1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:00:28,737 --> 00:00:30,477 Okay, we're here with bud haedike 4 00:00:30,572 --> 00:00:33,109 and we're rolling. 5 00:00:33,200 --> 00:00:36,192 This is the song that I wrote for my bomb group 6 00:00:36,286 --> 00:00:39,995 and all the guys that made it or didn't make it. 7 00:00:40,082 --> 00:00:43,666 It's to the melody of "I'll be seeing you." 8 00:00:43,752 --> 00:00:47,495 J I'll be seeing you 9 00:00:47,589 --> 00:00:52,208 on all the missions that we flew j 10 00:00:52,302 --> 00:00:56,011 j and also with your good ole crew j 11 00:00:56,098 --> 00:00:59,090 j the whole day through j 12 00:00:59,184 --> 00:01:02,722 j enemy fighters and flak j 13 00:01:02,813 --> 00:01:06,146 j the sound of loud ack, ack j 14 00:01:06,233 --> 00:01:09,350 j and lucky we got back j 15 00:01:09,444 --> 00:01:14,359 j to our ground crew on that day we flew 16 00:01:14,449 --> 00:01:17,782 j I'll be seeing you 17 00:01:17,869 --> 00:01:21,532 at good old deopham green j 18 00:01:21,623 --> 00:01:25,491 j in your sleek flying machine, 19 00:01:25,586 --> 00:01:29,124 o, the one called mighty queen j 20 00:01:29,214 --> 00:01:33,799 j I'm going to look for you in skies of blue j 21 00:01:33,885 --> 00:01:38,128 j and when your flights are through j 22 00:01:38,223 --> 00:01:42,136 j I'll be seeing you in my dreams 23 00:01:42,227 --> 00:01:47,642 and I'll be missing you j 24 00:01:47,733 --> 00:01:49,564 thank you. 25 00:05:12,854 --> 00:05:16,597 Well, I don't know, the odds were all against ya. 26 00:05:17,984 --> 00:05:21,727 It was more or less like being in death row, 27 00:05:21,822 --> 00:05:23,528 in a penitentiary, 28 00:05:23,615 --> 00:05:27,608 waiting on your turn and you knew it was coming. 29 00:05:29,496 --> 00:05:32,613 You fly a real tough mission, 30 00:05:32,707 --> 00:05:34,413 and you're so glad to get back, 31 00:05:34,501 --> 00:05:36,037 and everybody says, "boy, 32 00:05:36,127 --> 00:05:39,119 we made it through that one, didn't we?" 33 00:05:39,214 --> 00:05:41,796 And, then, next morning they come in, 34 00:05:41,883 --> 00:05:44,420 put their flashlight in your face. 35 00:05:44,511 --> 00:05:46,672 "All right, boys, get up, you're going to be leaving. 36 00:05:46,763 --> 00:05:49,971 We're going to be flying in two hours.” 37 00:05:50,058 --> 00:05:53,425 Now that's... that's tough. 38 00:05:59,651 --> 00:06:01,232 I was 21 years old. 39 00:06:01,319 --> 00:06:05,904 Yeah, and we felt like, uh, we could live forever. 40 00:06:08,785 --> 00:06:10,025 Don't get me wrong, 41 00:06:10,120 --> 00:06:14,409 we still get that tight feeling... 42 00:06:17,085 --> 00:06:20,669 When we would see bursting flak nearby. 43 00:06:20,755 --> 00:06:24,373 When we see fighters, we still get that feeling, but... 44 00:06:27,387 --> 00:06:29,423 You can't make a living that way. 45 00:06:31,057 --> 00:06:33,719 All you could do is make a dying. 46 00:06:41,276 --> 00:06:43,858 Anybody that says they weren't afraid 47 00:06:43,945 --> 00:06:46,982 were full of crap 48 00:06:47,073 --> 00:06:50,440 'cause you were always afraid what was going to happen next, 49 00:06:50,535 --> 00:06:51,866 particularly in flak. 50 00:06:51,953 --> 00:06:54,035 You just... you just waited for something 51 00:06:54,122 --> 00:06:56,113 to go off around you. 52 00:07:00,754 --> 00:07:03,587 And that's when the fighters would come up. 53 00:07:54,015 --> 00:07:55,551 One of the men in our crew kept saying, 54 00:07:55,642 --> 00:07:58,475 "I know I'm not gonna make it," et cetera, et cetera, 55 00:07:58,561 --> 00:08:00,222 and you don't like to hear that. 56 00:08:00,313 --> 00:08:02,554 And he was very concerned 57 00:08:02,649 --> 00:08:07,268 because his wife was expecting within a day or two. 58 00:08:07,362 --> 00:08:09,819 And the next day, they had him flying, 59 00:08:09,906 --> 00:08:14,525 which they shouldn't have had, and they took so many men 60 00:08:14,619 --> 00:08:16,735 from our crew to fly with him, 61 00:08:16,830 --> 00:08:19,867 and they never made it back. 62 00:08:19,958 --> 00:08:21,869 They crashed into the channel. 63 00:08:21,960 --> 00:08:25,919 And, incidentally, and this isn't storytelling, but he... 64 00:08:26,006 --> 00:08:27,712 He, uh... 65 00:08:34,305 --> 00:08:38,173 He was killed the day his son was born. 66 00:10:00,100 --> 00:10:02,466 The war came, and we went and did 67 00:10:02,560 --> 00:10:03,640 what they told us to do. 68 00:10:03,728 --> 00:10:05,889 That's the only thing I know. 69 00:10:07,273 --> 00:10:10,436 The Japanese ruined my youth, 70 00:10:10,527 --> 00:10:15,021 because I was 20 years old or 19 years old. 71 00:10:15,115 --> 00:10:18,027 Everything was wonderful, and the Japanese, 72 00:10:18,118 --> 00:10:22,327 in one fell swoop, ended all of that. 73 00:10:22,413 --> 00:10:25,496 And it lasted four years. 74 00:10:28,378 --> 00:10:32,542 Well, I can see why they get young fellows to fly to war, 75 00:10:32,632 --> 00:10:36,170 or ground, or submarines, and so forth. 76 00:10:36,261 --> 00:10:39,924 When you're younger, you feel you can do anything. 77 00:10:40,014 --> 00:10:42,175 I think when you get older, you get smarter. 78 00:10:49,232 --> 00:10:51,393 There was a 19-year-old navigator, 79 00:10:51,484 --> 00:10:54,271 Jewish kid, sharp as a tack. 80 00:10:54,362 --> 00:10:56,978 And I had some older boys. 81 00:10:57,073 --> 00:10:59,689 My bombardier was 26 years old. 82 00:11:01,536 --> 00:11:04,448 I was 22, 23. 83 00:11:08,543 --> 00:11:11,080 Oldest man we had in the crew was a Pennsylvania dutchman, 84 00:11:11,171 --> 00:11:12,707 thirty-two years old. 85 00:11:12,797 --> 00:11:14,708 We called him "pappy." 86 00:11:14,799 --> 00:11:17,085 Thirty-two years old. 87 00:11:17,177 --> 00:11:19,839 Our navigator was 26, 88 00:11:19,929 --> 00:11:24,218 and everybody else was anywhere from 22, 23. 89 00:11:26,144 --> 00:11:30,012 I see... 1 can look back now and see why young people 90 00:11:30,106 --> 00:11:33,598 were in a war, not older people. 91 00:11:33,693 --> 00:11:36,480 Older people got better sense. 92 00:11:44,746 --> 00:11:46,657 Sometimes they say that the older you get, 93 00:11:46,748 --> 00:11:48,955 the more wiser you get. 94 00:11:49,042 --> 00:11:51,408 There weren't too many, I don't think, younger, 95 00:11:51,502 --> 00:11:53,458 too much younger than me. 96 00:11:53,546 --> 00:11:56,629 I flew every one of my missions at 19. 97 00:11:56,716 --> 00:12:00,083 The old man on our crew was our waist gunner. 98 00:12:00,178 --> 00:12:02,590 He was 25. 99 00:12:10,063 --> 00:12:12,975 I'll tell you, when we got into this thing, 100 00:12:13,066 --> 00:12:14,602 you wanted to fly. 101 00:12:14,692 --> 00:12:17,058 And, you know, you had a great time training, 102 00:12:17,153 --> 00:12:18,768 all that, but when you get over there 103 00:12:18,863 --> 00:12:21,650 and had got shot at the first time, 104 00:12:21,741 --> 00:12:24,073 you knew you were in deep doo-doo. 105 00:12:24,160 --> 00:12:27,072 And... and you really took life seriously after that. 106 00:12:35,171 --> 00:12:39,130 They said we was gonna fly 30 missions. 107 00:12:39,217 --> 00:12:40,923 You know, they started out at 25. 108 00:12:41,010 --> 00:12:43,843 Now they changed it to 30 when we got there. 109 00:12:43,930 --> 00:12:46,922 And then we got 26 missions in, 110 00:12:47,016 --> 00:12:48,677 and they give us a week off. 111 00:12:48,768 --> 00:12:52,977 And we come back and they says, "you're gonna fly 35," 112 00:12:53,064 --> 00:12:56,147 and that was kind of a shock. 113 00:13:01,614 --> 00:13:04,401 Well, it seemed like I was flying all the time. 114 00:13:04,492 --> 00:13:06,198 There were 40 bomb groups. 115 00:13:06,286 --> 00:13:08,277 Our bomb group had a lot of people. 116 00:13:08,371 --> 00:13:11,613 I don't know the logistics of keeping the fuel 117 00:13:11,708 --> 00:13:14,916 and the ammunition, loading the bombs at night, 118 00:13:15,003 --> 00:13:18,086 getting them ready for the next day. 119 00:13:18,172 --> 00:13:20,914 I don't know how they did it. 120 00:13:26,472 --> 00:13:28,508 When you're in a position like that, 121 00:13:28,599 --> 00:13:31,181 there's no tomorrow. 122 00:13:31,269 --> 00:13:34,227 You do everything that you want to do, 123 00:13:34,314 --> 00:13:38,273 that you can do, when you feel like doing it, 124 00:13:38,359 --> 00:13:39,895 and do it then 125 00:13:39,986 --> 00:13:44,525 because you may not get the chance to do it again. 126 00:14:51,182 --> 00:14:53,798 Wouldn't be unusual, they'd wake you up. 127 00:14:53,893 --> 00:14:57,181 The first thing you'd do would be go to the, uh, 128 00:14:57,271 --> 00:15:00,980 the mess hall to eat. 129 00:15:01,067 --> 00:15:03,433 The mess hall was all lit up and everybody was laughing 130 00:15:03,528 --> 00:15:06,144 and talking, and usually they had 131 00:15:06,239 --> 00:15:08,480 Berlin Lynn or whatever her name was 132 00:15:08,574 --> 00:15:11,190 on the radio broadcasting. 133 00:15:11,285 --> 00:15:12,616 We hadn't been briefed yet. 134 00:15:12,703 --> 00:15:14,284 We didn't know where we was gonna go, 135 00:15:14,372 --> 00:15:17,785 but this lady in Berlin knew where we were gonna go, 136 00:15:17,875 --> 00:15:21,663 and she says, "boys, you've got a tough one today. 137 00:15:21,754 --> 00:15:23,665 You're going to so-and-so and so-and-so 138 00:15:23,756 --> 00:15:25,087 and we'll be waiting on ya," 139 00:15:25,174 --> 00:15:28,086 and so they knew more than we did. 140 00:15:37,770 --> 00:15:40,762 Now, in the air force, when we went to the kitchen 141 00:15:40,857 --> 00:15:44,270 for breakfast and we were getting, say, eggs, 142 00:15:44,360 --> 00:15:46,316 we'd get powdered eggs. 143 00:15:46,404 --> 00:15:48,235 That's what they had. 144 00:15:48,322 --> 00:15:52,406 Once in a while we would get fresh eggs. 145 00:15:52,493 --> 00:15:57,328 You could get two over easy and this was a treat. 146 00:15:57,415 --> 00:16:01,533 But we knew after a while that when you got fresh eggs, 147 00:16:01,627 --> 00:16:04,494 it meant you were gonna have a real tough mission. 148 00:16:04,589 --> 00:16:07,797 So they gave you fresh eggs. 149 00:16:07,884 --> 00:16:10,296 That's the story. 150 00:16:10,386 --> 00:16:13,970 We don't want fresh eggs, but we want fresh eggs. 151 00:16:22,899 --> 00:16:24,981 When you're going to get ready for a flight, 152 00:16:25,067 --> 00:16:26,557 you go into the locker room. 153 00:16:26,652 --> 00:16:29,359 And you wore long Johns. 154 00:16:29,447 --> 00:16:34,237 And then you'd wear the eod suit, put that on. 155 00:16:34,327 --> 00:16:36,192 And we had gloves that were attached to those. 156 00:16:36,287 --> 00:16:38,744 You had to get your gloves into those, 157 00:16:38,831 --> 00:16:41,618 they came clear around your ankles too. 158 00:16:41,709 --> 00:16:45,201 And then you had your flight suits. 159 00:16:45,296 --> 00:16:47,582 Those were the things that you just wore. 160 00:16:54,305 --> 00:16:56,045 And you'd load back on a truck 161 00:16:56,140 --> 00:16:57,880 and they'd take you to the area 162 00:16:57,975 --> 00:17:01,433 where the debriefing rooms were. 163 00:17:01,521 --> 00:17:04,729 So all the crews and everything would be sitting there, 164 00:17:04,815 --> 00:17:08,728 waiting, and they had a sheet over the wall. 165 00:17:08,819 --> 00:17:10,229 They'd pull the sheet back 166 00:17:10,321 --> 00:17:13,563 and say, "our target today is Germany. 167 00:17:13,658 --> 00:17:18,072 The weather looks pretty good, as near as we can tell.” 168 00:17:24,752 --> 00:17:29,746 One thing always got me about these briefings. 169 00:17:29,840 --> 00:17:32,673 The catholic chaplain, 170 00:17:32,760 --> 00:17:37,174 he was back in the corner hearing confessions. 171 00:17:39,267 --> 00:17:41,599 And giving out communions. 172 00:17:41,686 --> 00:17:44,928 So he... he knew that he was going someplace 173 00:17:45,022 --> 00:17:47,809 he might not come back from. 174 00:18:58,554 --> 00:19:01,296 That was one of the most amazing things in a war, 175 00:19:01,390 --> 00:19:05,133 the choreographing of putting 1,100 airplanes together 176 00:19:05,227 --> 00:19:08,264 in formation to go over. 177 00:19:13,903 --> 00:19:16,519 We'd all line up on the perimeter strip 178 00:19:16,614 --> 00:19:20,323 that comes around to the end of the runway. 179 00:19:20,409 --> 00:19:24,243 And the lead ship would taxi around and line up. 180 00:19:24,330 --> 00:19:27,197 And when he fired a flare to take off, 181 00:19:27,291 --> 00:19:30,624 that lead ship went down the runway. 182 00:19:34,173 --> 00:19:36,960 Next man pulled right up behind him. 183 00:19:37,051 --> 00:19:40,088 Thirty seconds, he moved. 184 00:19:43,432 --> 00:19:46,014 Thirty seconds, the third man moved. 185 00:19:46,102 --> 00:19:49,890 Every 30 seconds a plane was going down that runway. 186 00:19:49,980 --> 00:19:52,596 That lead plane never got off the ground 187 00:19:52,692 --> 00:19:55,684 before that second plane was already running. 188 00:20:13,921 --> 00:20:16,458 Well, we just spin out there on the end of the runway 189 00:20:16,549 --> 00:20:17,880 and give it full throttle, 190 00:20:17,967 --> 00:20:20,458 and you had to have enough speed for it 191 00:20:20,553 --> 00:20:23,295 to lift all that load up. 192 00:20:23,389 --> 00:20:25,675 You had a full gas load, 193 00:20:25,766 --> 00:20:29,759 you had all your ammunition for the guns, 194 00:20:29,854 --> 00:20:32,721 and you had the bomb load. 195 00:21:44,720 --> 00:21:46,130 Of course, while you're up there, 196 00:21:46,222 --> 00:21:48,929 I could see the sun coming up around earth. 197 00:21:49,016 --> 00:21:51,553 And I thought that was the most weird thing, 198 00:21:51,644 --> 00:21:53,134 to see the sun coming up, 199 00:21:53,229 --> 00:21:56,437 and it's dark on earth, you know. 200 00:21:56,524 --> 00:21:58,606 But you realized what was happening to you. 201 00:21:58,692 --> 00:22:00,398 And, then, next thing you know, 202 00:22:00,486 --> 00:22:04,149 the sun come up, and you see all these airplanes circling, 203 00:22:04,240 --> 00:22:07,277 straining, so to speak, to get up to the altitude 204 00:22:07,368 --> 00:22:10,326 with a heavy load of bombs. 205 00:22:25,511 --> 00:22:27,968 You had to form up and you had to circle, 206 00:22:28,055 --> 00:22:31,013 you was supposed to fly till you got formed up 207 00:22:31,100 --> 00:22:32,715 with your group. 208 00:22:32,810 --> 00:22:36,723 And then there'd be another bomb group over here. 209 00:22:36,814 --> 00:22:41,729 And, one day, we come within three or four inches 210 00:22:41,819 --> 00:22:46,313 of whacking up with another bomb group. 211 00:22:54,164 --> 00:22:56,746 Well, on some of them, where the young pilots 212 00:22:56,834 --> 00:22:58,574 had come in as replacements, 213 00:22:58,669 --> 00:23:01,536 if I was first man to take off, we'd be up in the air, 214 00:23:01,630 --> 00:23:05,088 say, 200, 300 feet climbing. 215 00:23:05,175 --> 00:23:07,962 All of a sudden, "boom." 216 00:23:10,264 --> 00:23:12,255 You see a bright flash, 217 00:23:12,349 --> 00:23:15,091 a red flash and stuff coming down. 218 00:23:15,185 --> 00:23:18,427 You knew darn well it was a mid-air collision. 219 00:23:18,522 --> 00:23:21,514 And, uh, those were scary times, 220 00:23:21,609 --> 00:23:24,191 as far as getting up. 221 00:23:26,739 --> 00:23:29,526 Two b-17s, one came down 222 00:23:29,617 --> 00:23:32,279 right on top of the other. 223 00:23:32,369 --> 00:23:34,826 They all went to their death. 224 00:23:36,498 --> 00:23:39,956 That's when I started smoking, by the way. 225 00:24:25,839 --> 00:24:28,455 Well, actually, I believe that our officers 226 00:24:28,550 --> 00:24:30,791 were closer to their crew 227 00:24:30,886 --> 00:24:33,923 than they were with other officers. 228 00:24:36,892 --> 00:24:40,055 As a crew, most crews stuck pretty well together. 229 00:24:40,145 --> 00:24:43,137 We did a lot together. 230 00:24:46,568 --> 00:24:49,310 I don't think we would have appreciated 231 00:24:49,405 --> 00:24:51,862 one new man joining us. 232 00:24:51,949 --> 00:24:55,066 We knew what each man was capable of doing. 233 00:24:55,160 --> 00:24:57,446 Each man did his job good. 234 00:24:57,538 --> 00:25:00,075 And no one complained. 235 00:25:03,502 --> 00:25:06,244 We were family in the air. 236 00:25:06,338 --> 00:25:10,206 You absolutely had to be, we all had our duties. 237 00:25:11,969 --> 00:25:14,255 We just wanted to stay together. 238 00:25:14,346 --> 00:25:19,261 And we flew 25 missions as a crew, all of us together. 239 00:25:26,275 --> 00:25:27,765 You're a family. 240 00:25:27,860 --> 00:25:29,896 Exactly, you have to be. 241 00:25:29,987 --> 00:25:32,444 However, I can remember one mission 242 00:25:32,531 --> 00:25:36,149 when our flight engineer came out smashed. 243 00:25:36,243 --> 00:25:38,108 And I climbed all over him. 244 00:25:38,203 --> 00:25:40,364 I said, "what is wrong with you? 245 00:25:40,456 --> 00:25:43,163 We depend on one another.” 246 00:25:46,420 --> 00:25:49,287 There was a lot of spit and Polish by the officers 247 00:25:49,381 --> 00:25:52,293 and that didn't happen. 248 00:25:52,384 --> 00:25:56,047 Like you say, we're a family of brothers. 249 00:25:57,556 --> 00:26:01,014 And we didn't have time for all that stuff. 250 00:26:02,770 --> 00:26:05,807 But there's no saluting and... 251 00:26:05,898 --> 00:26:08,605 And "yes, sir," "no, sir," all that. 252 00:26:10,152 --> 00:26:13,235 Each guy was his own guy. 253 00:26:15,449 --> 00:26:19,988 Well, of course, each man would do his job, 254 00:26:20,079 --> 00:26:23,537 and we all knew exactly who was going to do what, 255 00:26:23,624 --> 00:26:25,535 so to speak. 256 00:26:27,753 --> 00:26:30,790 So I knew I had a good crew. 257 00:26:32,257 --> 00:26:36,341 And, uh, we just got along beautifully. 258 00:27:16,343 --> 00:27:18,379 We had a crew chief that took care of that plane 259 00:27:18,470 --> 00:27:20,836 after we got it back off a mission. 260 00:27:20,931 --> 00:27:24,640 So the three of us walked that plane, 261 00:27:24,726 --> 00:27:26,717 looked at everything on the ground, 262 00:27:26,812 --> 00:27:29,019 asked him all the questions we could think of. 263 00:27:29,106 --> 00:27:31,222 If there was any little thing 264 00:27:31,316 --> 00:27:35,150 that we thought we should pay particular attention to, 265 00:27:35,237 --> 00:27:37,478 for him to tell us. 266 00:27:52,212 --> 00:27:54,794 You never flew the same plane all the time. 267 00:27:54,882 --> 00:27:58,124 It's just like your car having an ouchy 268 00:27:58,218 --> 00:28:00,049 and you take it in to firestone 269 00:28:00,137 --> 00:28:02,253 or somewhere to get fixed. 270 00:28:02,347 --> 00:28:04,338 They'd work overnight, all night long, 271 00:28:04,433 --> 00:28:06,640 trying to patch planes. 272 00:28:14,776 --> 00:28:16,312 As soon as you gotin, 273 00:28:16,403 --> 00:28:18,985 they would take care of any damage. 274 00:28:19,072 --> 00:28:21,654 They would get in the plane and check the engines out, 275 00:28:21,742 --> 00:28:24,074 start "em up and check 'em out. 276 00:28:24,161 --> 00:28:27,278 And they would clean up everything. 277 00:28:33,170 --> 00:28:34,376 Tremendous workers. 278 00:28:34,463 --> 00:28:36,078 They were... they were so good. 279 00:28:36,173 --> 00:28:39,506 We came back in b-17s with two engines, 280 00:28:39,593 --> 00:28:43,461 with the tail fin shot up and busted away... 281 00:28:44,973 --> 00:28:47,635 With all kinds of holes in the plane. 282 00:28:47,726 --> 00:28:52,265 And in two days, that plane was flying missions again. 283 00:29:07,913 --> 00:29:10,074 We had an armorer on our crew, 284 00:29:10,165 --> 00:29:11,826 and he'd be there when they were, 285 00:29:11,917 --> 00:29:13,373 most cases, not all cases, 286 00:29:13,460 --> 00:29:16,167 sometimes the plane would be loaded 287 00:29:16,255 --> 00:29:18,792 before we ever got there. 288 00:29:24,263 --> 00:29:26,925 The armor gunners took care of all of that. 289 00:29:27,015 --> 00:29:29,552 They bring 'em out on big carriers 290 00:29:29,643 --> 00:29:33,807 and, uh, it was a dangerous job. 291 00:29:47,494 --> 00:29:49,109 We did not load the bombs. 292 00:29:49,204 --> 00:29:52,571 No, but we did come out and check. 293 00:30:14,354 --> 00:30:16,265 They were all fused. 294 00:30:16,356 --> 00:30:21,020 And they had fusing wires stuck to the propeller. 295 00:30:25,615 --> 00:30:29,107 These fusing wires were hooked on the shackles 296 00:30:29,202 --> 00:30:31,864 that the bombs are hung on. 297 00:30:31,955 --> 00:30:35,413 And when they left the plane, it would pull the wire out. 298 00:30:38,754 --> 00:30:41,336 Now the bomb is alive. 299 00:30:42,966 --> 00:30:45,207 If you've seen movies and you hear bombs, 300 00:30:45,302 --> 00:30:50,137 "shhh," going down, that's this fuse spinning out. 301 00:30:54,686 --> 00:30:57,052 Now the bomb is live and once it hit, 302 00:30:57,147 --> 00:30:59,763 of course, it detonates. 303 00:31:02,027 --> 00:31:04,313 We had two missions where I had to go back 304 00:31:04,404 --> 00:31:07,771 in the bomb bay and put the cotter pins back in 305 00:31:07,866 --> 00:31:10,528 and that is a little hairy. 306 00:31:10,619 --> 00:31:12,826 Why? Cause when you landed, 307 00:31:12,913 --> 00:31:15,575 if you didn't, the bombs were armed. 308 00:31:15,665 --> 00:31:19,453 And if you had trouble, of course, you'd detonate. 309 00:32:48,758 --> 00:32:51,841 Well, we talked about just about everything. 310 00:32:51,928 --> 00:32:53,293 Our families, et cetera... 311 00:32:53,388 --> 00:32:55,299 It didn't matter what it was. 312 00:32:56,892 --> 00:32:58,928 We kept pretty much a running conversation 313 00:32:59,019 --> 00:33:00,680 between everybody. 314 00:33:00,770 --> 00:33:03,682 It made the mission go a little easier. 315 00:33:11,114 --> 00:33:12,854 First thing you did, as soon as we cleared 316 00:33:12,949 --> 00:33:14,905 the coast of england, 317 00:33:14,993 --> 00:33:16,403 everybody would test their guns. 318 00:33:37,057 --> 00:33:40,549 Well, of course, I can only speak for myself, 319 00:33:40,644 --> 00:33:44,387 but when you're in hostile territory, 320 00:33:44,481 --> 00:33:46,472 and I was in a top turret, 321 00:33:46,566 --> 00:33:50,900 so all of my vision was 360, 322 00:33:50,987 --> 00:33:53,854 ninety degrees this way, you know. 323 00:34:02,958 --> 00:34:06,917 Contrails formed at the tail of the ship. 324 00:34:08,838 --> 00:34:12,626 The moisture in the air and the ship flying through it 325 00:34:12,717 --> 00:34:16,175 made the contrails, 326 00:34:16,263 --> 00:34:18,845 and a lot of times you wouldn't have them 327 00:34:18,932 --> 00:34:20,763 because it depends on the amount 328 00:34:20,850 --> 00:34:23,592 of moisture in the air. 329 00:35:03,268 --> 00:35:05,850 Couldn't see a prettier sight than that. 330 00:35:07,439 --> 00:35:10,602 Kind of spellbound, you know, spellbound. 331 00:35:11,943 --> 00:35:14,901 A beautiful sight. 332 00:35:19,242 --> 00:35:21,949 If you was watching on the ground over in Germany, 333 00:35:22,037 --> 00:35:23,993 they tell me it took about 30 minutes 334 00:35:24,080 --> 00:35:26,492 for "em all to come over. 335 00:35:28,835 --> 00:35:30,871 They said on a clear day 336 00:35:30,962 --> 00:35:35,080 that the Germans could see us coming 50 miles out, 337 00:35:35,175 --> 00:35:38,008 from the contrails. 338 00:35:40,388 --> 00:35:42,253 And, unfortunately, when that happened, 339 00:35:42,349 --> 00:35:43,213 that wasn't too good 340 00:35:43,308 --> 00:35:46,471 because they were ready for us. 341 00:36:34,109 --> 00:36:38,193 In 1938, I was down in Chile, 342 00:36:38,279 --> 00:36:40,770 and they flew a goodwill tour down there. 343 00:36:40,865 --> 00:36:42,856 I remember going out with my father 344 00:36:42,951 --> 00:36:45,567 and seeing these big planes. 345 00:36:48,915 --> 00:36:52,703 And I said to my father someday I'm gonna fly in one of those. 346 00:36:54,671 --> 00:36:56,707 Little did I know. 347 00:37:05,056 --> 00:37:09,174 The b-17 was not only a beautiful ship, 348 00:37:09,269 --> 00:37:10,805 but it flew like a dream. 349 00:37:10,895 --> 00:37:14,353 It flew like a overgrown Piper cub. 350 00:37:17,610 --> 00:37:19,100 It flew nice and smooth. 351 00:37:19,195 --> 00:37:20,401 Beautiful. 352 00:37:20,488 --> 00:37:22,399 Took a lot of punishment. 353 00:37:25,493 --> 00:37:27,324 The greatest airplane ever built 354 00:37:27,412 --> 00:37:29,573 as far as I'm concerned. 355 00:37:29,664 --> 00:37:32,246 They brought us back 35 times. 356 00:37:32,333 --> 00:37:34,540 Sometimes in condition 357 00:37:34,627 --> 00:37:37,243 that you would never even think of trying 358 00:37:37,338 --> 00:37:40,250 to fly an airplane... 359 00:37:40,341 --> 00:37:41,626 Any other airplane. 360 00:37:41,718 --> 00:37:43,549 That plane came back, 361 00:37:43,636 --> 00:37:45,376 and that plane brought us back. 362 00:37:47,724 --> 00:37:49,931 It was a marriage, I'll tell ya. 363 00:38:02,113 --> 00:38:05,901 A lot of guys had named their own planes, 364 00:38:05,992 --> 00:38:08,608 and they had all kinds of kooky names. 365 00:38:14,042 --> 00:38:17,125 The original crews had a lot of good painters. 366 00:38:17,212 --> 00:38:21,000 And they had a lot of planes that were decorated 367 00:38:21,090 --> 00:38:24,423 and had logos on them and so on. 368 00:38:34,145 --> 00:38:36,352 Vargas girls like petty girl... 369 00:38:36,439 --> 00:38:39,556 Petty girls, vargas girls, sexy girls, 370 00:38:39,651 --> 00:38:42,017 there weren't too many serious things. 371 00:38:42,111 --> 00:38:44,352 I think to keep guys loose. 372 00:39:30,285 --> 00:39:35,120 Well, on a warm day it would be 20 below. 373 00:39:35,206 --> 00:39:38,369 It... sometimes it got 60 below. 374 00:39:38,459 --> 00:39:41,747 And oftentimes, I had to take my oxygen mask 375 00:39:41,838 --> 00:39:43,794 and crack the ice out of it, 376 00:39:43,882 --> 00:39:47,841 and check if it would freeze into the tube. 377 00:39:47,927 --> 00:39:49,613 That was one of the worst parts of the mission, 378 00:39:49,637 --> 00:39:52,595 was the, uh, was the cold air. 379 00:39:52,682 --> 00:39:54,923 The only time you didn't feel it is when you were 380 00:39:55,018 --> 00:39:58,055 fighting fighters or going over the target. 381 00:40:03,526 --> 00:40:06,893 Oh, at 30,000 feet, 382 00:40:06,988 --> 00:40:08,899 I think the temperature drops 383 00:40:08,990 --> 00:40:11,231 2 degrees every 1,000. 384 00:40:13,536 --> 00:40:17,996 It'd be about 40 below at that altitude. 385 00:40:18,082 --> 00:40:21,745 In the cockpit, a little bit of heat came off 386 00:40:21,836 --> 00:40:24,043 a number three engine. 387 00:40:24,130 --> 00:40:29,716 It came into the cockpit there where the pilot and I sat, 388 00:40:29,802 --> 00:40:33,761 and it was enough to kind of keep your feet warm 389 00:40:33,848 --> 00:40:36,214 and your hands. 390 00:40:42,899 --> 00:40:45,982 Our ball turret gunner had a gun problem. 391 00:40:46,069 --> 00:40:49,937 His guns jammed and he took his gloves off to work on it. 392 00:40:50,031 --> 00:40:51,896 And both his hands got frostbitten 393 00:40:51,991 --> 00:40:54,357 and he didn't fly with us for a month 394 00:40:54,452 --> 00:40:56,534 till his hands healed up. 395 00:41:03,169 --> 00:41:06,878 Well, it was so cold on one mission 396 00:41:06,965 --> 00:41:10,628 our co-pilot suffered an anoxia situation 397 00:41:10,718 --> 00:41:12,549 where he passed out 398 00:41:12,637 --> 00:41:16,425 and his hand froze to the plexiglas window. 399 00:41:16,516 --> 00:41:19,383 And he had to amputate the fingers of his hand 400 00:41:19,477 --> 00:41:22,184 because it was so cold that his hand, when he tried 401 00:41:22,271 --> 00:41:26,731 to help himself, froze to the plexiglas window. 402 00:42:26,044 --> 00:42:29,582 Well, the British treated us very nice. 403 00:42:29,672 --> 00:42:31,913 In some cases, royally. 404 00:42:35,720 --> 00:42:37,426 They call it the friendly invasion, 405 00:42:37,513 --> 00:42:40,095 'cause we flat invaded that country. 406 00:42:48,649 --> 00:42:50,605 England's a small country, and we had it 407 00:42:50,693 --> 00:42:53,651 absolutely covered up with American soldiers. 408 00:42:57,158 --> 00:42:59,615 And they tolerated us. 409 00:43:17,261 --> 00:43:18,592 I was single then. 410 00:43:18,679 --> 00:43:21,170 I could run around, do whatever I wanted. 411 00:43:21,265 --> 00:43:23,130 But I didn't feel uncomfortable 412 00:43:23,226 --> 00:43:26,184 with the British people at all. 413 00:43:26,270 --> 00:43:29,057 Once I got to be able to understand the language, 414 00:43:29,148 --> 00:43:31,685 because that english language 415 00:43:31,776 --> 00:43:33,562 was a little different than ours. 416 00:43:36,030 --> 00:43:37,520 Very good people. 417 00:43:37,615 --> 00:43:41,199 As you know, at the beginning of the war, 418 00:43:41,285 --> 00:43:45,153 they weren't too enamored by the yanks coming over. 419 00:43:45,248 --> 00:43:48,081 They said we were overpaid, 420 00:43:48,167 --> 00:43:50,533 oversexed and over here. 421 00:43:50,628 --> 00:43:52,584 I remember that. 422 00:44:32,044 --> 00:44:37,129 Flak is German 88-millimeter Cannon shells. 423 00:44:37,216 --> 00:44:41,585 Flak was responsible for more planes being shot down 424 00:44:41,679 --> 00:44:43,544 than enemy fighters. 425 00:44:43,639 --> 00:44:46,676 And when you see flak, black puffs of smoke... 426 00:44:46,767 --> 00:44:50,100 That's after the shell, of course, has exploded. 427 00:44:50,188 --> 00:44:52,725 And it explodes, hypothetically, 428 00:44:52,815 --> 00:44:55,898 into 200 pieces. 429 00:44:55,985 --> 00:44:58,351 And it's powerful. 430 00:45:03,326 --> 00:45:05,282 You don't know where the flak is coming from. 431 00:45:05,369 --> 00:45:08,861 You don't know if the next burst is gonna hit you or not. 432 00:45:08,956 --> 00:45:11,868 You never know where the next one is gonna be 433 00:45:11,959 --> 00:45:14,200 in a case like that, and that's what scares you. 434 00:45:17,048 --> 00:45:19,664 Well, it just looked like a big thunderstorm, so to speak. 435 00:45:19,759 --> 00:45:21,420 That's what it amounted to. 436 00:45:21,510 --> 00:45:24,047 But you had to keep on flying. 437 00:45:29,727 --> 00:45:33,140 God was on your side when you didn't get hit. 438 00:45:33,231 --> 00:45:35,222 The flak would vary so much. 439 00:45:35,316 --> 00:45:37,728 The Germans had pretty good radar. 440 00:45:37,818 --> 00:45:41,060 They could judge your altitude, your speed, 441 00:45:41,155 --> 00:45:43,567 and your direction. 442 00:45:50,456 --> 00:45:54,369 I think the worst that I ever had over a castle, Germany, 443 00:45:54,460 --> 00:45:56,166 I'll never forget that one. 444 00:45:56,254 --> 00:45:58,461 It blew my windshield out, 445 00:45:58,547 --> 00:46:02,381 and come into my face at 160 miles an hour. 446 00:46:10,434 --> 00:46:12,049 You look at that flak out there 447 00:46:12,144 --> 00:46:16,228 and you swear you're not gonna get through it. 448 00:46:16,315 --> 00:46:18,101 The sky's almost black with these things 449 00:46:18,192 --> 00:46:21,434 busting all over the place. 450 00:46:21,529 --> 00:46:24,612 It's amazing we did make it through as much as we did. 451 00:46:39,839 --> 00:46:41,295 Well, we had a dog and it looked 452 00:46:41,382 --> 00:46:43,543 more like a pig than a dog, 453 00:46:43,634 --> 00:46:46,501 but it was our mascot. 454 00:46:54,478 --> 00:46:57,720 We had a stove in the middle of the barracks 455 00:46:57,815 --> 00:47:00,898 and we used to make sandwiches on it and so forth. 456 00:47:00,985 --> 00:47:06,196 If the dog was around we'd feed him whatever we had left over. 457 00:47:06,282 --> 00:47:09,445 He hung around the barracks until we got back. 458 00:47:09,535 --> 00:47:11,400 I don't know if he had a name or not. 459 00:47:11,495 --> 00:47:13,577 It was a faithful little dog. 460 00:47:13,664 --> 00:47:16,451 But had a real wide nose. 461 00:47:24,425 --> 00:47:27,041 Oh, you get superstitious. 462 00:47:27,136 --> 00:47:30,845 I remember I had to put on a clean pair of socks 463 00:47:30,931 --> 00:47:33,764 the day I was shot down. 464 00:47:33,851 --> 00:47:37,890 I'd been wearing the same pair of socks. 465 00:47:37,980 --> 00:47:41,848 Evidently, I think the pup got one of my socks 466 00:47:41,942 --> 00:47:44,433 and was chewing on it and then hid it 467 00:47:44,528 --> 00:47:46,234 and I couldn't find it that morning. 468 00:47:46,322 --> 00:47:49,189 I had to put on a clean pair of socks. 469 00:47:49,283 --> 00:47:54,152 That might have been the reason I was shot down. 470 00:47:54,246 --> 00:47:55,952 You either believe this or not, 471 00:47:56,040 --> 00:47:58,998 but somewhere's around the 10th or 12th mission, 472 00:47:59,085 --> 00:48:02,293 I got to a point and I know some of the other fellas 473 00:48:02,380 --> 00:48:03,961 reached the same thing, 474 00:48:04,048 --> 00:48:06,539 that they were feeling blasé. 475 00:48:06,634 --> 00:48:08,340 They didn't get us up to here. 476 00:48:08,427 --> 00:48:10,509 They ain't gonna get us here on. 477 00:48:13,224 --> 00:48:16,466 I was somewhat superstitious. 478 00:48:16,560 --> 00:48:18,642 I always felt god would bring me home, 479 00:48:18,729 --> 00:48:20,515 and I mean that sincerely. 480 00:48:20,606 --> 00:48:25,225 However, I wasn't sure if it would be in one piece. 481 00:48:30,074 --> 00:48:34,363 I flew five days in a row, five missions. 482 00:48:34,453 --> 00:48:36,865 And I remember by the fourth or fifth one 483 00:48:36,956 --> 00:48:38,241 you really didn't care. 484 00:48:38,332 --> 00:48:39,947 You were worn out. 485 00:48:40,042 --> 00:48:42,784 You wanted to get away from it. 486 00:48:42,878 --> 00:48:45,460 I saw a lot of them break under pressure. 487 00:48:45,548 --> 00:48:47,254 Come back and told the flight surgeon, 488 00:48:47,341 --> 00:48:50,959 "ll can't fly anymore,” and they didn't. 489 00:48:51,053 --> 00:48:55,592 Nobody pointed their finger at them and ridiculed them. 490 00:48:55,683 --> 00:48:57,423 Nobody. 491 00:49:37,183 --> 00:49:39,094 Yes, the bomb run. 492 00:49:39,185 --> 00:49:40,675 That was the worst, 493 00:49:40,769 --> 00:49:43,351 'cause you had to keep everything steady. 494 00:49:45,399 --> 00:49:47,811 If you weren't on a bomb run you could slide over 495 00:49:47,902 --> 00:49:51,815 once in a while and they'd think it'd miss ya. 496 00:49:51,906 --> 00:49:55,319 But on a bomb run you just had to sit there and take it. 497 00:49:59,580 --> 00:50:02,037 Try to shrivel up, I guess. 498 00:50:05,127 --> 00:50:07,664 Well, the lead ship does it all. 499 00:50:07,755 --> 00:50:10,417 You just follow what he does. 500 00:50:10,508 --> 00:50:13,500 The lead ship and then the two on each side 501 00:50:13,594 --> 00:50:16,802 and one down here and one up here and around here. 502 00:50:21,894 --> 00:50:25,603 I was flying up right above the leader. 503 00:50:25,689 --> 00:50:27,270 And when you're watching him, 504 00:50:27,358 --> 00:50:30,145 and you see the bomb doors open, 505 00:50:30,236 --> 00:50:31,851 then you open too, 506 00:50:31,946 --> 00:50:33,902 and then you wait for him to drop bombs, 507 00:50:33,989 --> 00:50:36,605 and when he drops bombs, then you drop. 508 00:50:47,086 --> 00:50:49,122 We can't change our altitude, 509 00:50:49,213 --> 00:50:51,204 and we can't change our direction, 510 00:50:51,298 --> 00:50:54,756 and we're what you call sitting ducks at that moment. 511 00:50:58,556 --> 00:51:01,218 It was rough, because any minute 512 00:51:01,308 --> 00:51:03,640 you were going to get hit. 513 00:52:24,892 --> 00:52:26,848 The bombs are dropped. 514 00:52:26,935 --> 00:52:30,473 Bombs away and the first thing you hear is, 515 00:52:30,564 --> 00:52:34,227 "let's get the hell out of here." 516 00:52:34,318 --> 00:52:36,559 Well, we'd make a sharp turn 517 00:52:36,654 --> 00:52:38,895 and the group follows the lead. 518 00:52:42,034 --> 00:52:45,197 After a while, fighters tanks started coming in, 519 00:52:45,287 --> 00:52:47,949 and they didn't miss very often. 520 00:53:10,854 --> 00:53:13,061 They'd be out 20, 30 miles, 521 00:53:13,148 --> 00:53:15,480 and they'd come rush straight at your level. 522 00:53:23,701 --> 00:53:27,444 You couldn't hit anything with those guns I had back there. 523 00:53:27,538 --> 00:53:30,245 By the time you saw a guy he was gone. 524 00:53:30,332 --> 00:53:33,916 I mean, you see one coming, he's gone. 525 00:53:57,651 --> 00:54:01,735 You don't have much time to shoot at 'em. 526 00:54:01,822 --> 00:54:04,689 If you get off a burst or two, you're lucky. 527 00:54:04,783 --> 00:54:06,614 They go zoop. 528 00:54:25,387 --> 00:54:28,379 He'll drop off, he'll fly down, 529 00:54:28,474 --> 00:54:30,135 and then he'll line up on you. 530 00:54:30,225 --> 00:54:32,967 Dut-dut-dut-dut-dut, and then he'll peel off. 531 00:55:11,058 --> 00:55:15,176 The co-pilot was hit pretty hard when we were shot down, 532 00:55:15,270 --> 00:55:18,262 a 20 millimeter shell popped 533 00:55:18,357 --> 00:55:21,975 right above his head and it knocked an eye out. 534 00:55:23,946 --> 00:55:26,278 So it was high noon. 535 00:55:26,365 --> 00:55:29,778 Me109 was back there blasting at us. 536 00:55:29,868 --> 00:55:32,985 And I heard the co-pilot, he said, 537 00:55:33,080 --> 00:55:36,368 "Jesus Christ, number 4's on fire. 538 00:55:36,458 --> 00:55:38,494 Get out.” 539 00:55:41,839 --> 00:55:44,706 When that thing is spinning and heading down, 540 00:55:44,800 --> 00:55:46,381 you are glued to your seat. 541 00:55:46,468 --> 00:55:48,504 You couldn't move if you wanted to. 542 00:55:53,100 --> 00:55:57,059 And you're lucky if you see two or three guys bail out. 543 00:56:00,190 --> 00:56:03,353 We would count the chutes and usually, if we start to look 544 00:56:03,443 --> 00:56:05,775 too long after a ship that was going down, 545 00:56:05,863 --> 00:56:08,650 the pilot would say, "okay, guys, off.” 546 00:56:08,740 --> 00:56:10,301 We didn't want to spend too much time looking 547 00:56:10,325 --> 00:56:12,566 at a plane going down when we had, 548 00:56:12,661 --> 00:56:15,118 you know, fighters in the area and so forth. 549 00:56:23,422 --> 00:56:27,085 The gunners and the others that were watching all the time 550 00:56:27,175 --> 00:56:28,915 would tell you, "boy, I don't think 551 00:56:29,011 --> 00:56:31,593 anybody got out of that one, nobody got out,” 552 00:56:31,680 --> 00:56:34,547 and then sometimes you'd see chutes 553 00:56:34,641 --> 00:56:37,678 coming out of them before they blew up or anything. 554 00:56:40,856 --> 00:56:42,767 And if you didn't have your chute on, 555 00:56:42,858 --> 00:56:46,100 and get out of there in less than 30 seconds, 556 00:56:46,194 --> 00:56:49,152 you gone. 557 00:56:49,239 --> 00:56:50,649 You're gone. 558 00:56:52,868 --> 00:56:56,360 And seven out of eleven out of my crew 559 00:56:56,455 --> 00:56:59,197 got out alive. 560 00:56:59,291 --> 00:57:01,782 And one of them, when he got on the ground, 561 00:57:01,877 --> 00:57:05,995 they pitchforked him to death. 562 00:57:06,089 --> 00:57:09,377 How can you kill a human like that? 563 00:57:45,796 --> 00:57:50,711 As we approach the field, we set off flares. 564 00:57:50,801 --> 00:57:53,463 Red flares means you have wounded aboard. 565 00:57:53,553 --> 00:57:55,009 Everybody else gets out of the way 566 00:57:55,097 --> 00:57:57,213 and the wounded comes in first. 567 00:58:47,274 --> 00:58:50,357 To this day, I still see it when I think of it. 568 00:58:50,444 --> 00:58:52,025 I choke up. 569 00:58:52,112 --> 00:58:53,792 I can't help it, they were friends of mine. 570 00:58:53,864 --> 00:58:57,448 They were good friends and it hurt so bad. 571 00:58:57,534 --> 00:59:01,243 Especially, we all felt like what a waste. 572 00:59:05,167 --> 00:59:07,954 With the job we had, the chance of dying 573 00:59:08,045 --> 00:59:10,081 was at least 50 percent. 574 00:59:10,172 --> 00:59:11,912 Fifty percent chance of living, 575 00:59:12,007 --> 00:59:14,419 fifty percent chance of dying. 576 00:59:18,013 --> 00:59:19,613 You know a guy said, "your name's on it." 577 00:59:19,639 --> 00:59:22,096 Well, maybe it was. 578 00:59:22,184 --> 00:59:24,470 But it was scary, 579 00:59:24,561 --> 00:59:26,517 and I get very irritated 580 00:59:26,605 --> 00:59:28,436 when I hear some of these guys say, 581 00:59:28,523 --> 00:59:30,479 "I wasn't scared one bit." 582 00:59:30,567 --> 00:59:32,523 They're full of prunes. 583 00:59:36,573 --> 00:59:39,030 I was scared every time. 584 00:59:46,833 --> 00:59:48,573 I went out to a ship one time 585 00:59:48,668 --> 00:59:52,411 when they were taking a young fellow off, 586 00:59:52,506 --> 00:59:56,670 and I thought I could help them. 587 00:59:56,760 --> 00:59:59,172 The guy they were pulling out of the ship... 588 01:00:02,390 --> 01:00:05,882 He was calling for his mother. 589 01:00:56,319 --> 01:01:00,107 In about late 1944, 590 01:01:00,198 --> 01:01:02,780 the allies decided 591 01:01:02,868 --> 01:01:05,905 to do away with precision bombing. 592 01:01:08,039 --> 01:01:10,621 We went to pattern bombing. 593 01:01:12,502 --> 01:01:15,084 Unfortunately, killed a lot of people 594 01:01:15,172 --> 01:01:19,211 but brought the war to a close about a year sooner. 595 01:01:29,144 --> 01:01:32,807 The United States military did not go out 596 01:01:32,898 --> 01:01:36,231 to carpet bomb civilians or anything. 597 01:01:36,318 --> 01:01:38,354 They went out to bomb factories, 598 01:01:38,445 --> 01:01:40,652 rail yards, refineries, 599 01:01:40,739 --> 01:01:43,822 and places that had something to do with the war. 600 01:01:43,909 --> 01:01:45,945 I don't think that I feel bad about that at all. 601 01:01:46,036 --> 01:01:48,277 That's what we were supposed to do. 602 01:01:48,371 --> 01:01:50,578 But toward the end of the war, 603 01:01:50,665 --> 01:01:52,656 the Germans would not give up. 604 01:02:13,104 --> 01:02:14,765 Never thought a thing about it. 605 01:02:14,856 --> 01:02:18,599 We didn't think about people being down there. 606 01:02:18,693 --> 01:02:20,149 That never crossed my mind 607 01:02:20,237 --> 01:02:22,944 about a human being being down there. 608 01:02:34,542 --> 01:02:35,702 I never gave it a thought. 609 01:02:35,794 --> 01:02:37,375 They're just Germans. 610 01:02:37,462 --> 01:02:39,874 You know, and I never gave it a thought. 611 01:02:50,934 --> 01:02:53,471 For some reason, I didn't hate them. 612 01:02:53,561 --> 01:02:58,021 If I had a fighter plane come within shooting distance, 613 01:02:58,108 --> 01:03:00,440 my thought was, this kid probably wanted 614 01:03:00,527 --> 01:03:02,518 to live as bad as you did. 615 01:03:04,739 --> 01:03:07,151 I really didn't have any hate for them. 616 01:03:07,242 --> 01:03:09,449 I'm just scared of them. 617 01:03:12,914 --> 01:03:14,529 Never gave it a thought. 618 01:03:14,624 --> 01:03:16,831 I honestly never gave it a thought. 619 01:03:16,918 --> 01:03:19,910 I just felt this way. 620 01:03:20,005 --> 01:03:21,791 They're gonna do it to us. 621 01:03:21,881 --> 01:03:24,167 We better do it to them before they do it to us. 622 01:03:24,259 --> 01:03:27,046 And that's the way I felt and I couldn't help it. 623 01:04:06,718 --> 01:04:11,132 Bring any thoughts seeing that? 624 01:04:11,222 --> 01:04:15,465 Oh I, I drifted off into several thoughts. 625 01:04:15,560 --> 01:04:18,973 Most of them you know, uh, 626 01:04:19,064 --> 01:04:22,022 were bad thoughts when you look at a mission, 627 01:04:22,108 --> 01:04:26,226 and see what took place on that mission. 628 01:04:26,321 --> 01:04:29,813 And your mind drifts back to those times, you know. 629 01:04:45,799 --> 01:04:48,836 We had a lot of mid-air collisions. 630 01:04:48,927 --> 01:04:53,341 Some guys would get mixed up, pilots, and they'd start flying 631 01:04:53,431 --> 01:04:55,843 the wrong direction, so on. 632 01:04:55,934 --> 01:04:59,597 But uh, the scary part of our mission 633 01:04:59,687 --> 01:05:01,643 is just getting through all of that. 634 01:05:04,526 --> 01:05:08,940 Did it get easier or harder as you flew more missions? 635 01:05:09,030 --> 01:05:11,942 I just, like I said, I was scared to death. 636 01:05:12,033 --> 01:05:16,072 But uh, those were not good days. 637 01:05:27,215 --> 01:05:30,673 There was no radio communication at all. 638 01:05:30,760 --> 01:05:33,752 We had the intercom going all the time though, 639 01:05:33,847 --> 01:05:37,465 checking the men with the oxygen masks on, 640 01:05:37,559 --> 01:05:41,677 make sure their oxygen was flowing right. 641 01:05:41,771 --> 01:05:43,102 Especially the tail gunner, 642 01:05:43,189 --> 01:05:46,397 he was laying back there by himself so much. 643 01:05:54,784 --> 01:05:58,151 You get very close to the men and everything, 644 01:05:58,246 --> 01:06:00,862 and they're all young kids. 645 01:06:05,003 --> 01:06:07,790 They're all dead now, I'm sure. 646 01:06:19,559 --> 01:06:20,924 When you're that high up, 647 01:06:21,019 --> 01:06:24,477 everything on the ground looks like a little toy. 648 01:06:24,564 --> 01:06:27,431 If you see a truck or something 649 01:06:27,525 --> 01:06:30,938 it really looks small. 650 01:06:31,029 --> 01:06:34,692 It was hard but you had to do it. 651 01:06:34,782 --> 01:06:38,775 We had to get rid of Hitler and so we did it. 652 01:06:51,090 --> 01:06:52,705 You guys know that some bombs 653 01:06:52,800 --> 01:06:56,588 went through the wings of b-17s? 654 01:06:56,679 --> 01:06:58,419 I always wondered, "how in the world?" 655 01:06:58,515 --> 01:07:02,053 They were out of position in the formation. 656 01:07:03,978 --> 01:07:07,141 God's been good to me. 657 01:07:07,232 --> 01:07:09,848 First of all, he's given me 70 years 658 01:07:09,943 --> 01:07:11,979 with that lady over there, 659 01:07:12,070 --> 01:07:15,153 and we have a wonderful family. 660 01:07:19,077 --> 01:07:20,487 We had six kids, 661 01:07:20,578 --> 01:07:22,068 and we have 20 grandkids, 662 01:07:22,163 --> 01:07:24,404 22 great grandkids. 663 01:07:24,499 --> 01:07:29,038 So, we've been a very blessed family. 664 01:07:29,128 --> 01:07:31,710 I didn't say I want 'em all at the house at once. 665 01:07:39,222 --> 01:07:41,178 What do you think about the good war 666 01:07:41,266 --> 01:07:43,552 and you're the greatest generation? 667 01:07:46,187 --> 01:07:49,554 Well, um, I'm beginning to believe it. 668 01:07:53,111 --> 01:07:54,942 Does that make sense to ya? 669 01:07:57,865 --> 01:07:59,730 I don't know, you kinda grew up 10 years 670 01:07:59,826 --> 01:08:03,819 when you went into that thing. 671 01:08:03,913 --> 01:08:07,201 And uh, when I came back home 672 01:08:07,292 --> 01:08:09,954 I didn't feel like the same man anymore. 673 01:08:17,844 --> 01:08:19,755 What do you say to people who say, 674 01:08:19,846 --> 01:08:22,679 "John, you're a hero, you're a hero.” 675 01:08:22,765 --> 01:08:24,471 I say, "okay you're probably right." 676 01:08:24,559 --> 01:08:27,596 I don't know what else to say. 677 01:08:27,687 --> 01:08:29,598 I wasn't one of them hero heroes, 678 01:08:29,689 --> 01:08:32,055 the guys that finished their tour 679 01:08:32,150 --> 01:08:33,515 and signed up for another one. 680 01:08:33,610 --> 01:08:35,771 I wasn't them kinda heroes. 681 01:08:38,823 --> 01:08:40,859 I want it clearly known, 682 01:08:40,950 --> 01:08:44,488 I do not profess myself to be a hero. 683 01:08:44,579 --> 01:08:46,319 I was the pilot. 684 01:08:46,414 --> 01:08:50,657 The heroes are buried in england, Germany, and France. 685 01:08:50,752 --> 01:08:52,208 The boys that didn't make it. 686 01:08:52,295 --> 01:08:53,831 They're the heroes. 687 01:08:53,921 --> 01:08:56,333 I was just a normal pilot. 688 01:09:15,818 --> 01:09:18,104 This is called "pattern bombing." 689 01:09:25,328 --> 01:09:27,694 Well, no offense but you guys aren't getting any younger. 690 01:09:27,789 --> 01:09:29,029 Why do you think it's important 691 01:09:29,123 --> 01:09:31,205 that people know what you guys did? 692 01:09:34,295 --> 01:09:35,876 Well, for one thing, 693 01:09:35,963 --> 01:09:37,828 we don't want it to happen again. 694 01:09:37,924 --> 01:09:41,257 In fact or in fancy, 695 01:09:41,344 --> 01:09:43,676 we just don't want it to happen again, 696 01:09:43,763 --> 01:09:47,255 for my grandson, my granddaughters 697 01:09:47,350 --> 01:09:51,514 and their husbands. 698 01:09:51,604 --> 01:09:57,315 I don't wanna see them have to face what we did. 699 01:10:42,739 --> 01:10:45,822 I cannot say it much more eloquently. 700 01:10:45,908 --> 01:10:50,868 It was a hazardous profession. 701 01:10:50,955 --> 01:10:52,946 Okay, up at altitude, and of course, 702 01:10:53,040 --> 01:10:55,702 bombs away and all, and you got this on. 703 01:10:55,793 --> 01:10:58,079 I think fear more than anything, 704 01:10:58,171 --> 01:11:01,709 you'd perspire and sweat. 705 01:11:01,799 --> 01:11:03,414 And you got this on. 706 01:11:03,509 --> 01:11:06,216 Ice would form and you'd take a deep breath, 707 01:11:06,304 --> 01:11:09,467 and break the ice out of the oxygen mask, 708 01:11:09,557 --> 01:11:12,219 and then put it back on. 709 01:11:14,854 --> 01:11:18,062 This is bud trying to get down on the floor. 710 01:11:18,149 --> 01:11:20,356 This is the Mae west. 711 01:11:20,443 --> 01:11:22,934 Remember I told you about the oxygen? 712 01:11:23,029 --> 01:11:25,520 I mean the co2 cylinder? 713 01:11:25,615 --> 01:11:27,321 This is it. 714 01:11:27,408 --> 01:11:29,990 There it is, co2 cylinder. 715 01:11:30,077 --> 01:11:33,865 This was before underarm deodorant, hair spray. 716 01:11:33,956 --> 01:11:38,120 I think this was the birth of aerosol containers. 717 01:11:38,211 --> 01:11:39,667 And if guys bailed out, 718 01:11:39,754 --> 01:11:42,291 they didn't want it totally inflated 719 01:11:42,381 --> 01:11:45,248 couple of hundred feet up because if they hit the water 720 01:11:45,343 --> 01:11:47,550 they could break their backs. 721 01:11:47,637 --> 01:11:49,628 So it wasn't that easy, I never did it. 722 01:11:49,722 --> 01:11:51,804 This is a throat mic. 723 01:11:51,891 --> 01:11:54,223 This is how I talk to Erik. 724 01:11:54,310 --> 01:11:55,971 And this plugged in. 725 01:11:56,062 --> 01:11:58,895 And as I showed you on the helmet, 726 01:11:58,981 --> 01:12:00,221 this is how I heard, 727 01:12:00,316 --> 01:12:02,682 so we had our communication system. 728 01:12:02,777 --> 01:12:05,063 But, bud, to be clear, this should've been returned 729 01:12:05,154 --> 01:12:07,065 to the government in 1945. 730 01:12:09,784 --> 01:12:12,025 Come and get 'em, baby! 731 01:12:12,119 --> 01:12:13,639 Well, this... What we just did with you 732 01:12:13,704 --> 01:12:15,410 might be the credit roll to our movie. 733 01:12:15,498 --> 01:12:17,079 So, you have any messages for people 734 01:12:17,166 --> 01:12:18,827 that have just watched this movie? 735 01:12:18,918 --> 01:12:22,831 Well, I'm just so glad that people in America 736 01:12:22,922 --> 01:12:26,085 or anywhere can get an idea 737 01:12:26,175 --> 01:12:30,418 of what 19 and 20 and 21-year-old kids went through. 738 01:12:30,513 --> 01:12:34,176 And as I tell kids when I get done with my talk, 739 01:12:34,267 --> 01:12:36,428 "I'm going to ask you guys a favor now." 740 01:12:36,519 --> 01:12:38,055 "What's that, bud?" 741 01:12:38,145 --> 01:12:39,601 When you go home tonight, 742 01:12:39,689 --> 01:12:42,021 you say a prayer of thanks to god 743 01:12:42,108 --> 01:12:45,942 for those 28,000 guys that gave their lives 744 01:12:46,028 --> 01:12:49,236 so that you got the life you got today. 745 01:12:51,117 --> 01:12:52,386 Thank you for your service, bud. 746 01:12:52,410 --> 01:12:55,026 Not at all, not at all.