boebert@SCTC.COM (Earl Boebert) (07/24/90)
From: boebert@SCTC.COM (Earl Boebert) The Rangers were not the only American participation in Operation Jubilee (the Dieppe raid); the three Eagle Squadrons, comprised of American volunteers to the RAF, were heavily involved. No. 71 Squadron flew three sorties and shot down a Ju88. No. 121 Squadron flew three sorties and downed an FW190, and No. 133 Squadron flew for sorties and accounted for four fighters and two bombers. Chesley Peterson, the 23-year-old commander of No. 71 Squadron, was shot down and rescued from the Channel. Peterson was an interesting case: when the Eagles became the 4th Fighter Group he transferred to the USAAF and thereby became one of the youngest full Colonels in the American military. He went on to plan the air support for Overlord and was known all through the Air Force as "Colonel Pete," since that was all he had ever been. He had his own personal software patch in the Military Personnel System at Randolph AFB (it ran on a Burroughs B5000) because his date of service, commission date, and date of rank were all the same, a clear violation of data consistency rules.