Peter Ruplenas attended South Boston High School. While living in South Boston, "Rupy" taught Sunday school and ran track. He received many track and field awards and ran events as long as a 20-mile road race. Enlisting in the Air Corps in June 1941, before Pearl Harbor, he completed basic training in Dover, Delaware. After basic training, Peter followed a two week course in the Photography School at Davis-Monthan Army Air Field in Tucson, Arizona. He also served in Miami, Florida, with the 9th Anti-Submarine Squadron. Sent overseas in late Spring 1944, he was stationed at Station 174 in Sudbury, Suffolk, England with the 486th (Heavy) Bomb Group, where he served in the Group’s photographic section (835th and 836th Squadrons). He was able to fly along on several bombing raids and capture some amazing photos, many of which appear on the 486th BG’s website : http://www.486th.org

“Rupy” stayed in the Army after WWII and served in Korea and Viet-Nam. He had been trained in combat techniques and not only carried his trusty cameras in war but also a fire arm. He retired from the Army with the rank of Sergeant 1st Class after 28 years of service. See a tribute to him at http://www.486th.org/Assn/LastFlt16.html