Korean War Air-Ground Glossary
Note: the Korean-War Air-Ground Glossary is under construction. New pages and images are being added daily. Find terms or phrases more easily by using the Google Search Engine above. Click on the Truckbusters From Dogpatch web site button.We welcome your suggestions for new slang or terms from the Korean War. Use the Contact link above to submit your term.
The Korean War Air Combat Glossary includes military terms, slang and definitions used by the Korean War veterans to whom Truckbusters From Dogpatch is dedicated.
To help establish additional military and air force history resources about the so-called "Forgotten War," the Glossary also includes biographical information, Korean War stories and photographs of many leaders of the 18th Fighter-Wing, Fifth Air Force and other senior military leaders whose decisions affected the missions and operations of the 18th Wing, 18th Fighter-Bomber Group and the Wing's associated squadrons. The Glossary includes many photographs and video of 18th Fighter-Bomber Wing Korean War air combat operations when they were flying the P-51 Mustang and the F-86 Sabrejet aircraft.
The list includes the names and where known, biographical information about those pilots and Airmen who lost their lives during 37 months of Korean War combat. The information is far from complete and will certainly be expanded through the efforts of the 18th Fighter Bomber Wing Association and others.
The names of Two Squadron, South African Air Force (SAAF) fliers are also included.
Information on American pilots is drawn from the files of the 18th Fighter-Bomber Wing Association, family records and recollections, and, where possible, from unit history reports. Sadly, even the unit histories were often incomplete or hasty in recording the status or circumstances of a pilot and his loss to the unit. When the unit history does mention the pilot, however briefly, that notation is included.
Excerpted from over 3,500 terms and definitions found in Truckbusters From Dogpatch
Letters: A-Al ♦ Am-Az ♦ B-Bi ♦ Bi-Bz ♦ C-Cl♦ Co-Cz ♦ D ♦ E ♦ F-Fl ♦ Fm-Fz ♦ G ♦ Ha-Hf ♦ Hg-Hz ♦ I ♦ J ♦ K ♦ L ♦ M-Me ♦ Mf-Mz ♦ N ♦ O ♦ Pa-Pi ♦ Pj-Pz ♦ Q ♦ Ra-Ri ♦ Rj-Rz ♦ Sa-Sh ♦ Si-Sz ♦ Ta-Tg ♦ Th-Tz ♦ U ♦ V ♦ W ♦ X ♦ Y ♦ Z
- Pa-Pi -
Paengnyong-do - A small island on Korea’s west coast south of Cho-do (See) on which a lightweight air search and control radar was operated.
Papasan - Slang term used to designate the male head of a Korean family. To be a “real” Papasan the titleholder had to wear a very high black stovepipe hat.
Paradrops - Slang for “parachute drops.” “The F-51s provided a fighter escort for the parachute drops—paradrops—at Sukchon and Sunchon, where the 187th Regimental Combat Team was being landed to cut off retreating North Korean troops.”
Partridge, Gen. Earle Everard - General Partridge was named commander of Fifth Air Force in Nagoya, Japan, in October 1948. When the Korean War began, Partridge took the Fifth Air Force to Korea where he commanded it until June 1951. When the 24th Infantry Division fought the North Koreans at Taejon in early July, Partridge sent the Fifth Air Force to furnish close support and throughout the critical days in July the Fifth Air Force and the Eighth Army set a brilliant example of air and ground cooperation at its best. On 4 March 1951, General Partridge visited K-10 to present decorations to members of the 18th Fighter Bomber Wing and to present the Wing with a scroll honoring it upon completion of 10,000 effective combat sorties as of 24 February. “This record was compiled by pilots assigned to the 18th Fighter-Bomber Group and 2 Squadron, South African Air Force. The ceremonies were very impressive in that, for the first time, an honor guard of officers and airmen were on hand.” On May 20th, General Stratemeyer, FEAF Commander, suffered a severe heart attack. He was succeeded by General Partridge, and MGen Edward J. Timberlake, Jr., USAF, took his place as Fifth Air Force Commander. Earle Everard Partridge was born in Wichendon, Mass., enlisted in the Army in July 1918 at Fort Slocum, N.Y., and went to France in August 1918 to join the 79th Division, participating in the St. Mihiel and Argonne operations prior to the Armistice. When the division returned in June 1919 he was honorably discharged. He reenlisted in 1920, attended West Point and took his Commission in the Air Service. In mid-July 1936 Partridge became a test pilot at Wright Field, flying many of the planes which were later used in World War II. During WWII his experience included Air War Planning and Joint Strategy. In 1943, he was sent overseas to Africa and eventually served as chief of staff of both the 12th Bomber Command and the Fifteenth Air Force, deputy commander of the Eighth Air Force and commanding general of the 3rd Bomb Division. Following an assignment at Headquarters Army Air Forces in January 1946 as assistant chief of staff for operations, he was ordered to Japan in October 1948 as commanding general of the Fifth Air Force, serving through the first year of the Korean War. Partridge was promoted to lieutenant general in April 1951. On his return to the United States in June Partridge commanded the newly formed Air Research and Development Command at Baltimore, Md., until June 1953 when he went to Headquarters U.S. Air Force as Deputy Chief of Operations for Operations. Going to Japan in April 1954 as a four-star general he became commander of the Far East Air Forces at Tokyo. Partridge returned home in July 1955 and was named commander in chief of the North American Air Defense Command and its Air Force Component, the Air Defense Command, at Ent Air Force Base, Colorado Springs. He retired from active duty July 31, 1959.
Pathfinder technique - A “pathfinder” flight involved a flight of two experienced pilots leaving a tactical airfield about ten minutes ahead of the main fighter-bomber strike, reconnoitering the assigned target area, and then marking the objective for the fighter-bombers by making the first attack.
1st Lt. George V. Patton with his friend, 1st Lt. Wilfred "Budd" Stapley.
Patton, 1st Lt. George Vernon - 67th Squadron pilot KIA on 13 June 1952. “I was in Japan awaiting transportation home,” 1st Lt. Wilfred “Budd” Stapley recalled, “when I got word that George had been shot down on his last scheduled mission. It was during a mission to Ping Pong [Pyongyang, NK] and his wingman said a 90-mm shell hit his aircraft in the cockpit. The aircraft fell in pieces.” Patton, the namesake and nephew of General George Patton, was also an Army brat. His father, Stapley recalled, was a career army officer. The young Patton had flown a combat tour during WWII as a tail gunner on a B-17. While they were roommates at Craig AFB, Alabama during Advanced Single Engine flight training, Stapley recalled Patton “as the most dedicated person to doing the best job possible that I ever saw. The Air Force lost a future General when it lost George Patton.” On 27 January 1952, Patton had been hit by ground fire while over his target and forced to bail out. He was picked up and returned to K-46 with minor injuries, the unit history reported dryly. “George had beaten the odds once before in Korea,” Stapley remembered. George Patton was on a close air support mission when he was hit. Wrestling the badly damaged Mustang for control and trying to gain enough altitude to bail out, Patton also tried to get “disconnected” enough to bail out—but he was “hung up” on his equipment, straps, cables and harness. As he’s fighting to keep the plane in the air and to get himself clear enough to bail out, the plane is heading south—closer to the no-man’s land between the UN and Communist forces. Finally, when he was clear, he bailed out—and landed literally between the lines—in a mine field. Friendly troops were trying to tell him he was in a mine field, but he didn’t hear or understand the warnings. “Stay down. Stay down,” they yelled, “we’ll come out and get you.” Caught in the middle of a combat zone, Patton was in no frame of mind to sit there and wait to be rescued. After all, he was so close to friendly forces that he could see and hear them—almost. All he had to do to be rescued was get over to them…as fast as he could run. And run, he did, right through a mine field that he was later told was designed to ensure no person on foot could get through—alive. “You are the luckiest guy…alive,” they told him when he reached friendly troops south of the “bomb line.” To calm his nerves, they offered him a drink…and then another. By the time he had been picked up by a helicopter and returned to K-46, his “nerves” were much better. “George said after he found that out, it took about a pint of Kentucky’s finest to settle his nerves,” Stapley remembered.
PB4Y - Consolidated “Privateer”: four-engine patrol plane (USA)
PBM - Martin “Mariner”: twin-engine flying boat (USA)
PDC - Pre-Departure Clearance
Perego, Col. Frank S. - Commander, 18th Fighter-Bomber Wing, 1 January 1953-15 June 1953, succeeding Col. William H. Clark. Morale that had taken a steep dive in late August 1952, “shot up considerably when the unpopular uniform regulations imposed upon the squadron were abrogated when Col. Perego assumed command of the Wing. The pilots and other members of the squadron immediately donned their weird assortment of headgear which are so important to their individuality,” the 12th reported.
PERF - Performance
Pers - Personnel
Pickle - To push the bomb release--“pickle button”--on the B-8 grip in the F-86 aircraft.
PIF - See Pilot Information Files.
Piggy-back F-51 - A “big morale booster,” the 39th FIS reported in June 1951, “in the maintenance section was the squadron’s ‘piggy-back’ F-51 [a Mustang with the 85-gallon fuselage tank removed to allow a second passenger behind the pilot]. Many of the airmen had the opportunity to ride in this “T-51” and received the thrill of their lives when the pilot put the plane through a few aerobatics.” 28 One Journalist, S/Sgt William J. “Sandy” Colson was in the Pig during a combat mission when the aircraft was being flown by Lt. Col. Ira Wintermute, 18th Group Commander at the time. Also, simply “the Pig.”
PILEDRIVER - Korean War (1951) counterattack operation
Pilot Information Files - Pilot Information Files were set up in every squadron ready room. To augment these files and to disseminate information to all pilots, 18th FB Group Operations established a writing of “PIF” Memos which call items of flying safety, pilot techniques, and operational conditions to the pilot’s attention in brief and concise form.”
Pincer and envelopment technique - Coordinated “trains” of 60-80 MIG’s that crossed the Yalu at altitudes above 35,000 feet. A “west coast train” and the “central train” dropped off flights or small sections that engaged UN Sabre patrols. However, the main bodies continued south to converge over Pyongyang where they would begin a return trip to the Yalu. While en route, a portion of the formation would drop down to 15,000 feet to attack UN fighter-bombers, homeward bound Sabres, or other straggler aircraft.
Ping pong - Pilot slang for Pyongyang, capitol of North Korea.
PINK - Korean War (December 1950) emergency shipment of logistical support from the Continental United States to build up the Far East Command.
PIR - Periodic Intelligence Report
Piss Call Charlie - A lone North Korean bomber “who would fly over the base [K-9, K-16 or K-46] at about the same time each night, just before midnight, and drop a bomb somewhere on or near the airfield.”