Koesters receives Quilt of Valor

HARLAN — Phil Koesters was honored at a Quilt of Valor Ceremony in Harlan on March 29.
The mission of the Quilt of Valor organization is to honor service members and veterans with the comfort and healing of a patriotic quilt.
Phil served in the United States Air Force from 1960 to 1964, being discharged at the rank of E4. He served during the Cold War era.
Phil his basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas and was then transferred to Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, MS. There, he trained in Worldwide Communications Systems to maintain essential communications. After completing his training, he was assigned to the Philippines.
There, he served as the site leader for connecting various locations in China, Russia, and other parts of the world. The site was located on a mountaintop at the site of the Bataan Corregidor Death March from WWII. Communications were sent to Navy ships in Asia and to locations in the central Philippines, where injured personnel from Vietnam were being transported to hospitals before the Vietnam War was formally declared.
Phil, along with a small team, kept the phone lines open during the Cuban Missile Crisis between the US and the Soviet Union. Between October 14 and October 28, 1962, the phone line had to remain open 24/7 between Nikita Khrushchev and President Kennedy’s red phone regarding nuclear warheads in Cuba. After 18 months, Phil was sent to the US for Air Traffic Control training in Mississippi. He was then stationed at McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma, WA. During his time there, he was responsible for reassigning airplanes during the earthquake in Alaska.