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VP Brad Bainter & Pete Fulks
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Behind Enemy Lines

June 9, 2017

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* From the Spring 2017 issue of Western: The Magazine for Alumni of Western Illinois University

MACOMB, IL -- Sixty-five days, or 1,560 hours, or 93,600 minutes, or 5,616,000 seconds.

That's how long Pete Fulks '49, Western Illinois State College graduate, spent in enemy territory in Serbia, slowly making his way back to Allied territory, after his plane was shot down while on his 18th mission as a bomber escort. The farm boy from Littleton, IL, was a long way from home ... and a long way from Allied territory ... yet his perseverance, and the kindness of the Yugoslavian people, ensured his safe return to the States.

Before getting to Fulks' war stories, the longtime Rushville (IL) School District teacher and administrator's story begins with his birth in 1920, on a small farm outside of Littleton. Fulks spent the first 10 years of his life on the farm before his family moved to Littleton. As a young boy during the Depression, Fulks worked alongside his family to ensure the family survived.

"We were fortunate to live in an area where we had gardens, chickens and what we needed to survive. We all had to work. I worked in the garden, I mowed, I tended to the chickens, and we made it. We never went hungry," Fulks told Vice President for Advancement and Public Services Brad Bainter '79, MS '83 during a special segment of "The Purple Chair," a WIU University Television services production.

His first look at Western (which was called Western Illinois State Teachers College at the time) was when his school's baseball coach brought the team to Western to watch a game. But it was Fulks' mother who had the greatest influence on his college attendance.

"Had it not been for my mother, and my interest in sports, I wonder if I would have even gone to college. But my mother insisted I go. I give her all the credit. In those days, not many went to college," he recalled.

So in 1937, Fulks, who had played baseball and basketball in high school, joined the Leatherneck Basketball squad under the leadership of Ray Hanson and Wix Garner. While Fulks wasn't a regular player at the beginning of the season, he ended up playing as part of the conference championship team after filling in for Bill Hughes '39, who become ill. In February 2013, Fulks donated his 1939 college conference championship letterman's jacket to WIU Athletics for display in Western Hall. Fulks also played baseball at Western, and in 1940, he was one of 17 players selected for the College Baseball World Series.

"We were set to play in Japan, but due to the war, there were no Olympics that year, so we went to Havana, Cuba to play in the College World Series," Fulks said. "It was a double elimination series, and we lost to Venezuela."

Because of the World Series opportunity, Fulks didn't make it back to Western as he went on to play professional ball in Junction City, KS. It was there he signed up for the draft.

So in October 1941, before officially joining the Air Force, Fulks took a defense job at an aircraft factory in Missouri. In 1942, he enlisted after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

"I had worked in the factory in Missouri and saw a lot of Air Force planes. I was interested in airplanes, so I enlisted in the Air Force," Fulks explained. "I had pre-flight training in San Antonio, primary in Missouri, basic training in Coffeyville (KS), and on to Texas for advanced. I was disappointed when I got to Texas and got a twin engine. I wanted fighter planes all the way."

Following his training in Pampa, TX, Fulks was sent to Arlington, and then got the call to report to ORD (overseas replacement depot).

"I was trained on an AT-6, a 650-horsepower plane. I couldn't believe they'd send me overseas as an AT-6 pilot. That's just a trainer plane! I talked to a lot of people about this, but I never got any answers from my superiors," he laughed. "So there I was, overseas as an AT-6 pilot.

"I arrived in Italy on D-Day. We had heard very little about what was happening. Ordinarily pilots would have about 200 hours of training in planes that are going to fly in combat. None of us, the 12 of us who arrived in Italy, had that kind of time in planes. I had a couple hundred in the AT-6, but that was it. But we reported to the fire group, and they had to train us to fly fighter planes," Fulks recollected, still with a hint of disbelief in his voice.

From that point on, Fulks, who was stationed at the 15th Air Force Base in Italy, went from the AT-6 to the fabled P-51 Mustang which he said had a greater range and ability. He made countless round trips in what was called Operation Chattanooga. His squadron would leave Italy with the job of escorting bombers part way to Germany. Because the bombers had a much greater range than the P-51s, another squadron of fighters would take over at some point and Fulks' squadron would head back to Italy. Their task on the way back was to look for German supply trains and attack them. It was an "ordinary" job, he recalled. "Nothing unusual at all."

Until the ordinary became anything but ...

"We were on our way back from one trip and were told to fly 'on the deck' and hit anything that moved. We were assigned to hit a marshaling yard in Lapovo, Yugoslavia. Normally there'd be several engines and a whole lot of box cars in a yard. That day there was just one engine and a few box cars, so we hit the engine, and made three more passes," Fulks said. "On my fourth pass, I let down and got as low as I could, and I got hit. My air speed indicator exploded and my engine exploded at 400 miles per hour. I was fortunate to glide about one mile away from the yard and got through a hedgerow to land. I hit my head. I was fortunate that I didn't have any serious injuries."
Now deep in enemy territory in Serbia, Fulks had to figure out how he was going to make it back to his base. He recalled when he was briefed by his commanders being told that the Yugoslavian people in the rural areas were friendly to American soldiers.

"They were. They took care of me. I got to sleep in beds better than I slept in at the base. But it was definitely not easy, and I had my share of scary moments. I was on a bus, and we were attacked by soldiers with machine guns. Four people were killed on that bus. I got off and set a record for a mile run, I'm sure," Fulks said. "I had some close calls."

One of the closest, next to the machine gun attack, was when he was in a small town, hiding in a family's home. They looked out the window to see a German soldier approaching the home. Fulks hid in the attic and the enemy slept in the bed directly below where Fulks was hiding. A German officer then came into the house, and pushed out the "common" soldier and took over the bedroom.

"I was in that attic right above the German soldiers for six days. Once they were gone, I got out of the attic and got out of town," he said. "But on down the road, I was with another family, who happened to raise chickens, and one day a German officer showed up at the door. I hid under the bed while he bought eggs. At times, it was frightening, but I knew I'd make it."

The Russians then succeeded in pushing the Germans out of Yugoslavia, and a family that Fulks was traveling with turned him over to the Russians. He, along with eight German POWs, walked for miles under guard.

"The Russians took me back to a prison camp, and I finally convinced a guard to get someone who spoke English. I gave him my Air Force wristwatch. I was there four days, and someone finally believed that I was American and I was let go," Fulks explained.

Fulks flew back to Italy and was sent home. He ended up in California at the Hayward Air Force Base for four months, then onto Van Nuys and then finally at Edwards AF Base, where he was training to fly P-51s again. He was set to go to the Pacific next, but the atomic bomb changed that course and Fulks was sent home.

"I went back to Western, got my degree in 1949, and took a teaching job in Rushville, which was quite a change for me after my time in the Air Force," he chuckled. "I was the only male teacher in the school, and my fellow teachers helped me so much. But for some reason, I was made into an administrator. I was coaching and teaching PE, and then, in my second year there, I was made principal, but I still coached, taught PE and drove the school bus."

Fulks retired in 1980, and on his retirement day, it was declared Pete Fulks Day in Rushville. And his former Western teammates and coach, Ray "Rock" Hanson were on hand for the event (Hanson even spoke, Fulks recalled). The three-sport athlete (football, basketball and baseball) was inducted in the WIU Athletics Hall of Fame in 1988.

"I have been blessed. I had wonderful parents and a wonderful wife. I have a son that keeps me going," he said. "I've been granted a few extra years, and I have so much to be thankful for."

While Fulks retired more than 36 years ago, the 96-year-old still oversees a farm in Littleton "a little bit" ... "it keeps me moving," he said, and he plays some golf. A few years ago, he had a hole-in-one at a Leatherneck golf outing, and followed it with another at the Rushville golf course.

"I am proud and humbled to have had the opportunity to interview Pete. It was an honor talking to him about his life," Bainter said. "If I take away one thing from speaking with him it is, when I asked him if he ever thought he wouldn't make it back to Allied lines, he answered, 'I always had hope.' He's a true American hero in my eyes."

Posted By: Darcie Shinberger (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
Office of University Communications & Marketing