Remembering A Veteran's Service In "The Forgotten War"
by Air National Guard Tech. Sgt. Tamara R. Dabney February 27, 2019
Lost medals and rarely spoken memories of a war seldom
mentioned—this is what inspired Bob Petrucci, Adjutant and Senior
Vice Commander of American Legion Post 68, and his friend Dave
Lallier, to honor 91-year-old Korean War veteran, Robert Rawlings.
In a ceremony held November 27, 2018 at the New England Air
Museum in Windsor Locks, Conn., family, friends, and fellow veterans
joined together to bear witness as Rawlings was presented with the
medals he earned during the Korean War.
A side-by-side photo collage of
Korean War veteran Robert Rawlings standing next to a North
American F-86 Sabre fighter jet in the 1950's (left) and
over 60 years later (right), at the New England Air Museum
in Windsor Locks, Conn., November 27, 2018. Rawlings, who
flew the F-86 in combat during the Korean War, was honored
for his service during a ceremony at the museum, during
which the Commander of the 103rd Airlift Wing, Col. Stephen
R. Gwinn, presented him with the medals that he earned
during the war. (Image created by USA Patriotism! from U.S.
Air National Guard combined photos by Tech. Sgt. Tamara R.
Dabney)
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This tribute, which came as a complete surprise to Rawlings, was
the final step in a plan hatched by Lallier to replace Rawlings’
medals after learning they had been lost.
“This all came
about with Dave Lallier, who happens to be Mr. Rawlings’ neighbor,”
said Petrucci. “One day, Dave went to Mr. Rawlings and said he’d
like to see his medals. Bob [Rawlings] said, he didn’t have them, he
misplaced them, he can’t find them. It was coming very close to
Bob’s birthday, so Dave went to [Bob’s] wife, Jean, and asked if she
would mind if he contacted Senator Blumenthal to see if we could
recover his medals. She said ‘no, go for it.’ So it was all done
behind Bob’s back.”
According to family and friends, Rawlings
rarely speaks about his military service. Rawlings enlisted in the
United States Air Force in 1951, and in 1952, became a commissioned
officer. Shortly after, he deployed to Korea as an F-86 pilot.
Hearing these seldom-told stories from Rawlings about what it was
like to fly in combat over the Korean peninsula inspired Lallier to
take action. The first order of business was recovering the lost
medals. Lallier contacted Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal
who, in addition to replacing the lost medals, had them encased in a
wooden shadow box and shipped to Mr. Rawlings’ home. However,
replacing the medals was not enough for Lallier; he and Petrucci
wanted the medals formally presented to Rawlings. The two men
received their wish when the Commander of the 103rd Airlift Wing,
Col. Stephen R. Gwinn, agreed to present the medals during a
surprise ceremony. Thomas Saadi, Connecticut Veterans Affairs
Commissioner, was also invited and would honor Rawlings during the
ceremony by presenting him with the Commissioner’s Coin.
Unlike World War II and the Vietnam War, coverage of the Korean War
was heavily censored. Five million soldiers and civilians, including
40,000 Americans, lost their lives during the four-year conflict;
yet, memories of the war seem to have faded from the American
psyche. Over the years, the Korean War became known as the
“Forgotten War.”
Petrucci, a proud Vietnam Era veteran of the
United States Navy, saw the ceremony as a way to help a Korean War
veteran get the recognition that he deserved.
“I’m very, very
proud of being a veteran and just want to do anything I can to help
out my fellow veterans,” said Petrucci. “We have to continue to
recognize these Korean War vets and put on ceremonies such as this.
We do so many for Vietnam War veterans and [Korean War veterans] are
overshadowed. [They may] have been somewhat forgotten, but I
remember.”
Col. Stephen R. Gwinn, a decorated C-130 pilot who
flew in combat during the Global War on Terrorism, recalled a trip
to Washington, D.C., in which the Korean War memorial overshadowed
by other war memorials.
“I immediately think of the Korean
War monument down in D.C.; the bronze soldiers walking through the
fields,” said Gwinn. “It’s a unique monument and it’s kind of off to
the side and not as shiny and out there like the Vietnam Memorial,
the World War II Memorial, or even the World War I Memorial.”
In a single deployment to Korea, Rawlings flew a total of 92
combat sorties, which, according to Gwinn, is a remarkable feat
considering the perilous circumstances of aerial combat during the
Korean War.
“We think of today, in modern times, where we
have air superiority over everybody,” said Gwinn. “Our pilots are
more safe with more technology, more backup, more resources, whereas
these guys were flying the newest technology at the time, which was
not necessarily the safest technology, but they did it without
question and without fear. Going up 92 times in one tour is
absolutely amazing.”
Following the ceremony, Rawlings was
escorted to a hangar where a North American F-86 Sabre was stored.
As he ran his hand across the nose of the aircraft, memories of his
time flying through the Korean skies came flooding back to him. Of
the 92 combat sorties Rawlings flew, six of them were intercept
missions, in which he faced with the dangerous prospect of engaging
a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 Soviet fighter jet in a dogfight. His
squadron held a record, possibly unbroken to date, for flying the
most combat sorties in a 24-hour period; Bob flew five of these
sorties himself. Guests from the ceremony, including Gwinn, listened
as Rawlings reminisced about the capabilities of the F-86 and what
it was like to fly the plane in combat.
“I almost felt like,
when he was standing next to the F-86, that he could have gotten in,
started it right up and flown it,” said Gwinn.
Today, major
headlines concerning tensions between North and South Korea serve as
a perpetual reminder that the war between these two countries never
officially ended. The Korean Armistice Agreement currently in place
only serves as a cease-fire between the military forces of the two
Koreas, however, we be thankful for veterans like Robert Rawlings
whose efforts ensured some semblance of hope exists for peace
between North and South Korea one day.
“What we defended
throughout the Cold War is making sure countries didn't fall to
regimes that didn't adhere to democratic values,” said Gwinn. “What
those men and women did in the Korean War secured that for the
world, and that cannot be forgotten.”
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