This Weeks Thursday Throwback Hero of the week is:
Captain James “Wings” Burg
Vietnam Veteran
United States Air Force
Ozark / American Airlines (Ret)Service from 1967 – 1973
His Honorable Career Reads like this:”Wings”, as we at Reverence all know Jim, is a graduate of the University of North Dakota in 1967, He has a degree in aviation to which he utilized to join the United States Air Force and serve our great country.
His training began at Kelly AFB in Texas, with much of the flight training being done in a Lockheed T33 (T-Bird) for those who do not know what it is: (The Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star (or T-Bird) is a subsonic American jet trainer). From there he went to Duluth AFB for more seasoning as a young pilot. In November, He was re-assigned to Kadena AFB in Okinawa, after-witch he was sent to Osan AFB in Korea. While in Korea, the North Koreans attacked and captured the USS Pueblo. FYI (USS Pueblo AGER-2 is a Banner-class environmental research ship, attached to Navy intelligence as a spy ship, which was attacked and captured by North Korean forces on 23 January 1968, in what is known today as the “Pueblo incident” or alternatively, as the “Pueblo crisis”).Wings was then assigned back to Kadena AFB with his Mission of making daily bombing sorties to Vietnam. Mostly destroying bridges, but also in support of our ground troops.
After his 6 year Military Career, he decided to begin a career in Commercial Aviation by flying for Ozark air lines starting in 1973, then moving on to Trans World Airlines in 1978, then retiring from American Airlines in 2001. Wings retired at the age of 60, to which at that time was the mandatory retirement age in 2007.
In a funny add-on to his Veteran Spotlight, Wings was actually an extra in the movie Airport in 1969 with Dean Martin while home on leave.
Please read this in his own words: The movie Airport was filmed in Minneapolis in 1969 while I was home on leave and bored. They needed extras for the movie and I applied. I got to play (3) separate roles :1- Ticket agent, 2- Pilot, 3- Ground Crew The part where I was a ground, my back was to the camera the whole time. I actually received 15.00 dollars for 6 hours of work, with $3 every hour after. So then then there was a time when we finished filming and dean Martin locked his keys in his car, so I helped him to get in and as a thank you, he called my mom and wished her a happy day, as you can imagine, it did take me awhile to convince her it was really him who called.
It is with great Honor that we remember Captain James “Wings” Burg with this Veteran Spotlight, as we thank him for his continued Service, Duty, Dedication and Sacrifice to our grateful Nation,
Sir you are:
Never Forgotten – Forever Revered
NFFR
