Encoded for the Experiencing War web site for the Veterans History Project.
The recording of the interview with Peter Canga was digitized.
This transcription was encoded with minimal changes to the original text in an effort to preserve original content and idiosyncrasies of the person interviewed. Period language and terminology are also retained. Encoding is literal with regard to the transcriptionist's capitalization, punctuation, and spelling. Spelling errors are indicated with [sic]; however, recurring errors in spelling within a single document have been marked the first time and not subsequently.
My name is Claudia Valdez and I am with Mr. Peter Canga. He was born in New York, New York on December 17,1926...um Hello Mr. Canga.
Yes
Hello?
Hello.
Urn, we're going to start by asking how many brothers and sisters did you have?
Um...l have...l had five brothers, I mean; we were a total of five in the family, three brothers and two sisters.
Um, can you also tell me what your parent's occupation was?
My fether was in the Peruvian Air Force, he was a colonel, when he died in a crash accident, flying from Rome to Lima.
Lima Peru?
Lima Peru, yes.
And your mother?
My mother was just a...from Peru too but she was a...a...what's they called? Um a, home engineer ha, no she was a house wife.
A domestic engineer.
A domestic engineer.
Um...What was it that you did before entering the military?
Um...What did I do before I entered in the military? Well I, the way we did it [at] home, since I was the oldest I stayed at the bases with my father. And a, the rest of my brothers went to a, brothers and sisters stayed with my mother, so I was always living at [the] air bases. When I was eleven, around 19.., it was exactly 1938; my father was assigned to the embassy in Rome, Italy. So we went to Rome, with him, we stayed with him until 1939 and at that time, the war started. So we had to take a freighter to return home because there were no room in the, a boats to return. And uh, while I was in Rome, I went to school in Rome and I went to school in France in Nice.
Wow! I'm amazed! Thaf s very exciting!
Yeah! And we ah... returned to a, Peru and I went to a, Jesuit school for the remaining of my high school. After that I applied for the Peruvian Air Force and I came out number fifth I believe on the a, entrance exam. But when they looked at my papers they found out I was not Peruvian, I was a United States citizen by birth because my father had not registered me with the Peruvian consulate. So I went to the American Embassy and they gave me a, American passport and they said you can go to the states anytime you want to, so I took the next flight. And uh, I got to ah, Miami with about two hundred dollars and I crossed the United States all the way to California because I had friends there. But the money was eaten up fast so I had to sell ice cream with a cart, pushing the cart. And one of the places they sent me to sell the ice cream was the unemployment office. While I was at the unemployment office, a recruiting sergeant talked to me and he asked me if I wanted to join the military. I says well, I have been in the military all my life, I would be delighted. So he gave me a ticket to go take a test. He gave me a test thaf s supposed to last thirty minutes, and he said, "Well take this test, I'm going to have a cup of coffee and I'll come back". Well in ten minutes I had the test finished and he didn't come back for an hour. Then he looked at the test and said "Oh yes, we can send you to San Pedro". There was a base in Los Angeles, so there we took a week, a whole days test. At the end of the test, they lined us up and said "Ok", they start calling names and they said, lef s say "Smith, to my right, Roxdale to my left" and when they came to my name they said "Canga, behind me". And at the end of the count, there were only three of us behind him. I did not know what was happening, so he said "Ok...the ones to my right, anybody have any ROTC or any experience marching?" and one guy raised his hand and he said "Ok, take him to the barracks over there, the rest [go] back home because you didn't pass the test". [Officer] "The three of you come in" and they took us to the officer in charge, and he was a captain, and he said "You had the highest grades, the three of you and you all had high school, so you all can select any school that you want to go into the air...into the military". So I selected the mechanic school in the air force, and he said,"Ok as soon as you finish your basic, you will be going there". After fourteen weeks or sixteen weeks, I don't remember how many weeks of ah, training at the San Antonio Lackland Air Force Base. I was sent to Keesler in Biloxi Mississippi, Keesler field where in six months they taught me mechanics and uh, air craft mechanics. From there they asked me if I wanted to be a, interpreter, but teach the Panamanians because since I spoke Spanish they wanted me to go to Panama. But my English wasn't up to par yet, so I refused so they sent me to Germany. The airlift had just begun, so we got to Germany and once we were in Germany they assigned me to the uh...ril find it and I'll give you the uh...to uh...to the...l think it was in 19...when...uh...stop it a second while I look for the date...it was squadron sixty air base group an APO 633, as I told you before when you go overseas they give you an APO. Once the air lift was finished, I was assigned to Wiesbaden Air Force Base. And uh, after my tour of duty overseas I returned and they sent me to uh, Houston Texas. There when I was in Houston uh, there was the um...the sixtieth...the air base group. When I was in Houston there I applied for flight engineer. I passed the test and they sent me [to] Chanute Air Force Base where I completed a six month course in flight engineer. From there I went to flight training at uh, Randolph Air Force Base where they assigned me to a flight crew. Of uh eleven crew members, that was the number that flew the B29. From ...once we finished the uh, training on the flying training, we were assigned to Okinawa, that was 1953, about December 1953 I believe. We stayed there for six months and a uh, disbanded the squadron. We flew back to Arizona where we left the air planes and as a flight engineer I was assigned to a KC97 group they had just opened a Whiteman Air Force Base, and they assigned us to Whiteman Air Force Base and it C3^ was a 19611 believe. And, from there... I uh, I stayed until 1968 at Whiteman Air Force Base. But never have {...there was always uh...every year we had a TDY a temporary duty to some other part of the world. Where the first one was at Thule Air Force Base in the North Pole, after that I went to Torrejon in Spain, I went to City Eslamain [sic] in Africa, I went to Lacknheath in England. Just ah, all the time I was in KC97,1 went different parts of the world for three months.
Three months at a time or...? Three months a year?
Three months a year, um...but they were at a time, I mean there was a...
Like it was three months all together and then for that year and that was it, and then the following year...
Maybe that was it because when Kaddafi got huffy we end up on his door steps and uh, just in case he got to anything he just come back. But when uh, Castro during the uh. Bay of Pig invasion we were in alert, and uh although we were at our base we cannot leave the base. We had to stay 24 hours a day at the base ready to go. We uh, and during the year, every time that we were in our base we were on alert a week at a time. We lived in a complex that was underground and the airplanes were almost by the door. And when the uh, claksen or the sound, the alert sounded, we had to run out and start the airplanes. And as soon as we started the airplanes we uh were, of course we were in radio communication at all times, but when we started the airplanes they would tell us if it was a "A"," B", or "C" type of alert. It was, if it was I believe it was a "C" we just shut down the engines went back, to the hell hole that we used to call it. And uh. If it was a B, they didn't tell you what it was but uh, you started and then we act if it was "C they told you to shut down the engines go back. It was "B" we taxi out to the end of the run way and waited there until they gave us the uh, the code, and then it was a "B" code we taxi back and refuel the airplane. And then if it was "C" we took off.
If it was an "A"?
Oh "A", yeah whichever it was I don't remember. It was "A", yeah "A" we took off and then when we were in the air they either give you a code or they told you to open your uh, your secret papers where were you going. Because you were going someplace and every time it was someplace different. We had uh, secret codes that uh, you open once you were in the air. Then [once] you knew where you were going, we had to prepare for all these places that we may go. The pilot, co-pilot and the uh, flight engineer, we study the uh, routes. We went through the routes and the different routes altitudes. And uh, the flight engineer would uh, compute the fuel necessary to get there. And if there was going to be refueling, from another bomber, we would compute how much weight we could carry. The aircraft was uh, rated at 120 to 121 thousand pounds, empty, no crew just the oil and the engines. And the when they flew for the airlines the maximum they could carry was 155 thousand pounds. But when we flew, we went to the red line; there was 178 thousand pounds, and uh, all that was from 121 to 175. If you take out the uh, the crew maybe ah, three to five people a thousand pounds that uh, the rest was all ChO fuel in the airplane. And another thing we had to do is if a bomber needed [fuel], we had to empty our own tanks and give it to them. Because we were, the tanker was uh, just uh, expendable.
So if the bomber needed fuel to get to their destination you guys would give some of your fuel back to the bombers?
We give them...we had...we carry two types of fuel, we carry the JP4 which is nothing more than kerosene, and we carry, for our own engines, a aircraft aviation fuel. But this was 145 uh...what they called it...octane. The one you carry and burn in your car is a 75 octane so then the C47 or the gooney bird, they burn 120 octane.
Almost double.
The B29 burn 130 octane, we were burning 145 octane which is, and we can tell the difference of the octane by the color of the fuel. I am explaining this because I had an incident that uh, in regards to the fuel, well we um we got back to the base. If it was a, if they told us an "A" we landed, and they tap the fuel back up and then we went back into alert. And when the alert was finished we went home and that was our life for uh, from 1961 to 1968. After, in 1968 I uh, switched careers and I went to a maintenance analysis technician. Which uh, entail us to uh, every mechanic every uh, body that does anything in the air force has to fill out paperwork and that is converted into uh, computer printouts. And the uh, maintenance analysis technician have to analyze that and to see which chaps are working at full [time] or which ones are slacking, to a quality control.
To see who is actually working and who isn't?
Who is producing and who is not, or if a shop needs more personnel or they have too many people. But they all, was part of SAC, Strategic Air Command, and you have to do that. Now in '68,1 went to Japan and a, with a new SAC and in 70 I retired.
Very interesting um...did you have any other family members that were in the military?
Yes, my brother George was uh...once they find out what uh, the life that the military in the [U.S.]...here lived versus the Peruvian, both of my brother came in and they both joined the military. Uh, George went to Japan, but uh, he just stayed uh, one uh...one enlistment. And Ralph, he got into the army and he did not like that, so he just stayed there one...
Is it called one term? Or one...
Enlistment, yeah.
And why did you choose the air force?
Because I grew up in the air force... r^3
From your father's experiences?
Yeah, by the way both my father and my brother George have died in aircraft crashes, flying.
Not in the military or...after the military?
No, my father was in the Peruvian military.
When he died?
Yes, he was making a flight between Rome and Lima. Proving that it could be, an air service could be set up between uh Europe and South America.
Um, how was the training for you, I know you were talking about where you were stationed and but was the training camp very difficult or was it more school instead of more physical activity?
Well, the training in the air force depending, depending on what career you selected. If you are... because the air force [has other schools] besides mechanics; and uh, clerks and all that has air police and it has uh, attack forces and it has all the elements of what any military service, but for a mechanic the basic training is the same as for anybody. The army or...you learn to march, you learn your right from your left, you learn to make your bed, you make, you learn the history of the air force you uh, learn uh general knowledge to keep you abreast of what is happening in the world and the air force and your chain of command and all that. After you finish you go to a, school of uh, that you; in my case I had selected the school that I wanted mechanics, but the other ones are just uh, if they need clerks they send them to uh, typewriter school. If they need radio operators they send them to uh, radio operator school. Whatever they happen to need at the time...
But you got to choose.
Yeah, I got to choose because I was offered at the beginning...
High grades...
Exactly.
High test grades.
Yeah, and uh well after, well the mechanic school that was the only one I know, it was an excellent school. They taught you from how to use wrenches to how to overhaul a engine, propellers, and the general airplane, the whole thing so you could go into any part of the airplane and work it. Then when I went to the flight engineer school, there [it] was also very precise, very intense. That was more intense because it was assumed that you were already a top of the line mechanic. You already were a, an expert mechanic so you had to learn how to a work, troubleshoot under the strenuous circumstances. a'3
More stress
More stress, right.
Ok, um, I know you mentioned that you served in the Berlin Airlift and urn, in some of the Korean War but tell me a little bit about what your duties were for the Berlin Airlift?
Well, in the Berlin Airlift I was Just a corporal, two little stripes, and uh I was assigned to work on a number one engine on a C54. They put at my disposal two German mechanics, they were a high level mechanics and they were starving so they uh they worked and I learned a lot from those guys. They uh, showed me so I worked as a mechanic for uh all the period I was in Germany. Then when the airlift finished they transferred my [me to] from Celle that was on the English zone.
Where?
Celled, uh C E L L E, I believe it was the name and uh, to Wiesbaden, and from uh, then \ finished my tour of duty in Wiesbaden and I was sent to uh...the air base there and uh Houston. It was a...l know the name of it, I've landed so many times there and I can't remember right now...let me see...
In Houston?
In Houston Texas yeah, cause a...Ellington Air Force Base.
Ellington.
Ellington, right. I was stationed at 3606 Main Squadron in Ellington Air Force Base in Houston Texas from 1952 to uh...
December?
195...from February 1952 to uh...
December.
December I went to Illinois, right. So I didn't stay there too long. I applied and uh I got the, I got the job.
Good for you!
Where were we?
From Houston... e^;
Ok, from uh, in Houston I was just a, I was a crew chief in a C47, cause while I was there they, there was a, there was an airplane, a conveyer airplane, I can't remember the name of...l remember the number but uh it was so short a period I can't even remember the...if I see it, I know it but a...l just a learned a few of the idiosyncrasies of that...working the airplane. And then in a, by December I was transferred to a Chanute Air Force Base where we uh...where I attended the flight engineer school. That were they show you the cruise control and the fuel management, and you get to know all of the systems of a airplane. You already know them because you're a mechanic but now you get involved in landing gears and a, electrical systems and into a hydraulics, neu draulics, all that you get a further training on a mechanics. From there, after we graduated from there, I was sent to uh Randolph Air Force Base.
San Antonio?
San Antonio, and I was assigned a flight crew of 12 people, um 11 people and uh we trained together there but a, all the training there was just flying the B29. You already supposedly knew all the, all the a, parts of the 29...
The in's and out's...
Engineer parts and there you learned to fly, to fly the 29. From there at the end of our training we were shipped to Okinawa to the, a...to the 19* wing in Okinawa and there from '53 to '54. And in '54 I returned from Okinawa. You wanted to know what my duties were in Okinawa, primarily in Okinawa we had a bomb wing that we uh, like any other squadron you had to fly at least 4 hours to get your flight papers. But uh, that a, we flew maybe 2-3 times a week and a flights duration would be from 6-12 hours and uh the uh, we had a different types of duties we a, but we always flew with fully loaded with a all the machine guns armed the bombs fully loaded. Then we would go over to Korea and sometimes we went around to the boundary of the sea and the boundary of China. We had a, ECM operator which that was a secret, I never knew much about it. All I knew was that he would pick up the signals that the Chinese were sending to [using], and the radars to pick us up. There was an incident, a couple of incidents when I was flying in that place this one time we were coming back from one of our missions, one of the a gunners called a, "Bandit at nine o'clock"...you know what bandit means?
No.
Enemy, and a you know what a the six o'clock [is]...[when]you have to tell you where they, the airplane is located you use the clock.
For the position?
For the position, so if it comes from at three o'clock...
It's on your right side...
If s on your right side... r?3
So six o'clock was right behind you...
Six o'clock is dangerous and a, at twelve o'clock too. Sometimes nine o'clock if they, and a, any places any is dangerous but a, but he called it at three o'clock so we all look over there; and there he was flying, a MIG. But he never give us the nose, he flew in at a wing to wing formation with us because all the a gunners, we had a, fifteen guns, we had a, 1, 2,3,4,5 gunners and they're all, in a B29 you can aim and have them fn your sights but, you do not move the guns, and that's important because if you move your guns they get a nervous...
Just a little jumpy...
So uh, all the gunners had the MIG in their sights but a just...just flip a switch and all guns will meet over there but he...the MIG had a the guns on the nose...
To the front.
To the front, but he came in and he flew wing to wing so he never gave us the front. So he went in...he looked at us, we looked at him. We could tell it was a Chinese pilot or a, oriental pilot but I don't know if it was Chinese or...and then he peel off and never gave us the nose.
But it was tense for a little bit...?
Oh, well any time you have a fighter next to you and you're in enemy territory, if s jumpy. But uh, since he did not give us the nose we relaxed and uh we got back home. Ok. That was one of the a...
Of your incidents...
Incidents that we had while we were in at Okinawa, well flying over Korea.
Did you ever see any casualties or anything during your missions...you really weren't in the front lines...?
No because the a...the seize fire had been started and they were in the process of changing...exchanging a ... they were talking about the...returning the POW's and all that but nevertheless there was not...
Your guard wasn't down...
No, we cannot, because it was just a temporary seize fire. Another time I as flying and a, I was a going over to around the Inchon area and on the way over one of the engines blew, it went bad, so we had to feather...you know what feather means?
When the propellers are turning, they are turning in such a way that they take a bite of the air. When the engine is no longer working the propeller goes...a...in a straight line, a streamline and its called feather because it doesn't, it doesn't present a...
Friction?
Not friction but a...obje...it doesn't a...present a blockage, because if you have a propeller turning it's like having a wall, so uh so we feather the engine and the nearest place to land was a...Fukuoka Japan. So we a, called headquarters and a, told them what was a, and they gave us a permission to land in Fukuoka. We landed in Fukuoka, but we all had nothing back...flying ...clothing and with flying clothes you cannot go anywhere except inside of the base, so uh, we had the airplane park and because it had ammunition the guns were hot and some soldiers started looking in there and one wanted to look inside the a, inside of the a barrel of the gun and we told him, that is a...thaf s armed, ready to fire and he understood that and he just left. But then the, while we were there too, we needed to get the bombs out, but they did not have the equipment to get the bombs out, so the armament command, the uh, the guys that handle all the ammunition said "Oh.-.no problem, we just drop them" and I said yep OK. We can, you can drop them but tell me when you're going to drop them so that I can be as far away from this place as possible. So they came in and they put big tires at the bottom of the Bombay and the floor and then they just drop them over the tires but since they were not a...the bombs have a little propeller in front that, inside in there you have a ah, precaution gun, so you take that out and it's just like a having a dud, you know because there is nothing that is going to have it exploded, they just drop it over the a tires and a put them away and we waited until the airplane came in with the engine. We changed engines and we took off and went back home. Then another time we were flying over...um...the perimeter that's around China and we lost an engine and uh we had no bombs that time so we landed at Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines and we requested a new engine that took like 15 days to bring in a new engine so we had a ball.
Were you able to leave the base there?
Oh yeah, because we had a...
Extra clothes?
Yeah, we found out at the previous bases, we could go to the a, dry cleaners or the a..., and rent clothes.
Oh wow!
Because those guys to make a buck you know...if you're going to be...you need it for a week they just tell them "Well, if s not ready yef ' and then they have a bunch of clothes that haven't been picked up or a, probably the guys a, shipped out and they never picked up their clothing so they have a bunch of clothes all the time. DO
So you had fun at the Philippines?
So we had...we went to town in the Philippines...that was one of the most memorable times, really nice place to be. While we were there, there was an incident that we overheard. A colonel came in with his family; he was going to the United States. On board there were two people, two a...l think one was a lower rank corporal or sergeant, that they were going to...home because of a death in the family. And that is a class "A" and uh, the transportation, so the colonel come in and he said [that] they need, they had...he need two, three...two more room, spaces and well...[we had to] get them out. [Pilot] "Sir, they are a class "A''...[Colonel] "get them out". So they, they colonel, using his rank got the two guys out of the flight. Well, one of the sergeants that was taken out, went to see Colonel Davis a...the first black general in the air force. He was known for being very tough, so he went over and said...he saw the general and told him this is what happened. So the general immediately scrambled fighters and they went after the American airplane were the family was, with the order to the pilot, that to them, the pilot of the transport, to return to the base or be shot down. Of course the pilot had a General here saying, "NO, NO don't return!" And the fighters got some traces in front of the a...
The transport airplane?
To tell them that they were ready to shoot them down. And uh, so the pilot said "Sir, in this airplane I am the commander", like in a ship the captain is the boss,[Pilot] "in this airplane I am the commander, I have orders to return, I'm returning". So they got back, what happened to that colonel? I don't know.
Oh my God!
But the, I know of the incident because I was talking to the a...pi!ot.
Other people there?
Yeah, it was rough.
Wow! How did you stay in touch with your friends and family back in the United States?
When I was in a...very hard it was to get in touch then, because at that time we did not have all this uh, television and all that...
Internet, email...
Yeah, when i was in Thule, my first son was born while I as over there, so I needed to talk to my wife, so they a...there was a guy that had a hand radio operator on base and he put her on. I think that's why I got to talk to her for about ten minutes but the rest of the time uh, there was no way to use radios or anything, I couldn't uh...first of all we were isolated, we don't...nobody is supposed to know where we were, and uh, so my wife, every time I went some place, I said "Well, I'll see you when I return". And I always had next to the door, I had all my clothing and everything I just picked that up and put it in the C\ o car and go whenever they called me. They set up a alert system where the wives were involved. If we needed to be in a base, it was an alert, the wife that was number one on the pyramid would call two wives, they, two wives would call two other wives and then that way it got the word to the..
Faster?
Faster to everybody, and the wives just their husbands, go. But they never knew where we were going. All my sons were bom either where I was flying or there was some kind of alert. So, one of them was born in the Bay of Pig deal and uh, my wife cannot even get a hold of me at the base, to tell me that there was a...going to be a...that she was in labor.
Where were you when the war ended, the Korean War?
Well I don't know if it ended yet?
I saw on the internet that North Korea launched some type of a rocket or something, a missile. It landed in the Pacific Ocean across from Japan...
Yeah, I don't, i think that there was a seize fire but was never a, end of the war per say. I mean uh, Koreans both North and South Korea might have signed a uh, peace agreement or something but uh, I don't...l don't think that the...
It's truly over?
That uh, they ever signed. Because, see we were there not as a war, we were a uh, what did they say we were...a...peace keeping, no...we were a...peace keeping force or something like that. That we were never a...a...there was a...it was not called a war anyhow. It was a war but it was a police action. That is what it was. Thaf s what they called it, so how do you make peace on a police action? So, as far as I know there was never a, there was a seize fire, but not a not a declaration that the war had ended.
Um, when you retired was it hard to adjust to civilian life?
Um, no I uh, I was uh...when I retired I was going to school at St. Mary's University to get my masters in a, economics. And I asked for a, time off to finish the school. And, as soon as I got off the uh, the school there was people that were looking for...people to hire. I was offered several uh, positions.
So it wasn't difficult at all?
No, because I was uh, in college.
You were studying...
I was already getting my masters degree. oo
Did you keep contact with any of your old uh, veteran solider friends?
Uh, yes...to one of my aircraft commanders, who recently died. Uh, most of them are dead but uh, when you are in a combat crew, or in a re-fueling crew, in a flight crew, you know everybody, but you don't "chummy" with everybody. You just have your group because you uh, you fly together, you get an alert together; you are a small five member crew up to an eleven member crew. I met my uh, radar operator uh, one day at a, San Antonio, Lackland air base and uh, a lieutenant, a lieutenant, he was a major at the time when I, so I...I saw him, a salute him. He's a, and I call him Lieutenant Willfong, and then I look and he...l'm sorry Sir, Major Willfong because he had a, been you know time pass and had
What was his name? Major What?
Willfong.
Willfong, Ok and um...
It was not Chinese, I mean, he was no uh...he was more...l think the name is more from a...Northern Europe...l don't know how...how to uh...how he wrote it...l wrote it several times over time but uh...l cannot remember the uh...
From your military service, was there any life lesson that you learned from there, like, I mean apart from the discipline and the respect for your commanders?
Well, uh...the unity of a group...that uh, you learn when you are in a flight crew, you depend on each other, I mean uh, if one guy doesn't do his job you know everybody is going to suffer. And if it was up to me, to discipline the uh, the uh, enlisted men because I was the ranking enlisted man in the crew. There was a...a commander, the aircraft commander, you know the pilot; he was in charge of the whole crew. Then uh, one thing that I remember uh, it will always stuck with me, is that uh, when you a, pay somebody to do something, if you pay them fifty cents, at that time it was a wayla lot]. Fifty cents you're going to get twenty five cents worth of work. If you pay him a dollar you are going to get a dollars worth of work. If you pay him five dollars you are going to get ten or fifteen dollars worth of work, so it uh, how you reward the individual. Of course that doesn't always work...like this uh, well.-.never mind, these executives getting millions...
Oh, what going on right now with the economy?
Yeah.
Yes, well thank you Mr. Canga for sharing your experiences with me and uh, I hope to get in touch with you soon.
Sure, you have been to my office, you have my number. Ok.