WWII, Vietnam veteran recalls career of service
By Meg Heaton
Pribil, who grew up in St. Mary's Point, tried to enlist in the Army Air Corps right out of high school but he was told he had a fast pulse. He went to see Hudson doctor Joseph Livingstone about the diagnosis. "He told me to quit chasing around and that pulse would come down," said Pribil. And it did. On July 16, 1941, at age 20, he enlisted in the Army Air Corp. His greatest ambition was to be a pilot and fly a P51, the plane his brother helped design. Eventually he did fly that plane but there were several others before it. Pribil entered the service as a private and was trained to be a single engine fighter pilot. His training took place in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas over the next 10 months. Following training he came home and married his high school sweetheart, Mildred Harvieux of Stillwater. They have been together for 57 years. Pribil didn't have much time with his new bride before he was shipped to Casablanca in North Africa. He flew with a fighter squadron on missions around North Africa and into Italy. He can describe in detail planes like the A36, P40, P47 and the P51, the advantages of one over the other, how one could dive better than the other and which one could take the best beating under attack.
Italian hospitality
He was shot down once. It was in the summer of 1945 behind enemy lines near the Anzio beachhead in Italy. He was returning with his squad from a successful bombing mission of some airfields north of Rome. They flew over the Anzio beachhead and Pribil spotted a machine gun nest. He flew just 100 feet above it and took it out, but his P47 was hit by enemy fire in the process. He heard the shots but thought they had hit another plane. Within seconds he knew the truth and that the hit had left his airplane impossible to control. He bailed out.But not the way he had been trained. There just wasn't time. He was only about 400-500 feet above ground when he was hit. He was just 50 feet up when he bailed out. "They tell you to jump toward the wing. I went right back toward the tail. They tell you to count before you pull the ripcord. I just yanked it and it seemed the minute I did, I hit the ground." Luck was with Lt. Pribil that day. First the jump could have killed him but he landed in a wheat field in a marshy area. The impact knocked the wind out of him and he had hurt his arm and leg when he bailed out of the plane, but he was able to crawl into a drainpipe, out of sight of the Germans who were looking for him. "I think I crawled faster than I could run that day. I tell you I got religion in a hurry down there." He heard voices. He couldn't be sure if they were Germans or Italians. They were two young boys, about 18 or 20. They had trouble communicating but eventually Pribil knew they would not turn him in. His next concern was his parachute. If the Germans spotted it, they would come hunting him. He eventually made the boys understand and they found the chute and hid it. The boys carried Pribil, too injured to walk, down the ditch and into another wheat field. They left him there and he still wasn't sure whether they had gone for help or for the Germans. They returned a short time later with their father. Pribil was loaded into a pushcart and taken into the family home where he was fed and cared for. He was with the family for about five days. During the day he would hide in the marsh. At night he would stay in their home. He recalled being startled by another man one day in the field. "He rattled off something stern in Italian. I had no idea what he was saying, so I just looked just as mad back and said, 'Si.' Everybody had a good laugh that night when I came back to the house and who was there but this guy. I found out he had asked me if I was hiding cows from the Germans. I guess I gave the right answer." The longer he was in the area, the more word was getting around that he was there. Every day meant more risk of being discovered. He recalled one man, Joe Beatti, who had been cab driver in California and New York before he returned to his native Italy. He was working in a German mess hall but agreed to hide Pribil for a few days. "Late one night a German lorry (bus or van) pulled into his place. I didn't know if they had found out I was there or if he would turn me in. Joe told me to stay inside and he went out. It turns out they were lost but I knew then I had to try to get back, before I got caught." When Pribil first bailed out, he was 100 miles behind the line of defense. But every day, Allied forces were closing the gap. His luck held out and he was able to hook up with an American reconnaissance unit working its way into the area. Before he left Italy, Pribil returned with a truckload of food and supplies for the family that helped him. But all traces of them were gone. "I hope they didn't get in trouble for helping me. I left word with the command in the area who they were and how they saved my life. I won't forget them." It would be another month before he could resume flying. At first he was going to be sent home, but he was able to persuade his superiors that he should stay with the "guys I came through training with. "They were my best friends. You just can't get any closer to a guy than flying with him, watching his back. I didn't want to go back home. I knew I was supposed to be with them." He did stay with his squadron and was back flying missions within a month.
Home but not for long
Following WWII, Pribil left the service but remained in the reserves. He was recalled during the Korean War but did not fly in Korea. He was sent instead to Alaska where he helped monitor activity along the Bering Sea. It was there that Pribil said he faced some of his biggest challenges as a pilot. Weather, not enemy fire, was the biggest risk. "The fog was so thick there you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. It was like that all the time."After being called up during the Korean War, Pribil decided to make the now Air Force his career. "They got me twice, so I decided just to stay." He went on to command and train pilots and was assigned to Vietnam from 1962-65. He did not fly combat missions in Vietnam but spent his time there as a contingency planner, making the preparations for expansion of the growing conflict. Pribil is philosophical about what happened in Vietnam. With regard to U.S. military involvement there, he believes the motives were good, based on fear of Communist expansion, the "domino theory" of Communist aggression. But he sees what the Vietnamese people wanted as well. "They just wanted out from under the French yoke. You know Ho Chi Minh was educated in the U.S. I believe he really liked the U.S. If we only could have worked with him, treated him differently, we might have been able to work it out better than it ended. I have a great deal of admiration for the Vietnamese people, all of them." Pribil retired as a Lieutenant Colonel April 1, 1968. After he and wife Millie, along with their son, Tom, moved to Hudson, he bought Starr's Bar in North Hudson from his brother-in-law Ernie Starr. He sold it several years ago to Bill Souter. Pribil believes the military is a wonderful option for young people. "It's good for kids to get away from their parents, get some independence and the service gives them that but it also gives them some structure, discipline and time to figure out what they want to do and where they want to go. And then they come out and they get an education. I think it's a great way to go. I hope parents don't discourage their kids from trying it. It's an experience a young person shouldn't miss. " Pribil speaks fondly of the "good kids" he commanded over the years. He believes with very little encouragement but good training they will "bust their butts for you every time." Pribil attends reunions of his squadron every couple of years and has maintained contact with his old comrades. In speaking about his career, he appears as enthusiastic today as he was the day he enlisted 58 years ago. "I wouldn't trade one minute, one second, good or bad, of my time in the service. Look what World War II did for a whole generation of Americans. I believe it helped shape us, helped make us the best country in the world. The things I learned there about myself and others made me who I am."
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