Saul Sitzer, veteran and Pappy's restaurant owner, dies
He had served in the Air Force during World War II and had been held by Germans
Saul Sitzer, who owned a popular Parkville restaurant and was a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who flew numerous combat missions over Germany in World War II, died of stroke complications Sunday at the Loch Raven Veterans Affairs Hospital. He was 86 and lived in Perry Hall.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and raised in the Canarsie section, he was the son of a Polish-born grocer. He was a 1942 graduate of Samuel J. Tilden High School.
He attended Brooklyn College and enlisted in what was then the Army Air Corps. He became a member of the Eighth Air Force's 357th Fighter Group.
"My father had excellent eyesight," said his son, David Sitzer, a bond specialist who lives in Baltimore. "He was small of stature and fit in a tight cockpit. He also had good reflexes."
He flew a P-51 Mustang, a single-engine fast and nimble fighter. He flew alongside several well-known pilots, including Chuck Yeager, who went on to break the sound barrier, and Leonard "Kit" Carson, who shot down 18 German fighters. Mr. Sitzer escorted bombers deep into Germany.
"The weather has been miserable all month [December 1944]. In the Ardennes Forest of Belgium, American troops, short of winter clothing and everything else, had been fighting desperately for a week to stem Germany's last massive attempt to change the course of the war," said a history of his unit written by Merle Olmsted.
Mr. Sitzer was credited with shooting down a German Messerschmitt. But on his 22nd mission, his plane was hit by ground fire. He parachuted, landed and suffered a broken nose. He told his family he was captured by a farmer with a rusty gun who alerted military police. He was held as a prisoner of war in Stalag Luft 1 in Barth, Germany.
He tried unsuccessfully to escape from a rail car that carried him to the camp, where he lived for nearly five months. Because he was Jewish, his German captors placed him in a separate part of the camp away from other captives. He was liberated by the Russian Army on May 1,1945.
After the war, he earned a bachelor's degree in history from the University of Delaware.
He remained in the National Guard. He survived a second crash in April 1951 at the Newcastle, Del., Air Force Base. He was badly burned and underwent skin-graft surgeries.
Mr. Sitzer flew transport planes during the Korean War, the Cold War and Vietnam War, where he flew under heavy fire. Throughout his career, he received numerous medals and decorations, including Bronze Stars and Oak Leaf Clusters.
RIP Saul....blue skies and tail winds...
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