Telegram to home April 7th, BD April 6th, Report to the railroad station April 12th. Took train to Santa Ana to bus that took him to a training center for the Air force.20,000 cadets there. Qualifying exams, physical tests, Shortly after, they handed out results. Ones who qualitified for cadets, would be assigned to a pilot program , navigator and bombardier program. Gave scores and were based from 10 down to 0. Dad’s were as three as. Dad was in the top 26 for bombardiers scores. So although he wanted to be a pilot, he was placed in the program and before to ship out to gunnery school, he was called down to the physical education , he had such a good record in physical education program they wanted him to stay on as a non-commissioned officers status, they wanted Dad to stay. Dad turned them down, but was tempted to stay because Jo DiMaggio was on the staff their but he wanted to go to War.
Went to Kingman Arizona on a train, old train, 1800s, gas light fixtures etc. Reported for gunnery school. first step. Flew in B-17s, ball turret, at the bottom of the B-17. From there went to bombardier school at Deming New Mexico. Was there till Feb 5th, 1944, graduated from Bombardier school and from there they sent them home on leave for a month, End of 30 day leave, reported to Hammer field ,,Fresno for crew assignments. gave them 6 weeks to mill around and meet guys. Pilots would choose their crew, co pilot,, a bombardier,, Met his pilot in the Bamboo room and the Fresno hotel, 18 or 19 years old. Cliff Mansfield was the pilot, 27 years,

Crews were set up they sent Dad to March field CA, near Riverside, Training for combat B-24 operation. Met all new crew members, there, lots of fun. Bill Funk was the co pilot and Bob Rowe, was the navigator. Flew to 36,000 feet in a b 24, with oxygen, etc. ice would form on the wool collars, Mock run on target in LA.
Went to Fairfield, Suessan. Airfield near SF. Brand new B 24, still silver, that was the transport for going overseas, Took off June 6th 1944. Headed for Honolulu Hawaii where they landed at Pearl Harbor. Spent 4 days there going to the beach, had fun. Took off from there to an Island “Canton Island in the Pacific,, spent night there and flew to Guadal canal, spent the night there, had a fabulous dinner which was famous during the war. seven vegetables. amazing. Then went Townsville Australia, on the east side on the coast. Were there for a few days they sent them to Port Moresby, New Guinea. had a camp where they issued 45 cal pistol, other stuff for use. 2 or 3 practice missions and the Japanese were still occupying ,,, not well organized ,, dropped bombs off of the runway, were told there were Japanese hiding in the jungle, stayed there a couple of weeks. went to Darwin Australia, for assignment for the 380th bomb group, 529th squadron of the 5th air force. Stayed there 6 or 7 months flying missions to some of the many islands that were within a six or seven hour flight. Longest was 14 hours. Moved them up to the Philippines, Mindoro, from there till dad reached a total of 40 missions, half out of the Philippines others out of Australia. May he got the necessary points to go home,, flew Dad to Samar Island Philippines, loaded on a c2 cargo ship called the Sea Witch. Armada of boats were taken off, got on the boat that was the slowest of the bunch, everyone was way ahead. 26 days to get to San Francisco. Rode with a bunch of national guard who were in the war for 3 years and Dad was going home after 1 year, Kind of embarrassing, Got tested for a bunch of stuff, in Angel Island, San F, to make sure they did not have any diseases. June 6 1945.

Sent home on leave for 30 days, When he got to Seattle went to the Beach right away Green Lake. Lying down in the sun, all the kids, were pointing at him jaundiced,,,yellow color from the medication for Malaria, made them jaundiced.
Sent them to Santa Ana, report there,a room for him to share with another bombardier, Jess Kimmel. There for two weeks, during that time, he took Dad out to visit Keenan Wynn and his wife , Kimmel’s sister was married to him. Two weekends were spent there, Van Johnson was there constantly, with Kimmel’s sister, probably lovers, Obvious that they were having an affair, and Keenan Wynn did not care. They later married after Keenan Wynn divorced. Pamela Britton, Actress, went with them to Ciro’s, met Carmen Caballeros piano player, Jess Kimmel knew Lana Turner, never saw her. he tried to get her to go out, but she said she was busy that night.

Assigned to a field in Texas near Midland, Bombardier instruction school there, War ended. Happily sent home right away, September, 1945.

Stories, New Guinea, there was a path to the officers club on the beach, here came this wild looking guy with a bone in his nose, hennaed hair coming towards him making all kinds of noise, he was getting concerned, got real close , he did not even appear to look at Dad, at he got closer, he was singing, lay that pistol down, babe, lay that pistol down, pistol packing momma, lay that pistol down.

Also in New Guinea, they issued 45 caliber pistols , the first day, there were two of three guys who shot themselves in the foot. Funniest was a guy who was a navigator from Portland, in the tent, with fellow officers with his new gun, pointing here and there. a B-4 bag, big fold up bag with all your clothes in it, closed and sitting on the floor , forgot he was pressing the trigger, put 16 holes into one shirt all of his dress uniforms were ruined.

One mission in Kai islands, when they were waiting to take off, two navy officers came running over and wanted to go along,( from the submarine in Darwin) One was the second in command and they wanted to go on a mission. Mansfield told them to hop in, damn fools, they got back in the waist, odd mission, they came into the Kai island,s low, right down close to the deck, got over the target, stuff blowing off all around them, suddenly a tremendous explosion i(Dad was in the nose) boom damn plane shook this red fluid came down on the glass, oh Jesus someone got killed. (it was only the pressure fluid, to run the turret, only looked like blood, hydraulic fluid) got on the intercom and he called Wagner, turret was not moving or anything, called the pilot, he says crank him around and pull him out of there. He was just sitting there, grabbed him around the stomach, are ya hurt, his foot hurt, so Dad got him out, stood him up, big GI shoes shoe was split from the heel to his toe. Apparently the ammunition in the can that was in the plane exploded bullets,
Two navy guys probably wet their pants, they kissed the ground when they got home, they said that was a great experience but they never wanted to do that again. Mansfield, went to the submarine for dinner.

Got hit lots of times, first mission that they flew where they got to the target where they had to turn around and go back, because of engine problems, Anti aircraft, pieces were raining down on the ship, sounded like hailing, That only happened 3 times , had a lot of anti aircraft fire, not every time, Did not get the degree of ammunition after the first few mission.

one close call reconnaissance mission, one ship to cover certain areas, to look around, middle of the ocean, nice clear blue sky, looked off in the distance, there was a ship. took out after it, with a bunch of flags, looked like a destroyer, was Japanese, with flag on it. running up on it. made a run on them, dad set the bombs, three release, they would drop out, one two three, 5,000 feet only, when they got close enough the bombs released, at the last minute, the guy turned, started chasing him all over the place, tried one string, to the left and short, missed, go after him again, chasing this boat. all of a sudden boom right under the wing, a five inch gun on the ship blew the turbo out of the number 2 engine, Dad says I don’t think there is is much sense in chasing this guy much farther, god it was scary, it was really close.

one other story, in Philippines, came back from a mission, Mansfield, was feeling frisky at the time, when they came in towards the strip, buzzed the tower, made a big pass, lands the plane, got himself three months suspension from flying, Dad had to finish his missions with ,,another pilot, but got involved with the last mission, he was flying with a pilot named Bob Daffer, flying to drop bombs on a Formosa air strip. Which they did, and having engine trouble with 2 engines, and they were the lead ship, Pilots were struggling to control airplane, number 6 plane was on fire behind them. While they were watching there were several parachutes behind them. Plane exploded while dad was looking at it. They went on their way with three engines working and one sputtering, emergency landing on Manila. The survivors who survived were taken prisoners by the Japanese, when they got out they were madder than heck, one of the other squadrons that were supposed to release bombs and came at the targets then failed to release the bombs and then flew back around and over the squadron and released the bombs. Friendly fire had caused the problem, Dad earned enough points 100 points, to go home, Example: got points for every 5 hours on a mission was worth 1 point. This mission was his last mission. Dad flew 40 missions, 360 hours, first lieutant, offered a promotion to captain if he would end up staying as group bombadier. 20 years old when he got out. Could not even get served a drink,