War hero in Chinook recognized for years of service to country, community

On Nov. 21, 98-year-old Frank Pehrson Sr. of Chinook was presented a plaque and a photo from President Donald Trump recognizing and honoring Pehrson's 61 missions in combat as a top turret gunner and a flight engineer during World War II.

"Who knows where we would be today without the greatest generation of military men and women in the world," Bob Brandon said in a letter given to The Havre Daily News. "Frank is one that is still alive today. Let's salute Frank and those that have passed. God bless them all."

Throughout his years Pehrson has received numerous recognitions, awards and medals for his time in service and the various other community organizations he has been a part of.

Pehrson was presented the plaque and photo from the president during a North Central Montana Shrine Club supper by Shrine Club member Kelly Brandon.

Pehrson said in an interview he was unaware of the plaque and photo until it was presented to him at the dinner.

Pehrson's youth

Pehrson was born in 1920 in Wenatchee, Washington, and was one of four children, with one older brother and two younger sisters. Pehrson said his family was doing well until The Great Depression when "if you wanted to eat you had to work." And people often had to travel to work.

During The Great Depression banks were closing, farmers were selling off their land and Pehrson, at the age of 14, and his father headed off to work on the Fort Peck Dam. It took them five days to drive from his home in North Dakota to the dam, he added.

Construction was in full force, he said, but a shortage in housing meant some people had no other choice but to sleep in their tents or cars. Pehrson's father saw this and arranged a loan with the federal government to construct a 10-room hotel to house the workers, which filled up with tenants before the building was finished.

Pehrson said by Thanksgiving 1934, the hotel was finished, furnished and fully operational. He added that his mother and the rest of his family were still in North Dakota running the family hardware store. Pehrson soon went back to North Dakota and worked selling milk and running a paper route.

In 1935 Pehrson came to Glasgow, to help run the hotel with his mother, who was running it at the time.

He and a friend also worked a job at the Fort Peck mess hall and cleaned the barracks. He added that to get the job they had to lie on the application, claiming to be 19 when they were only 16 at the time. October of that year, he quit that job to enroll in his senior classes. He added that from selling milk and his paper route and his job at Fort Peck he had saved enough money to enroll and buy his senior clothes. He graduated high school.

After that he worked a variety of jobs across the country, including working as a big crane operator in Washington, D.C. It was in Washington where Pehrson met his future wife, Jane Stewart, for the first time.

During this time, Pehrson said, the Glasgow Draft Board was looking for him to send him into the war, but his employer at the time liked his work and didn't want to see him go.

"They delayed it for a bit," Pehrson said, "but I eventually came back to Glasgow."

World War II

Pehrson said he remembers Pearl Harbor, adding that it was shocking to him when he heard the news.

He joined the United States Army Air Forces in 1941 at the age of 21. He said he was a top turret gunner as well as a flight engineer, flying most of his missions in a B-25 bomber.

He said he was assigned to Squad 489, which had already flown in North Africa before he joined them in Italy. He said one of his main duties was, after the aircraft was hit, to put out the fires.

"I wasn't use to getting shot at," Pehrson said.

Pehrson was originally scheduled for 50 missions but ended up serving 61 while in service.

On his first mission, he said, the engine of his aircraft caught fire while 100 feet in the air. Pehrson said he and the crew worked to feather the engine, and the pilot was able to land safely on a single engine.

He said his time in the service was tough, with living conditions lacking many of the amenities that are taken for granted in modern times.

During his time in the service, he said, he didn't have very much contact with the outside world other than through letters, which, Pehrson said, kept him in contact with friends from North Dakota, Montana and other places. But he also wrote often to Stewart.

His brother was also serving in Europe and died in combat.

Pehrson left as a Staff Sergeant, coming back to the U.S. from Europe in 1944. He then traveled to California to be with Stewart.

Shortly after he finished his last mission, Pehrson said, his crew was shot down by ground fire 40 days before the Free France Forces pushed back enemy lines. He added that one man died, the first death in his squad since the time he had first joined them.

"The other men bailed out in time," Pehrson said, adding that the surviving men were hidden by the Free France Forces for a month before returning to camp.

Coming home

In 1945, Pehrson and Stewart got married in Oklahoma. That same year, he said, they were blessed with their first child John Pehrson. After a few years, Frank Pehrson Jr. was born.

Pehrson said that after the wedding he worked a few different jobs in California before he received word from Glasgow that his dad was ill.

He said he and his family sat in the airport all night waiting for a plane to arrive to take them to Great Falls. It took them four days to travel from San Francisco to Great Falls and a few additional days to reach Chinook. Pehrson said they arrived a day after his father died.

He made arrangements for his father's burial and traveled with his two sisters on a train to bury his father in Minnesota.

After he returned to Montana, he said, his family ran the hotel for a time before he began building Pehrson's Service in Chinook.

He added that construction of the building was completed on Christmas of 1950.

Pehrson's Service originally had gas tanks, he said, and during the '50s there were several gas stations on the Hi-Line that closed early in the day. Pehrson added that his building, in partnership with Texaco, provided gas until 3 a.m. some nights, his station being the only one operational for several hundred miles.

The service station is still owned and operated by the Pehrson family.

Pehrson's wife, Jane, died in 2017. They had been married for 71 years.

Some of Pehrson's other awards and recognitions

Pehrson received a personal medal for nine different missions he completed, he said, adding that out of all of his medals that one was the most valuable.

He added that he also received a personally written and signed recognition from General John Kenneth Cannon for one of his missions he completed. A fire had consumed the inside of the aircraft, he said, but he and another engineer were able to put out the flames and have the plane land successfully.

"This one is my favorite," Pehrson said, pointing to the framed document.

Pehrson said he doesn't know where he will put the plaque and photo he received from President Trump yet, but was sure he would find a place.

Pehrson has also been involved in the community of Chinook, having served as a council chairman for 10 years as well as other forms of community service. He also served as the state Commander of the American Legion for a period of time.

"It's a full life," Pehrson said.