DISTINGUISHED FLYING CROSS: Army veteran gets medal 56 years late

[darrels joy]

DISTINGUISHED FLYING CROSS: Army veteran gets medal 56 years late

84-year-old praised for service in Korean War

By KEITH ROGERS
REVIEW-JOURNAL


Nearly 56 years have passed since a U.S. Army major general in Korea signed the order for Robert Teitelbaum's Distinguished Flying Cross, a medal he has cherished ever since but never formally had it pinned on his jacket.

That was until Thursday during a ceremony at Basic High School in Henderson, when a colonel from the 6th Army Recruiting Brigade clipped it on and shook his hand and the commander of the school's ROTC program called him "a great American who risked everything so we can live the way we do."

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Teitelbaum, an 84-year-old Las Vegas real estate salesman, flew about 300 missions at the beginning of the Korean War. He piloted unarmed, single-engine planes to spot enemy ground forces so he and an observer could radio back coordinates to adjust artillery fire or even call for rounds from big guns aboard Navy cruisers and destroyers.

Put simply, he called the shots.

"If I couldn't reach them with the naval (gunfire) as they steamed north, then I would lead in Air Force strikes. I would identify the target for the Air Force and lead them in," Teitelbaum said.

The ceremony was arranged by The Distinguished Flying Cross Society's newly formed Las Vegas Wings Chapter in cooperation with Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev.

The medal, a four-bladed propeller superimposed on an equal-armed bronze cross, is attached to a blue ribbon with two thin white stripes and a red one in the center.

It is given to members of all branches of the Armed Forces for heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in flight during combat. Its roots go back to Capt. Charles Lindbergh of the Army Corps Reserve, who received it for his transatlantic solo flight in 1927.

Teitelbaum's Distinguished Flying Cross is for extraordinary achievement from Sept. 3-7, 1950, for missions over the Naktong River area. He was still in combat when he received the order for the medal. He later left Korea and returned to Fort Sill, Okla., to serve as a flight instructor for three years.

"Nothing was ever said about pinning it on me, so it was just something that wasn't in the back of my mind," he said.

When the Las Vegas Wings Chapter formed this year, president Jack Donahue and society board chairman Jack Mates determined that a pinning ceremony for Teitelbaum was in order.

"Until just recently, the government never kept a cumulative listing of who received the DFC award," Mates said.

In addition to the Distinguished Flying Cross, Teitelbaum is the recipient of 15 air medals, two of which he was awarded during World War II for flights he made in Italy.

Teitelbaum was never shot down in either war, but he had close calls, including one in the skies over Italy when his plane came under attack by a pair of German Messerschmitt-109s.

"They were firing their machine guns from their wings. They missed me. ... Then they turned around and came back at me," he said. "I started flying circles inside of them."

Then, from between 8,000 feet and 10,000 feet altitude, "I pulled the throttle back and pushed the stick forward and went straight down in a nose dive. Then leveled it off a little above the tree tops. I didn't see them anymore."

Teitelbaum said he put a metal lid from a wood-burning stove on his seat to protect him from rifle bullets.

"I had patches on top of patches from small arms fire," he said, referring to his planes' thin, metal skins. "We just did what we had to do."

Robert Teitelbaum shakes hands with Col. Stephen Wilkins after Wilkins pinned a Distinguished Flying Cross medal on his jacket during a ceremony Thursday at Basic High School in Henderson.
Photo by John Gurzinski.

[Jerry D]

well done Robert Teitelbaum

Congrats on a job well done Mr. Teitlbaum. An honor well earned.