by the American Veterans Center and narrated by Harrison Ford.

Katie Higgins married fellow Blue Angels pilot Dusty Cook, whom she first met when they were both at VMGR-252 and started dating after he left the Blue Angels team. They live in Texas with their children.

Maybelle Blair

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maybelle_Blair

Maybelle Blair is a former pitcher who played for the All-American Girls Professional
Baseball League made famous by the movie “A League of Their Own”. She then worked for
Northrop Aircraft Corporation for 37 years where she became the first female manager in
transportation (third female manager in all of Northrop). Maybelle has been honored at the
American Veterans Conference in Washington DC for her contribution to the United States
Military. She has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning, Good Morning America, MLB Network,
Rachel Ray, and in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and LA Times. Has been honored at
Fenway Park in Boston, Wrigley Field in Chicago, both Angel Stadium and Dodger Stadium in Los
Angeles, the Arizona Diamondbacks, featured as a Yahoo Maker by the Yahoo Makers
Conference and most recently was recognized as one of AdWeek’s 2022 Most Powerful Women
in Sports. She is an ambassador for Boston Red Sox Women’s Fantasy Camp, Baseball For All,
Inc., a founding member of the International Women’s Baseball Center, Inc. and the inspiration
behind the new Amazon Prime Video television series A League of Their Own.

Frank E. Hughes, NASA (Ret.)

airandspace.si.edu/support/wall-of-honor/frank-e-hughes

Frank Hughes began his career with NASA in 1966 at the NASA Kennedy Space Center, Florida where he was a developer and instructor on the Apollo Mission Simulators. He then worked as a flight planner for Skylab. In 1976, Frank worked as a simulation developer and flight planner on the Shuttle Approach and Landing Tests. In 1983, he became Chief of the Flight Training Branch during which time he also trained USAF operators and instructors. In 1990, he became Chief of the Space Flight Training Division.

In “The Great Apollo Train Wreck” Frank takes the reader on a journey through the heyday of the Space Race, as he and a team of dedicated engineers tried to figure out how to simulate trips to the moon. His story is sometimes tragic and sometimes hilarious but always informative and easy to read.

Info from: http://www.collectspace.com/ubb/Forum9/HTML/003998.html

TSgt Ralph Coleman Graham

Author of “12 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Ghost Plane at the Battle of the Bulge”, Ralph Coleman tells the true, and riveting, story of divine intervention in one of WWII’s most historic battles. Coleman, at the age of eighteen, volunteered fourteen months before the beginning of the attack at Pearl Harbor and the Declaration of War. Graham’s book conveys the horror and turmoil of the Battle with both striking honesty and commendable stoicism and objectivity. Above all else, however, the book excels as an examination of God’s guiding hand in the affairs of man and an account of one celestial intervention in particular that brought a crew of young Americans safely home from Europe while thousands perished all around them.

Col. Joe McPhail

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McPhail flew with the most successful Marine Fighting Squadron of 1945 was VMF-323, the “Death Rattlers”. In just a few weeks, they shot down 124½ Japanese and counted a dozen Aces. Col. McPhail downed a Zeke and, on April 12, 1945, while on patrol flying a F4U Corsair, shot day Ki-27 Nate. He is also a decorated combat pilot veteran of the Korean War.

Capt. Don Smith

BM3 Michael Lynn Graham

Michael Lynn Graham graduated from Athens High School in Athens, Texas in 1965 as a proud and eager Hornet. He attended Henderson County Jr College through 1967. At the height of the Vietnam War he volunteered to serve his country in the U.S. Navy. His boot camp was in Great Lakes, Illinois where he became a seaman apprentice. His first orders were to report aboard the U.S.S. John W Weeks, a Fletcher Class destroyer. His next promotion was to boatswain mate in the first division. His shakedown cruise was to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba prior to sailing to Vietnam in 1969. His ships’ duty was to protect the aircraft carriers which were conducting air strikes on the Vietcong. They also stationed on the gun line to fire spot shots ashore for the troops in country. His duty in Vietnam was completed in 9 months upon returning to Norfolk, Virginia. His next deployment was aboard the U.S.S. Gearing destroyer DD710 out of Groton, Connecticut. He sailed to the Mediterranean area to cruise ports in Italy and Spain where he trained reserves until honorably discharged in 1971. After his service he had a career in plant operations and insurance sales while raising his family in Palestine, Texas. Upon retirement he spends his time with family and playing golf with his 99 yr old father, a veteran of WWII.

A2C William "Buzz" Barron

“Buzz” Barron’s book, Crew Chief, be he ne’er so vile, provides more than a glimpse into what it took to maintain, service, launch, and recover the workhorse of the air war up North. His story is more than just what it was like to be a crew chief; it is about growing up, it is about life. He presents his story with great detail in the vernacular of his native language – Texan! His writing is full of earnest passion, humility, and empathy, sprinkled with subtle humor and some out right passages of out loud laughter.

Col. Jerry L. Ross

Ross is a retired United States Air Force officer, engineer and a former NASA astronaut. He is a veteran of seven Space Shuttle missions, making him the joint record holder for most spaceflights (a record he shares with Franklin Chang-Diaz). His papers, photographs and many personal items are in the Barron Hilton Flight and Space Exploration Archives at Purdue University. He was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame during ceremonies in May 2014.

Ross is the author of Spacewalker: My Journey in Space and Faith as NASA’s Record-Setting Frequent Flyer (Purdue University Press, 2013) with John Norberg. In March 2014 it was announced Spacewalker would be available in a French translation through the specialist aerospace publisher Altipresse.

MSgt Wes Fields

Master Sergeant Fields is a 24-year service and a combat veteran.  He earned 62 decorations and awards while serving in the United States Air Force as an Aerial Gunner on the AC-130H Spectre Gunship assigned to the United States Air Force Special Operations Command. He participated in numerous special operation missions throughout the world.

CW 4 Daniel Flores

Flores is a native Houstonian and flew the AH-64 Apache helicopter.  Flores was activated in 2005 to be deployed to Afghanistan for Operation Enduring Freedom and, during his one year tour, was witness to the resurgence of the Taliban.  Flores participated on some of the fiercest fighting in the Hindu Kush Mountains.

Dr. Du Hua

Dr. Du Hua, a Navy veteran, was born in Vietnam during the war and lived under communist rule until escaping in 1981 and coming to the United States a year later. After learning English and earning a GED and an associate’s degree, Dr. Hua joined the United States Navy in 1987. He served multiple deployments, including Operation Desert Storm. After his military career, he became a pharmacist.

Maj. Terry Pappas

Terry Pappas spent 41 years flying for the USAF and NASA, including service during the Vietnam era. He has flown a wide array of aircraft from the T-38, Learjets, Gulfstreams, the Super Guppy, DC-9s, and the SR-71 Blackbird. With more than 10,000 hours, Terry retired from NASA in 2011.

Captain Mike Trahan

Mike Trahan was a pilot in Vietnam flying the AC-47 “Spooky” gunship. After graduation from Air Force Undergraduate Pilot Training, he spent two years in the Military Airlift Command, flying the C-141 Starlifter jet transport aircraft. In 1969, he was re-assigned to the AC-47 “Spooky” Gunship and later to the EC-47 Electric Countermeasures aircraft. He served a year of combat in Vietnam in those two aircraft.

Cdr. Randall Harold "Duke" Cunningham

Cdr. Randall Harold “Duke” Cunningham was an officer in the U.S. Navy for 20 years. Together with his Radar Intercept Officer, William P. “Irish” Driscoll, Cunningham became the only navy flying ace from the Vietnam War to obtain five confirmed aerial victories during that conflict, and one of only five U.S. aviators to become an ace during that conflict. To date, Cunningham and Driscoll are the two last aircrew of the United States Navy to achieve “ace” status. Following the war, Cunningham was later an instructor at the U.S. Navy’s Fighter Weapons School, better known as TOPGUN, and commanding officer of Fighter Squadron 126 (VF-126), a shore-based adversary squadron at NAS Miramar, California.