Paid Sponsor Partnership: Philadelphia Corporation for Aging<\/p>\n
Former Air Force Captain Ralph Galati considers himself a lucky guy.<\/p>\n
Last year he received what’s called a “champagne flight,” getting sprayed with a bottle after completing his ceremonial final flight.<\/p>\n
“I did it after 51 years,” he says.<\/p>\n
Galati first joined the Air Force ROTC while a student at what was then, St. Joe’s College.<\/p>\n
When he graduated in 1970, he was commissioned the same day as a 2nd Lieutenant in the United States Air Force and went right into flight school. He came home for the holidays, got married, then returned to California for more training in F-4 school.<\/p>\n
He became equipped to fly the F-4, which is a two-seat jet fighter.<\/p>\n
“Did that for six months and then right off to Vietnam,” he says. “I went to the Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base in Thailand.”<\/p>\n
He flew combat missions for about three months.<\/p>\n
“I was the backseat of an F-4, weapon systems officer,” he says. “Really fast, Mach 1.5, thousand miles an hour.”<\/p>\n
Then, just six days after his daughter was born, Galati had to put his training to the test.<\/p>\n
“I was on my 69th combat mission, February 16,1972, when my pilot and I were shot down,” he says. “One of the first missions in North Vietnam since 1968.”<\/p>\n
Galati says after he was captured, he thought of two things.<\/p>\n
“One was, I just hope to not die, and the other one was I was really upset that my wife was by herself with a brand-new baby,” he says. “I just wanted to do everything right to survive.”<\/p>\n
He was imprisoned in the infamous “Hanoi Hilton” for 14 months.<\/p>\n
“It was hard,” he says. “It was a combination of isolation, solitary and then having roommates and kind of surviving day-to-day.”<\/p>\n
He says as time goes on, “it’s just a matter of resistance,” and that captivity proved to be a “developmental” experience for him as a young 24-year-old guy. He and his comrades organized as the 4th Allied POW Wing<\/a>.<\/p>\n “Our slogan was ‘Return with Honor,'” he says.<\/p>\n He was one of 591 POWs repatriated in 1973 as part of Operation Homecoming.<\/p>\n “I got the Silver Star, two Bronze Stars with Valor, two Purple Hearts, Air Medals, which is for flying a certain amount of combat missions, POW Medal,” he says.<\/p>\n Now, Galati’s story of survival is the subject of a new documentary by American Veterans Media<\/a>. “The Ralph Galati Story” is premiering at The Teletorium in Mandeville Hall at Saint Joseph’s University on Friday, November 7 at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n “You come back changed, somehow, so recognizing it is hard,” says Galati.<\/p>\n He says he’s hopeful that maybe his words “will help somebody”.<\/p>\n And he’s the Grand Marshal of this year’s Philadelphia Veterans Parade and Festival <\/a>on November 9, which he says should be “celebratory”.<\/p>\n “Eighteen million service members served, and all the family members, which is more than that, sacrifice,” he says. “Let’s remember them for what they did.”<\/p>\n Galati served another five years of active duty after his 1973 release and had a successful career in business. Since retiring, he has made it his mission to help all veterans get the services and benefits they need.<\/p>\n And every year, we at 6abc are proud to broadcast the Philadelphia Veterans Parade and Festival. Be sure to tune in for our live coverage, starting Sunday, November 9 at noon on 6abc.<\/p>\n For more information:
Philadelphia Veterans Parade and Festival<\/a>
“The Ralph Galati Story” – American Veterans Media<\/a>
4th Allied POW Wing<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paid Sponsor Partnership: Philadelphia Corporation for Aging Former Air Force Captain Ralph Galati considers himself a lucky guy.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[17597,17601,69,71,70,17600,17599,17598],"class_list":["post-26883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-air-force-rotc","tag-combat-missions","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-ubon-royal-thai-air-force-base","tag-veterans-parade","tag-vietnam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}