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Oral Histories

OH 1314

His experiences as a B-17 pilot in the European Theater during World War II. Prewar work experience; basic training, Sheppard Field, Wichita Falls, Texas, 1942; pre-flight training, West Texas State Teachers College, Canyon, Texas, 1942; primary flight training, Wickenburg, Arizona, 1942; basic flight training, Lancaster, California, 1943; advanced flight training, Fort Sumner, New Mexico, 1944; B-17 transition training, Hobbs, New Mexico, 1944; crew formation at Lincoln, Nebraska, 1944; further training at Rapid City, South Dakota, 1944; assignment to the 94th Bomb Group, Bury Saint Edmunds, England, October, 1944; his first mission to Hannover, Germany, 1944; his second mission to Merseburg, Germany, and the encounter with flak and fighter opposition; his mission during the Battle of the Bulge on Christmas Eve, 1944; low-level bombing missions to Hamburg, Kassel, and Ulm, Germany, 1945; the bonding effects of combat; his personal comments about the flying characteristics of the B-17; voyage back to the States aboard the Queen Mary, 1945.