MARINE CORPS AIR STATION MIRAMAR, Calif. -- Some military aviators spend their careers breaking speed records and achieving unprecedented combat victories. However, for one Marine Corps pilot, overcoming the barriers of segregation and racism was his most awe-inspiring victory.

The first African-American aviator in Marine Corps history, retired Lt. Gen. Frank E. Peterson, was born Mar. 2, 1932, in Topeka, Kan., of immigrant parents native to St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

His father was an intelligent man who spoke six languages and worked various jobs with the railroad and later as a television and electronics repairman. His mother was a graduate of the University of Kansas, a feat virtually unheard of for an African-American woman in early twentieth century America.  She counseled her children of the importance of education and encouraged them to read books.

Coming of age as a youth in the 1940s, Peterson witnessed social exceptionism in the South and became disenchanted with quasi-integration in Topeka, Kan. - where racial segregation was a highlighted if not largely celebrated form of living - and wanted to leave and see what else the world had to offer. His father's work often took him to the Topeka Military Airfield and the early exposure to B-17, B-24 and B-29 bombers flying in and out of Topeka, Kan. Peterson got into building model airplanes, and dreamed of flying and going to outer space.

He became fascinated by electronics like his father. Peterson also found heroes outside his family and signs of hope, looking up to Jackie Robinson in 1947 after his acceptance into baseball. Blacks, he reasoned, could indeed take advantage of changing, albeit slowly, social times.

Adventurous and eager to see the world, Peterson wanted to enlist in the Navy at 17, but his parents were less than supportive as they hammered home to him the importance of going to college. Without their consent, he enrolled in Washburn University, but later after two semesters and turning 18 years old in 1950 he went down to see the recruiter.

Peterson found the entrance exam to be easy and sailed through with a high score. The recruiting office called him back in, but requested that he take the test again. It seemed his ability to score high, for an African-American, was in doubt. He took the test a second time and scored the highest score ever of anyone of any race for the recruiting office. Later in
June 1950, he enlisted with a guaranteed contract for electronics training at El Toro, Calif., upon completion of boot camp.

While at El Toro for training as an electronics technician in December 1950, Peterson heard about Navy Ensign Jesse L. Brown, the first African-American to earn the Navy "Wings of Gold," who was shot down over Korea. Brown's example of heroism motivated Peterson who applied for Naval Aviation Cadet Training the next day.

Peterson was accepted and made his way to the Naval Air Station Basic Training Command at Pensacola, Fla., where only three African-Americans had trained before him, one of whom was Brown.

Weeks of training went by and Peterson had not seen another black man, until he met another cadet named Dave Campbell, who heard about Peterson and looked him up. The two became friends. Campbell told Peterson that there had never been a black Marine Corps pilot. It was a barrier and a goal the two shared until Campbell failed his final carrier landing during advanced training in Texas, according to Peterson in his autobiography "Into the Tiger's Jaw."

While flying the Navy's SNJ trainer aircraft, Peterson discovered that he was acrophobic yet he continued to fly and overcome his fears. On May 13, 1952, he landed on a carrier for the first time and later completed advanced flight training to become eligible for a commission.

On Oct. 22, 1952, he accepted his commission as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps and was designated a Marine aviator, fulfilling his dream.

Peterson joined an elite group of African-American military men. In his autobiography, he said he was proud but contemplated the obstacles ahead.

At a time before the civil rights movement and with segregation permeating many southern states, Peterson then received orders to Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in North Carolina, but he requested to not be stationed in the south. Soon after, he received orders to El Toro to train as a combat replacement pilot for the war in Korea.

He continued to encounter racism even as the sentry at El Toro did not render Peterson a proper salute as he arrived on base for the first time. Peterson recalled being disrespected at the station officers' club and harassed at the hands of base military police, according to his autobiography.

While at El Toro flying F4U Corsairs, Peterson was with Marine Fighter Training Squadron 10 and at last encountered fellow officers who "didn't play the race card" and accepted him as one of their own.

"I learned in short order how and what it meant to be a Marine, and was damn proud to be one," remembered Peterson.

Peterson's first combat assignment was with the "Devil Cats" of Marine Fighter Squadron 212 during the Korea War, when numbers of African-Americans in the Marine Corps increased from two percent in June 1950 to six percent by 1953. Flying 64 combat missions, he left Korea with six Air Medals and a Distinguished Flying Cross.

In the years following Korea, Peterson returned to El Toro where he was pleased to see more officers like himself. He was later stationed in Hawaii and then with Fleet Marine Force Pacific at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, in 1963. While in Japan, Peterson saw himself as the "race doctor," counseling younger African-American Marines and serving as a staunch advocate for better race relations.

In 1964 he received orders to Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va. He went on to earn his bachelor's degree from George Washington University in 1967 and served in his second combat tour, this time in Vietnam. During America's war in Southeast Asia, Peterson continued to break barriers as a racial and aviation pioneer.

In 1968 he became the first African-American to command a tactical air squadron, flying F-4 Phantoms with the "Black Knights" of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 314, and would earn 17 Air Medals as well as a Purple Heart. Peterson loved the big Phantom, especially for its large cockpit that could hold Peterson's six-foot-one frame easily. Under his leadership, the Marines of his squadron would go on to earn the Robert M. Hanson Award for the most outstanding fighter squadron.

But as Peterson and his squadron were fighting hard in the skies over Vietnam, war protests and America's civil rights movement were forcing many Americans to question the status quo. Peterson, who admired Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., said he was confused by King's anti-war position at a time when more and more blacks were joining the military whether for opportunity or patriotism. After Vietnam as a lieutenant colonel he continued to play a role in recruiting minorities for military service as special assistant for minority affairs for the commandant of the Marine Corps.

"They have the opportunity to stay on track and make a career without limitations," said Peterson of young African-Americans thinking of serving their country.

His singular accomplishments continued in 1973 when he earned his master's degree, also from George Washington University, and in February 1979 when Peterson, then a 46-year-old colonel in command of the 9th Marine Amphibuous Brigade on Okinawa, Japan, became the first African-American selected for brigadier general in the Marine Corps. With his subsequent promotion came command of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, but some expressed in anonymous letters that he might not be deserving of the rank. They did not deter him, according to his autobiography.

Rising to yet more accomplishments, he was later promoted to major general in May 1983 and lieutenant general in June 1986 as he took on command of Marine Corps Combat Development Command at Quantico.

"There is no way to judge the impact that (he) had on youngsters in America," said retired Maj. Gen. Jerome G. Cooper who became the first African-American ambassador to Jamaica. "It wasn't widespread, but to those of us who were Marines it was almost unbelievable."

After delivering a commencement address speech filled with statements of hope to young minorities, Peterson received an honorary Doctorate of Law from Virginia Union University in 1987.

As a Marine pilot and a "special breed of cat," Peterson retired from the Corps as a lieutenant general in July 1988, fulfilling a line of honorable military service started by his great-grandfather, Archie McKinney, with the 55th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War. Peterson remains to this day an example of how much one can achieve by overcoming the many challenges faced by minorities, even in America's land of opportunity.

"We were pushers, always seeking challenges and competition," said Peterson about what it meant to be a Marine aviator. "Running through all of it was something we usually didn't even talk about because it just was, that's all - that wild kind of spirit that goes with our particular kind of living."