Badges of Courage

It all happened a long time ago.

On March 25, 1945, two young American pilots died flying a mission over Germany. Yet, before they died, they saved the lives of their crew and residents of a village by steering their crippled plane out to sea.

One of those on board was 20-year-old Chester Labus, a young man eager to fight in the war. The idea of his own mortality hadn’t quite sunk in until that day.

“We didn’t really think about death,” he says.

Fast-forward to 2001. Labus is now 75 and one of only two of that 10-man crew still alive. For the last six years, the Wyomissing, Pa., (pop. 7,950) resident has been on a mission of his own: to have the flyers—1st Lts. Frederic W. Tod and Warren N. Peterson—posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. With help from the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense, he’s also trying to locate the pilots’ next of kin so they can be presented with Silver Stars, the Army’s second-highest honor, awarded posthumously to the two pilots in 1997 through his efforts.

He’s been helped in his quest by U.S. Rep. Tim Holden, who has kept the Silver Stars in his Reading, Pa., office. So far, Labus and Holden have located three of Peterson’s nieces and nephews in California and still are searching for Tod’s survivors—a search made difficult by the lapse of time between their deaths and the awarding of the medals. And last summer, Labus attended the unveiling of a memorial to the two pilots in the Swedish village saved from destruction by the rerouting of the plane, a ceremony he was invited to by the villagers.

Holden and Labus also wrote to former President Bill Clinton and the secretary of the Army asking them to renew an earlier consideration for the Medals of Honor by a decorations board. That request has been forwarded to President George W. Bush.

Why now, more than a half century later? Maybe it’s advancing years and the realization that the “Greatest Generation” soon will be a memory. Maybe it’s to remind the world of the courage ordinary people are capable of in extraordinary circumstances.

On March 25, 1945, over northern Germany, Labus’ plane was attacked by a German fighter, while anti-aircraft batteries peppered them with flak. Huge holes appeared in the fuselage, and the plane plunged from 23,000 to 14,000 feet. Labus was wounded in the leg.

“At a time like that you just think of the moment: What can I do to save myself,” he says.

The crew tossed everything out of the plane to lighten it so they could make a run for neutral Sweden. “No one wanted to bail out over Germany. We’d heard so many stories about how they victimized crews,” Labus says.

When they made it across the Baltic Sea, with large pieces of the wings and tail gone, the pilot and co-pilot told the crew to bail out. Then, with everyone else safely out and the plane swiftly losing altitude, they swung out to sea to avoid crashing into a village below.

Peterson bailed out, too low for his parachute to open and died on the beach. Tod rode the Liberator into the waves and was killed. Peterson was 26 and single; Tod was 24, married, and the father of a newborn, his first child.

Labus went home and studied economics and business on the GI Bill at Temple University. In 1949, he married Anna Mae, a neighborhood girl. They had four children, and Labus enjoyed a long career at International Harvester.

Then, in 1995 during a reunion of veterans, the import of Tod’s and Peterson’s selfless actions struck him.

“Those two men gave their lives so the rest of the crew could marry and have children and grandchildren,” Labus says. “They also saved the lives of many civilians in that village.

“My war experience taught me that you shouldn’t waste time. You have to do what’s important in life. The Lord let me live so that I could do something important every day,” Labus says.

Now, Labus works toward having Tod and Peterson awarded the Medal of Honor—and has already been instrumental in their Silver Stars—even though it happened a long time ago.

Pamela Rohland is a frequent contributor to American Profile.

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