Arthur Pearlman

Arthur Pearlman was born in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn in 1947 and spent most of his young life growing up in East New York. An accounting student at Brooklyn College, he decided to join the U.S. Air Force in November 1965 after speaking with a recruiter. Air Force testing showed an aptitude for electronics so, after completing Basic Training at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, Mr. Pearlman went to Biloxi, Mississippi, to complete electronics courses before being assigned to repair radio and communications equipment on planes. “Wherever the planes went, that’s where we went,” recalls Arthur, whose first assignment was at Stewart Air Force Base in Newburgh, New York.

In February 1968, Mr. Pearlman was sent to Saigon, Viet Nam, where he would remain until August of that year. It was the height of the Tet Offensive and many of Arthur’s comrades would not return home again.

Mr. Pearlman spent a total of three years, two months and 29 days in service to the United States, retiring as a Sergeant. He sums up his memory of the military: “I loved it. If not for the fact that it’s not a place to raise an Orthodox family, I might have stayed.”