Jerome "Jerry" Perkel grew up on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River. Like many boys coming of age during the Depression, he followed the accomplishments of Roscoe Turner and other stars of the Golden Age of Flight. He dreamed of becoming an aviator, as noted in his junior high school signature book.

Limited means and the need to help support his family prevented Jerry from finishing high school or pursing his dream of flying. With the attack on Pearl Harbor he heeded the call to service and enlisted in the Army Air Corps. After successfully completing a battery of tests Jerry was told that he qualified for officer candidate school and flight training. As he went through the training he qualified as a Flight Navigator and soon found himself flying combat missions. He saw action in Germany, North Africa, Italy and the shores of Normandy on D-Day. By the time he was rotated back to the United States, he had flown over 40 combat missions in B-17's.

Back in the States Jerry was assigned to be a navigator instructor at Selman Field outside of Monroe, Louisiana where he met his future wife, Theodora "Dodie" Hart. While teaching navigation, he earned his private pilot's license. With that license in hand he courted Dodie by flying her from Monroe to Houston for coffee or by just "boring holes" in the sky as he was fond of saying. They were married on December 7, 1944.

Jerry maintained his military reserve status after the war and was reactivated in early 1950's. He remained on active duty in the newly formed United States Air Force serving as a navigator on KB 29's and B-36's including the B 36 now on display at the Air Force Museum at Wright Patterson AFB. When Jerry's Air Force flying days ended because of health reasons he went to guided missile training school and was assigned to a Thor missile base in England. He ended his military career as a personnel officer serving in Takhli, Thailand during the Viet Nam conflict and finally, back in the States at Maguire AFB. He retired from the United States Air Force in 1967 as a Lieutenant Colonel.

During this long military career he and Dodie raised three children and lived in California, Texas, Georgia, Puerto Rico, South Dakota, England and New Jersey. While her husband was flying for Strategic Air Command or serving his country in other ways, Dodie maintained the home front. Life in the Perkel family, as in other military families, was sometimes difficult and involved sacrifices from all. But no one sacrificed more than the wives. Dodie and her contemporaries endured long absences, raised children on limited means while their husbands flew missions that put them in harm's way; the wives managed all of the tasks of family life alone.

Jerry's never lost his love of flying and, in his retirement at the age of sixty, he reactivated his private pilot's license and took to the skies again. He became active in the Aero Club at Maguire AFB, where he last served on active duty. At this point in his life he flew for the sheer joy of being in the air again, "boring holes" in the sky and "shooting landings". Airplanes, the Air Force and flying remained an important part of his life almost to the end.

Our father, Lt. Colonel Jerome Perkel, died on December 25, 2001 and was buried at Arlington Cemetery in the shadow of the Pentagon, then still under repair following the September 11th attack. Words cannot describe the feelings when the leader of the Honor Guard presented our mother with the flag of the United States and the words... "From a grateful nation". Sadly, two months later we returned to Arlington Cemetery to bury our mother alongside our father, her partner of 57 years.

Steven, Dale and Barry Perkel dedicate this place on the Wall of Honor to both our parents, Jerry and Dodie Perkel, who gave us so much and to those families whose lives are intertwined with military service and a passion for flight.