BURNS, Estel G. (b.1921) | Oral History

BURNS, Estel G. (b.1921)

Oral Histories

For the Tarrant County War Veterans Project. World War II veteran and B-17 pilot. Childhood and education in Bates County, Missouri; family history; farm life in the Great Depression; 1942 enlistment in Army Air Corps; basic training; training for aviation mechanics at Sheppard Field, Texas; radio school in Sioux Falls, S.D.; acceptance into pilot training at Maxwell Field, Ala., Helena, Ark., Chanute Field, Ill., and Sioux City, Iowa; marriage to Dorothy Perrin; assignment to 401st Bomb Group in the 8th Air Force; trip across the Atlantic on the USS Brazil; life at Deenethorpe Air Base, England; crew members and their respective duties on his plane, Grin and Bare It, details of various missions bombing German targets, both military and civilian, throughout 1944; feelings about missions against civilian targets; opinion of Luftwaffe pilots and of Germans more generally; return to U.S.; postwar Air Force career, including service in Korean War.
Date of Interview: October 14, 2009

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