About the Author
Ed Pappert was born December 3, 1920 in Pittsburgh, PA. He grew up in Dormont, a suburb of Pittsburgh. He became a wrestler. In his senior year he won the Western Pennsylvania Athletic Conference. After high school Ed worked at U.S.Steel in the metallurgical lab. He worked from 11P.M. till 7 A.M. and attended classes at Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon) during the day. His wife Mary Jayne says the war saved his life as he fell asleep twice while driving back to school after working all night. Ed applied for and was accepted in the V5 program. This lead to his becoming a pilot and an Ensign in the U.S. Navy on December 17, 1943. He qualified as a fighter pilot.Air Group 83 was formed at Atlantic City, NJ. Ed was part of the fighter squadron flying The Hellcat (F6F). Air Group 83 trained at Ayer, Massachusetts. He and a friend flew an old SBD (dive bomber) to Pittsburgh where he married his sweetheart on September 11, 1944. The air group continued their training on Maui, Hawaiian Islands .On Maui his division switched to flying "the Corsair".On March 11, 1945 Air Group 83 boarded the Aircraft Carrier "The Essex". Their tour of duty should have been up in June, however they were not relieved. They stayed through the end of the war. After the war Ed finished his college at Penn State University. He took a job with United States Gypsum Co. He worked for USG for 37 years attaining the position of V P and General Manager of the companies largest division.Ed and his wife Mary Jayne have three children. They retired to Hilton Head Island. After living there for 14 years they moved to their present home in Charlotte, N C.
