A service of Salisbury University and University of Maryland Eastern Shore
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

First Black Aviator and Brigadier General in Marine Corp Dies

USMC

BALTIMORE (AP) - Frank E. Petersen Jr., the first black aviator and brigadier general in the Marine Corps, has died.
    
Frank E. Petersen III said his father died Tuesday at his home in Stevensville, on Maryland's Kent Island, of complications from lung cancer. He was 83.
    
The New York Times reported that Petersen enlisted in the Navy in 1950, two years after President Truman desegregated the armed forces.
    
The next year, Petersen entered the Naval Aviation Cadet Program, according to The Washington Post.
    
According to a news release on the Marine Corps website, Petersen was commissioned in the corps in 1952. The Marines say Petersen served in the Korean War in 1953 and Vietnam in 1968. He received the Purple Heart for wounds suffered when he ejected over the demilitarized zone in Vietnam, The Post reported.

During his career, Petersen flew more than 350 combat missions and more than 4,000 hours.
   

Don Rush is the News Director at Delmarva Public Media. An award-winning journalist, Don reports major local issues of the day, from sea level rise, to urban development, to the changing demographics of Delmarva.