Lawrence V. Ploszay

Era: Korea

Military Branch: Air Force

Lawrence V. Ploszay served in the Korean War.

He served in the U.S. Air Force. He joined the Air Force on July 15, 1949, and was assigned to 18th Fighter Bomber Maintenance, 5th Air Force, Korea. He was discharged on April 15, 1953.

His rank was Airman 1st Class.

Mr. Ploszay was decorated with the Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation.

He was born in 1931 in Amery, Wisconsin, the son of Ludwig and Mary Ploszaj. He graduated from high school in 1949.

Source: Veterans’ Memorial Hall veteran history form; veteran’s account (below)

“I was 20 feet from an airplane that crashed on takeoff over a flight test area, where we had planes that were ready to go back to squadron. This incident wiped out four or five planes. The pilot also burned. The plane that crashed also had two 500-lb. bombs that broke off from under the wings. They were defused because they never went off. There were also rockets on this plane that went off and landed in the village. No one was hurt. During all this, .50 caliber shells were exploding while we were pushing the other aircraft, by hand, away from the burning aircraft.”