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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Sponsor

Honored by:
Ms. Edie Steider

Paul A. Fullerton born September 6, 1924 Died April 20, 2016

Paul Fullerton graduated from Cochranton High School and after working for the railroad for the summer after graduation, when he turned 18 joined the Army Air Corps on November 9, 1942, He was able to get into the Officers Training School at West Virginia University and attended the Army Air Corps Cadet Program. Paul graduated in April 15, 1944 and was stationed at Ft. Myers Florida. There was a lot of training done in different planes and one of the B17s used for training was the Memphis Belle which was in Ft. Myers Florida at that time. He always said “what a great thrill it was to fly such a famous airplane!” In mid October 1944 he was assigned to the 301 Bomb Group of the 15th Air Force and the 32nd squadron in Foggia Italy where he flew B17s. He spent 3 years in active duty. Paul got pneumonia and wasn’t able to fly for a while and at that time his crew was shot down and forced to land near Lake Balinton, Hungary. They were considered as MIA for a time but eventually returned to the squadron. In the meantime, he flew a total of 28 missions. His most vivid memories of individual missions was how thick the flak was and there were no “milk runs”. They were shot at on every mission but one and received flak damage on almost all of them.

When WW 11 was over Paul married Pearl Boyd and they farmed for a year or so, and Paul joined the reserves until 1956. Paul and Pearl and 1 daughter spent some time in Alaska and flying some bush planes. There was another daughter on the way so they came back to PA. Paul decided to go to the Border Patrol Academy and moved to California and then there were 5 daughters. Paul did some flying for the Border Patrol in Laredo Texas and retired from the US Border Patrol in 1977. Paul and Pearl retired to the original family farm and lived a very happy life there. His family is very proud of what he had done with his love of flying.