Encoded for the Experiencing War web site for the Veterans History Project.
The recording of the interview with Eunice E. Powell was digitized.
This transcription was encoded with minimal changes to the original text in an effort to preserve original content and idiosyncrasies of the person interviewed. Period language and terminology are also retained. Encoding is literal with regard to the transcriptionist's capitalization, punctuation, and spelling. Spelling errors are indicated with [sic]; however, recurring errors in spelling within a single document have been marked the first time and not subsequently.
I'm going an interview with Eunice Powell his birthday is November 2, 1923 he served in World War II as the united states Air Force highest rank achieved was a Tech Sergeant he was in World War II from November 1942 to 1945 and he is a distant relative. Eunice Powell served in the 90 bomb group known has the Jolly Rogers.
Where and when were you born?
Brooklyn Texas, November the 2, 1923.
What were you doing before entering the service?
High School.
Where any of your other families in the military?
Yeah I had a brother. Two brothers. Two brothers was in there.
What did they do? What did they serve?
One was a Seabee in the Aleutian islands and the other was stationed at Perth, Australia which was a repair base for sub and submarines.
How were you entered into the service? Drafted or enlisted?
Enlisted.
And the reason for choosing the specific brand of service?
I thought of an airplane and just I don't know I wanted to fly I guess.
Departure for a training camp early days of training what were you doing?
I guess the first thing I did was go to gunnery school down in Panama city Florida and from there I went up to Bose, Idaho and took my training with the rest of the crew.
What was your specialized training? What was your specialty?
Sitting on that end of that plain B 24 called a tail gunner if that's a specialty.
What was your social life like physical regime far backs food?
Just a normal service types foods some good most of them bad
Where did you serve in World War II?
South West Pacific.
Would like to give some of the details of your trip?
Well go on especially that uhh all of us should have been shot down up in the army needed some films pictured made of uhh invade the uhh what was the name of that?
Those islands up there thought I would never forget them...yeah cut it off then I will Pelilieu islands when we got there we had it was a Jolly Roger the ninetieth of bound group of mission and we started out with about 26 planes no fight or escort no nothing and we got up there and about 65 s and made about 65 fighter planes in the air we got separated we got separated the squadrons got separated in a terrible storm weather and six eleven of us made it up there we got hit with about 65 fighter planes Japanese fighter planes.
When we got there we had we had a Jolly Roger night of bound group and we started out with about 26 airplanes no flight or escort no nothing we got up there and there was about 65 s and 65 fighter planes we got separated the squadrons thru a teirible storm weather and 11 of us made it up there and we got hit with about 65 fighter planes jet planes and none of us had any and my guns went out both of my guns went out right after the flight started and I was just sitting in the back of the tail with a dead two dead guns and all I could do is move the dirt around as if I a lots of books but uh it estimated we shot down about 35 o them we all should have been shot down with this many Japanese planes there were that we luckily got out of there I think we lost 1 airplane we lost there and one on landing.
What were some of the actions that you witnessed away from the front line?
What kind of duties? I don't know? Any duties.
What were some of the emotions relating to combat? Witnessing casualties? Destructions?
I don't know? We just took it one day at a time we just flew a mission a lot of things happened we could have not made it on take off we could have on this particular mission that I just talking about we were in air for 14 hours and 20 minutes and I just happened to walk thru the bombados and gasoline just happened to be coming out oi'the top of plane and we were just out of gas practically out of gas we were about to land unfortunately we were on the ground when the motor was about to cut out on us it was a little tricky but we made all right
What were some of the friendship you formed during the war?
Well aww I don't know any particular friendship you were all everybodt were friends all of you my friend we were in the air the enlisted met guy stayed in one tent and the officer stayed in another tent so we got to know our group pretty well.
How did you stay in touch with some family members back home?
By Letter
How often would you write?
Beg your Pardon
How often would you write?
Well I would try to write every third day just to let them know I was still alive.
What were some of the recreation or off duty pursuits?
I'm sorry I am having a hard time hear you but I can't understand what you're saying
What were some of the recreation or off duty pursuits?
Going to the BX and drinking beer
Were where you when the war ended
I was stationed in Brooksville, Texas
How did you return home?
Buses that's a good story we finished flying and we were laying around there and in hospitals ship and a an old Dutch fraters was converted in a hospital ship that was pulled into the harbor and we were looking for volunteers to take care of these people to the states so we volunteered the enlister volunteered me to go on it that's how I got home I flew across I like to tell we flew over the golden gate bridge we came under it coming home it was a no danger it was just slope it was about 12 knots that's top speed it took us 29 days 30 days across the pacific so we anyways we were at home
Umnim how did you adjust to life back at home without going to war and everything?
You mean after I got out of the service? I went directly into college I went to Texas A&I and uhh I went to Texas A&M and uhh but uhh an ways I graduated out of there and I went into coaching high school coach up in Scottsdale everybody wanted me they called big sours I took that job I was the only coach I coached everything boys and I was a teacher part time principal and a bus driver for 33 hundred dollars a year
Wow! Astonishing Umm
Do you still stay in contact with the people you fought in war with
We did for a long while but I haven't heard from anybody in years / 1^ 1
How has the war affected your life?
Well that's a good question I don't know I don't know except by maturing I got married when I was in college so the responsibilities was more well I had more responsibilities than maturely
What were some of the do you have any life lessons from the military service?
Do I have any what?
Life lessons
Ahh I don't know I guess I do but they kinda of hidden I suppose
Where were you during the bombing of Pearl Harbor and what were some of your emotions
Well at that time I was 15 years old 16 years old I guess I was early 17 years old it didn't I didn't even know were pearl harbor was or what it was all about so it didn't effect me much but then it did because everyone was trying to get into service and the boys and everybody was volunteering from schools the high schools I was going to and its just one of those things you just felt that you had to do
To serve your country. Umm what were some of the weapons that you used if you could list them and briefly describe them?
well just the only weapons I ever used was 250 caliber and machine guns in the tail end of that plane
Did you use any weapons when you were on land walking, running?
No we did no walk we didn't do any walking or shooting on the land at all
thank you. what were some of the specific things that you ate while you were overseas?
what?
What where some of things you ate?
Spam, they cooked it every way that it could be cooked and believe it or not I still kinda like spam but then it was just powdered eggs golly everything was powdered uh except spam uh I don't know where they got that from but we had it. I like to tell this story we on one particular mission uh we I told our crew Tesh John Tesh T- E- S -H good pilot damn good pilot and we were going to have thanksgiving dinner or Christmas I don't remember now I don't know which '^-7 i^ one it is I think it was thanksgiving I think and are our plane was going to break off at a certain certain place and go look at in a logon that there was plane down and they wanted us to go and take a look at it so when we got back to the base and instead of the turkey we had uh we had a system where every every month we sent uh sent uh plane down to Australia and we all we all paid for it not the plane but the food and they'd go down and pick up fresh vegetables fresh fruits once a month and they would bring it back and uh they took three dollars out of my pay check we were paid in cash. I never did have any money, anyway uh but when we got back what I was going to try to say was we was suppose to have a turkey and dressing and all the good stuff but instead they ran out and we ate spam again for thanksgiving, damn. But anyway everything
and you said you got paid in cash about how much did you get paid roughly
200 and some old dollars a month. I got flat pay
And um did you have any did you have any close calls you know with bullets or anything anything like that?
well yeah and when the Japs were up there they fightin and shooting at us as much as we were shooting at them and I don't know where the bullets were going but our plane had several bullets holes and some would it the plan every now and then but no body was hurt fourtanttly didn't didn't anyone physical harmed and so I guess I don't know I don't know
do you have any stories or anything that you would like to share? Eunice; well the story I shared with you a while ago probably the one in the peralu islands uh we were getting hit with so many planes we were we didn't have but seven plans that's all
And you said you were never wounded correct?
Beg your patron
Were you ever wounded?
No
um how did you feel about President Roosevelt?
well I really didn't I wasn't into political thinking state at that time so I didn't he was doing what I thought that he had to do and we all were there was no unequal's or equals everybody was doing the same thing and that was trying to get the war over so I didn't I never did give it a second thought of the president or anything else or what he was doing and not doing. My job was to go into the service and do what I could help get it over with.
do you recall any moments where you really missed your family or that you really wanted to come and see them, how did you feel?
uh no not really I, I thought of the family but my dad died when I was so young that um I don't even remember him and so mother raised us she was married twice and both husbands pasted away and of them was Weeks and the other one Powell and I just I just I don't know I just had a job to do so I guess it took me away from them and it had to be it had to be. I mean it didn't bother me.
what was your most vivid moment that you recall from the war if you could tell a story about that?
In what manor are you talking about?
Any manor, tell as many stories as you can.
well bombed the two big ones and we bombed Talicapathin ajid Baronial and pollution I mean not pollution I mean the Palllu Islands. Those were the two big raids and we lost how many. And we bombed a refinery over there uh we had more than our air in the ninetieth bomb group we had a dozen planes over there we had about a hundred about a hundred round fair we all swing six if I remember correctly and that's pretty bad a bunch of planes I watched I watched the Japanese scrap to three men that bailed out and the japs scraped them they went in and shot them with and with it nonsense but that's part of it so I hated to see that but um I don't know it was like I said I took the attitude that this had to be done and let's do it you know.
Did your family ever go through the great depression I mean yall went through the great depression but what were some of things that happened in the great depression whenever you were little?
I was too young to realize that my we went to we were in East Texas that is where I was born almost Samuel Ann farm up, we moved off to their down to the oil field and uh out in Lulling, Texas and uh so my brother had a pretty good job in the oil field and we made it alright. We did it and so everything became a routine you know there weren't any special assignments or you're never going to do much with an ole B24 our flight speed was about cruising speed was about 165 miles per hour and that is not very fast so you were subject to uh almost anything a bird can fly that high fast I guess so anyway all and all it was an experience that I don't want to do over again or my kids to do over but I wouldn't change it for anything in the world. This is a little humorous but was very serious at the time it happened my first mission I guess it was just mission that is what it was just a mission to get us climbing ties that we would go bombing that when it was done with the ninetieth bomb group you would sitting up it wasn't a group bombing at all all it was was just our group the new crew so they wanted us to go up on the air strip on Lackey off of New Guinea coast and we got up there and I guess that thing had uh pot holes in it as big as this house and so I think and said it was just a run up there to break us in but anyway we got up there and I bombed a deer that couldn't hit a butt with both hands and we made a run on the target and nothing happened but when we came back around to go back around again uh and he me made our run again and it was over a coconut grove and there was somebody down there flashing a mirror put ever ad in but when we opened Bombay door Pamadeer closed the Bombay doors and he didn't let the bombs go out when he should and when we circled back around when we got over the uh coconut grove he had his bum side set on south and when he opened those Bombay doors it automatically the bombs went out that's in case of an emergency or something and so he went right in the middle of those coconut grove where that guy was trying to get out of I don't know what I don't know what he imagined what he thought but when he any when we got out and we were making a run on the target, well in in the tail gunner, the nose gunner, and the waste gunner had a bell that would go off well on a bell out signal, everybody bail out we what had we he had not done intentionally but when this bell rang and I you know had to get out so I got out and looked and he had hit and go back into the opening of the door that I got out and went back and in the fuse lose section where the two waist gunners were and they were just setting there leisurely taking sights in and here I was getting ready to bail out and what had happen was that it when we made our turn the pilot had also a warning signal that be low flying speed so the this was all screwed up the bells were all screwed up the bells rang so when he cut those engines and went down for whatever reason that he did when we got and when we made our turn and we lost the bombs and all uh we lost the flying speed well instead of the warning of just the pilot well uh the bailout bell rang so there I was up there like an idiot uh I was doing what I was suppose to do I was getting ready to bail out and those two guys they didn't have a bell that would go off just me back in the tail so it's kind of humors in a way back thinking about it but at the time it was deadly serious and had it been a jap air plane or anything else and where we were bombing for I don't know how long and we starved them out we island hopped McCarthy strategy was we leaving this one here and cut them off up here and staved these out get all the cargo ships and everything else sink them and starve all these people out so we would not have to go through the landing in the process and lose a lot of men so that was the system so any way uh like I said it was uh kinda humors once you settle down and thinking about but at the time it was deadly serious and when all the parts would malfunction some of the equipment on the air plane would malfunction we made it.
Did malfunctions happen often?
No not really uh no I don't know if it did then I didn't know anything about it.
what was your last mission?
oh boy I guess my last combat mission gosh I would have to look at my diary to see that I don't it was the Philippines I guess. When we bombed the Philippine Islands started bombing them and getting ready to invade we'd were able to listen on our radio the intercom the uh Douglas Macarthur's speech I have returned and that is what his famous words were when he left I shall return and he did he gave a big speech he was uh colorful charter he wanted to be president of the united states and man he could taste it and anyway uh we heard that on the radio when we were bombing the Philippines we had invaded and I don't know what date that dates didn't matter so I guess the Philippines was my last mission. We moved off of New Guinea to what we called a by off it was a small island and we almost had to tail to take off we almost had the tail in the water when we were taking off in this end and we barely got off the runway it was s a short runway they left about eight thousand feet for an ole B24 but this was way short any way and the Japanese if they would have been smart they would have had the knowledge and know how they could of wiped out but we were up there in our tents it was like this uh ropes that we tied our tents down to and it was intertwined like that and and so and anyway and time we had a Japanese alert we had three one was when they took off they fired three shots with a 20 millimeter gun in the air and when they got closer there was the system there they fired two when they got ready in position to bomb there was only one so this particular time, I don't know where the first two shots went but they we didn't hear anything so we heard one shot and they were here and they bombed us I tried to and uh at that time we came out with the night fighter plane called the black widow and it was painted black and we had to rated everything all and they grew up and tried knocking them out the japs out the air well anyway they didn't go up and there was only shot so that mean that they were there and we didn't have any place to hide so we all took off toward the beach not sandy beach I never saw a sandy beach but I saw a lot of coral reefs that's what them islands were made from and in this particular case it was the same thing we went through those ropes and knocking men down and everything else trying to get to the water and we got down there and uh I skinned ray legs going through that coral it just I got holes and they were sharp and it was very poisonous but the funniest one I think we were stationed at Port Marsbe we were waiting to be assigned uh part of my crew went up you know I don't even know what part now and they went up where we back into the jungle where we were and I there was coconuts in the trees there was this coconut tree with coconut in them so I said I am going to go up there and get me some coconuts so I did and a coconut tree grows this was with its limbs and when you cut them off it grows this way so I got up there and I could almost reach these coconuts when I leaned over my foot slipped and here I went down that darn coconut tree and my belly was skinned there was a little creek and ran over there to that creek and laid down in it and let the cold water soak me when I got in a tent I don't even know if we were in a tent I don't know where we were staying I had a bottle of Macresta uh I poured it all over my belly and rubbed it I didn't get any coconuts that time you know well I don't know that's about it didn't do anything about I didn't do anything heroic I made it back and I am glad I did
How many hours did you normally sleep a day?
Sleep? Well some of the mission we got up at three o clock in the morning oh lord have mercy we knew when uh what time to get up you know we really didn't any sleep and at night we were trying to sleep but uh no it was always something going through your dead we I don't know we sorta we just got our share of sleep we would get up sometimes at three o clock four o clock or five o clock oh no no we were always up before five o clock if we had a mission if we would hit them early then we would get up early I will tell you one more story and I don't remember where we were I know what we were doing we were headed towards a target and we ran into a thunderstorm and I mean it was a booger it you would be flying at here and you would hit a rough route and you would be up 500 ft set down if you were standing up then you would be sent to the floor then all of a sudden you were down you had a down path and you were down and you better hold on.