The Korean War had just begun when a 20-year-old Robert “Bob” Berger Jr. decided to enlist in the U.S. Air Force.

A few months later, he was overseas, working on planes and other aircraft that were mangled and torn by enemy fire.

“If they got shot at, or you know, they got holes in their aircraft, I had to repair them before they would go out again,” said Bob, 94, of Franklin Township.

And as the war raged on, Berger, who was stationed at air bases in France and Germany, was seeing more and more dropped off for repairs.

The planes had red lines that he and other aircraft mechanics checked to determine what was wrong.

“I would read it and maybe a rudder didn’t work or one of the elevators didn’t work right,” he recalled.

The planes weren’t fully automatic. Instead, they ran with hydraulics or cables. Cables often became weak - and he would replace them.

“There were a lot of repairs to do before they could take off on a mission again,” Berger said.

He spent three years overseas, and returned home in 1954.

“Basically I enjoyed my stay with the service and I made some very good friends,” he said.

After basic training in San Antonio, Texas, Berger was sent to the Aero Industries Technical Institute in California.

He excelled, catching the eye of the institute’s owner - Howard Hughes, whose company, Hughes Aircraft, was a major U.S. aerospace and defense contractor.

“He came to my rescue when he signed my diploma and offered me a job as soon as I came home from my deployment,” Berger said.

Following graduation from the technical institute, Berger sailed to Europe on a trip just shy of two weeks.

“Most of them were seasick,” Berger recalled of the other troops. “You had to watch that you didn’t get it on you.”

He remembered mostly working on planes, but took a few enjoyable trips when he was on leave, including one to the French Riviera. He purchased a motorcycle and remembered the friendliness of the French.

“Some invited me for dinner,” he said. “I think that is why I gained weight.”

As his service was coming to an end in 1954, he considered the employment offer from Hughes.

But it wasn’t meant to be.

Berger’s father, the late Robert Berger Sr., suffered a heart attack. The elder Berger, a World War I Army veteran who founded Berger Painting Service, had secured a contract with the Lehighton School District. Without his son, he wouldn’t have been able to fulfill it.

Bob came home to help, and would head the business in the decades that followed.

Berger Painting Service is now under the leadership of his son, Gerry Berger, and will celebrate its 100th year in 2026.

Bob always kept in touch with fellow servicemen, and frequently traveled out of state to meet them.

He also stayed involved with local veterans groups, including the Korean Last Man’s Club. The Lehighton post had 190 members when it was established in 1965. Fourteen remain.

Despite the dwindling numbers, the club held its 58th banquet in June.

It’s one that Berger will never forget.

His grandsons, U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Daniel Berger, and Senior Airman Dalton Berger surprised him by returning home to escort him.

Daniel, 28, is an active duty aircraft maintenance instructor in Arkansas. And after his active duty as an aircraft reclamation specialist in Georgia, Dalton, 24, works as an Air Force Reserve crew chief and is a field service representative for Northrop Grumman.

“They followed in their grandfathers’ footsteps,” Gerry said of his sons.

Daniel and Dalton met in Georgia, then traveled together to the Mahoning Township home where they were raised by their parents, Gerry and Roxanne Berger.

“They came hope especially to be with me at my banquet,” Bob said. “They are terrific. They are nice young fellas.”

Unbeknown to Bob, they began working on his 1960 Cadillac.

“They came home a week early because (Bob) used to take his Cadillac to the banquet all the time. It hadn’t been run for 12 years - it hadn’t even been started,” Gerry said. “Those guys are mechanics, and they got that car running again.”

Daniel and Dalton, dressed in their uniforms, picked up their grandfather and chauffeured him to the event.

Asked if he told his grandsons stories about his service when they were young, Bob said, “Oh, I’m sure.”

Berger enjoys visiting his friends and fellow veterans at the Lehighton American Legion. He doesn’t get there as often now that he’s not driving, but when he does, he said, he and others reminisce about the service.

“I enjoyed their company,” he said.

He liked spending time with friends at the Beaver Run Rod and Gun Club and the Lehighton Fire Company, too.

He admitted that he is all about sharing a good joke.

“That’s better than taking medicine,” Berger said.

He was so known for his humor that friends “saved me a seat so they could all hear me,” he said.

He also enjoyed riding his motorcycle, and would take trips up to 3,000 miles. Some of his favorite places were Niagara Falls and the Blue Ridge Mountains. He clocked 85,000 miles on the bike before he sold it in his mid-1980s.

In addition to Gerry, Bob and his wife, Fern, have a son, Kevin, who started his career as an aircraft pilot and mechanic and is now a FAA agent, and a daughter, Ginnie Berger Heintzelman. The couple also has three other grandchildren.

“The family got the best of both worlds because the business went on but other family members followed the footsteps of the aircraft industry,” Gerry said.