Combat veteran and 50-year pilot Peter Tokarz recounts life in wake of federal and state aviation recognitions
WORCESTER — After 50 years of experience in aviation, traveling the world and working for the U.S. government as an aviation expert, 75-year-old Peter Tokarz still tears up thinking about the moment when he made the decision to become a pilot.
Wearing a beige suit and flashing a clean and welcoming smile, the Jefferson native recalled his service in the Vietnam War that began with his Marine Corps training in Parris Island, South Carolina, followed by his jungle training in California before his deployment.
In April 1968, the 21-year-old Tokarz was a Marine sergeant stationed in Vietnam as part of Operation Kentucky, an American push of almost two years against an offensive by the Northern Vietnam army known as the Tet Offensive.
Because of the immediate and brutal contact with the enemy, Marines who were part of that operation came to be known by a pejorative nickname as “The Walking Dead.”
In a jungle in Con Thien, Vietnam, thousands of miles away from his Central Massachusetts home, Tokarz said he was faced with many unknowns.
“We got out of the trucks, and you could tell these Vietnamese women were counting us (while) selling Cokes and water, trying to be friendly,” he said. “When we went out for our mission to take about four clicks (a distance of four kilometers,) we were ambushed.
“There was a 50-caliber machine gun on a high hill, so we had to call in the Marine Corps jets to drop napalm.”
Overrun by the Northern Vietnamese forces, Tokarz and his battalion “kept getting wiped out,” unable to neutralize the machine gun on the hill.
What followed choked him up. With glazed eyes, he resumed.
“One fighter pilot made about 16 runs on the enemy, and on his last run his aircraft got hit,” Tokarz said. "It all went silent.
“Thank God he parachuted and was picked up by a helicopter unit.”
Feeling thankful for the aerial help that the battalion received, Tokarz made a lifelong promise to himself.
“After that I swore that (if) I ever came home alive, I'm just going to learn how to fly,” said Tokarz.
Tough return home
Throughout 1968, Tokarz was part of 17 combat missions. At the end of his service, he was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps as a sergeant E-5 — a rank that he ascended to in less than two years.
He credited the relatively short promotion time to the vacuum in the ranks created by the high death rate in combat.
During Operation Kentucky, 520 U.S. Marines were killed in action.
Tokarz did not share much from his experience with his family upon returning home, as his youngest of three sisters, Theresa Timura, remembered.
“When he first came home, he rocked in a rocking chair in silence for so long,” said Timura. “He had a big rucksack. He had everything in there and it just went in our attic space and he didn’t talk about it to anyone.
“I really can't understate how difficult it was for Vietnam veterans coming back.”
Discipline, said Tokarz, was the only thing that took his mind away from the terror of his memories.
Drive to become a pilot
A strong work ethic was instilled in him since the age of 11, when he started working after school at a Rexall drug store and cleaning Friendly’s Restaurants with his uncle to support his family after the death of his father.
Donna, his wife whom he met during their years at Wachusett Regional High School and later married in 1976, says that the ethic was visible during the time that they were nothing but classmates.
“He was also very friendly and upbeat,” Donna remembered.
While studying civil engineering nights, Tokarz worked days as a civil engineer for 10 years at the Metropolitan District Commission in Boston.
On weekends, he learned how to fly planes as a hobby in Tewksbury, soaring on two- and four-seaters such as Cessnas and Cherokees starting in 1972.
By 1977, he had earned a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts from Framingham State University.
“I was a hermit, no exaggeration,” Tokarz said.
The promise made to himself in Vietnam pushed him to delve further in the field of aviation, starting a short-lived flight school called Worcester Flight School Inc. at Worcester Airport.
Throughout the 1980s, Tokarz worked as a commercial pilot, flying F-27 planes out of Manchester Airport in New Hampshire, and later as chief pilot and director at Parker Manufacturing in Worcester.
In the 1990s, he also returned to Worcester Airport as the owner and chief pilot of the Corporate Flight Department.
An Army aviator
During that time, he joined the Army Reserves serving in the aviation department and also the National Guard Reserve Unit, where he was an officer. He was honorably discharged from both services in 1997.
It wasn’t until the later part of the decade that Tokarz ascended to working for the Federal Aviation Administration. There he was an aviation safety inspector, often also working with helicopters.
Until 2001, Tokarz also worked for the FAA as an aviation inspector in Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Tanzania among other countries, where he worked with their governments to “elevate” the country’s aviation quality.
“Those countries really did care and really wanted to bring up their civil aviation up to standard and I was here to help their system,” said Tokarz, “and they were very thankful and grateful for that.”
The military years knocked on Tokarz’s door again in the early 2000s, while he worked in Boston for the FAA. Following a eulogy in 2002 for a commander from his service in Vietnam who had recently passed away, he ran into Ken Cook, an Operation Kentucky veteran who had served at the same time and at the same place as Tokarz.
“When I found out, I told him my story,” said Tokarz, referring to the story about the pilot he credited with coming to the battalion’s aid. “That Monday, he came in with his logbook. ‘It was me,’ he said.
“I hugged him and said, ‘Thank you for saving my life, you son of a bitch.’”
Even though his voice trembles, Tokarz laughs. He says that after everything he has experienced, he found strength in his family the most, his wife and his daughter, now 40 years old, for whom he was often not present due to the nature of his work.
Federal, state recognitions
In the latter years of his career, Tokarz continued working as a safety inspector at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, at the FAA headquarters in Washington, D.C., again in Saudi Arabia, and in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Mexico and other countries.
In October, he received three awards for his experiences, retiring after exactly 50 years and 30 days after flying his first aircraft in October 1972.
Tokarz received the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award by the FAA for his 50-year experience in aviation safety, and was also honored by the Gov. Charlie Baker administration in October with a citation for his aviation experience and another for his military service.
He attributed the state recognition in part to his friendship with former Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito during his time as a Republican state delegate.
“Karyn came to the (Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award) ceremony and stayed there the entire time,” said Tokarz. “I then got a call from her secretary, saying that they wanted to give me the citations.”
After a long career that was mostly spent above the clouds, Tokarz, who now lives in Worcester, said that he has yet to get used to the slow pace of retirement.
On any given afternoon, he could be seen eating dinner at Val’s Restaurant in Holden along with his wife, where they seem to have picked up a new pastime as regulars at the establishment.
Upbeat, and with a smile, just like his wife remembered him from high school years, Tokarz still rocks a strong sense of humor.
“After going many miles an hour all the time, traveling all these countries, helping them out, I really want to do something because I don’t like being idle,” said Tokarz.
“I can always just fly again.”
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Peter Tokarz of Holden and Worcester received state and federal recognitions for his work in aviation safety and military experience
