Lt. Col. Charles M. Bussey. A decorated WWII veteran of the famed Tuskegee Airman and later a hero in the Korean War. His decorations included the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star, the Air Medal, the Purple Heart and the Army Commendation Medal.

Obituary in SF Gate:
April 22, 2004Updated: Jan. 28, 2012 4:46 p.m.
BUSSEY, Charles M. - Born on April 23, 1921 died in October of 2003 from complications of diabetes and heart disease.
Just out of his teens, he enlisted in the Army to defend his country in World War II and served with honor with the Tuskegee Airmen. He returned home after the war and continued his military career, serving with distinction in the Korean conflict and in posts from Germany to the San Francisco Presidio.
He retired from the Army in 1966 and brought business and jobs to Bayview Hunters' Point by establishing Patimik Corp., San Francisco Container Corp and the Academy of Skills. While running these businesses he was involved in community organizations and activities and served as president of the Urban League. He went on to work on the Alaska pipeline; then became project manager for Bechtel in building the city of Al Jubail in Saudi Arabia.
Upon returning home, he retired again to Southern California where he worked as a teacher, wrote a book about his experience in Korea and became a "gentleman farmer".
He led a remarkable life and touched many people. He leaves behind two brothers, Edmund Bussey and Bruce Bussey, a sister Verna Beaver and his children Charles Ronald Bussey, Fe' Evangeline Seymour, Patricia Elaine Bussey and Edmund Bruce Bussey as well as five grandchildren and three great grandchildren.
If your life was touched by this extraordinary individual, you are invited to a celebration of his life which will take place on his 83rd birthday, April 23, 2004 at 7 PM, at St. Andrew Church, 1571 Southgate Ave., Daly City. Please bring both your stories and photos of Milton to share. For further information contact m_bussey@mindspring.com or 650-784-9096.


Newspaper article:
SFGate: Charles Bussey -- member of Tuskegee Airmen
Michael Taylor, Chronicle Staff Writer
April 20, 2004,

A celebration of life will be held Friday for Charles M. Bussey, a decorated World
War II veteran of the famed Tuskegee Airmen and later a hero in the Korean War.

Mr. Bussey, who lived for much of his life in Daly City and was a pioneer in
setting up African American businesses in the Hunters Point-Bayview district of
San Francisco during the 1960s, died in a Las Vegas hospital on Oct. 26. He was
82.

Born and raised in Bakersfield, Mr. Bussey joined the Tuskegee Airmen after the
start of World War II and became one of 992 African American pilots to win their
wings.

"His mother worried about the danger of his flying," Mr. Bussey's brother,
Edmund, wrote in a eulogy. "He solved that problem by sending her an airline
ticket and insisted that she fly to graduation when he received his silver wings."

Mr. Bussey flew combat missions over North Africa, Italy and Germany. When the
war ended, Mr. Bussey decided to stay in the Army and had various assignments at
Army posts in Europe and Asia before being assigned command of the 77th
Engineer Combat Company in South Korea in June 1950.

In a 1997 interview with CNN for a series of reports about the Cold War, Mr.
Bussey said U.S. forces poised to join battle with communist forces in Korea were
ill equipped. "We had equipment left over from World War II, most of which had
been in a warehouse someplace and was from unserviceable to nonexistent," he
said. "We had no (maps). The only map I saw was one that I had removed from the
back page of our newspaper, the Stars and Stripes. And that was the only map that
I had for the first couple of weeks. It had no contours, no elevations, it had none of
the things other than the location of principal cities. That was all we had. You
cannot fight a war that way. You cannot do it."

Nonetheless, there was a war to fight and in July, 1950, Mr. Bussey found himself
in the thick of battle.

As then-Secretary of Defense William Cohen put it during a speech in May 1998
commemorating the 50th anniversary of the integration of the armed forces:
"First Lieutenant Bussey was returning to the front when he spotted an enemy unit
attempting to outflank his all-black company. Only Bussey, a group of three truck
drivers and two machine guns stood between his men and 250 advancing North
Koreans. But when the dust settled and the smoke had cleared, there was only
Bussey and his men and America had one of its first victories of the Korean War.
Reflecting on his heroic service to a country still shackled by segregation, this
Silver Star hero later wrote, 'I loved my country for what it could be, far beyond
what it was.' Lieutenant Colonel Bussey, thank you for helping America to realize
what it could be and taking us beyond what we were."

In addition to the Silver Star, Mr. Bussey also received the Bronze Star, Purple
Heart and Air Medal.

After the Korean conflict hostilities ended with the armistice of July 1953, Mr.
Bussey was assigned back to Europe and was posted in Berlin, when the Berlin
Wall was erected in August 1961. Mr. Bussey's final Army assignment was from
1963 to1966 at the Presidio of San Francisco. He retired from the Army in 1966 as
a lieutenant colonel.

In 1967, Mr. Bussey started an African American-owned and operated business in
Hunters Point that refinished furniture. The firm, called Patimik, also had contracts
to clean phone booths and make crates for shipping war materiel to Vietnam. In
1969, Mr. Bussey was appointed to San Francisco's Juvenile Justice Commission.

In the early 1970s, Mr. Bussey worked for Bechtel Corp. on the Alaska pipeline
and later in Saudi Arabia. In the mid-1980s, he settled in the Los Angeles area,
where he taught school and wrote his memoir of combat in Korea, "Firefight at
Yechon: Courage and Racism in the Korean War," published in 1991.

In addition to his brother Edmund, of Kensington (Contra Costa County), Mr.
Bussey is survived by another brother, Bruce Bussey of Los Angeles; a sister,
Verna Beaver of Seattle; two sons, Charles R. Bussey of Daly City and Edmund
Bruce Bussey of Las Vegas; two daughters, Fé Evangeline Seymour of Fairbanks,
Alaska; and Patricia Elaine Bussey of San Jose; and five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Friday's celebration of life and memorial service will take place at 7 p. m. in the
parish hall of St. Andrew's Church, 1571 Southgate Ave., Daly City.