Encoded for the Experiencing War web site for the Veterans History Project.
The recording of the interview with Donald Conley 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.
My name is Kristin Kleinberger, and I'm from the County of York, and I'm here with Mr. Donald Conley, interviewing him today for York County's first annual Veteran's History Project, and we are here in the Judicial Center at the county -- York County Courthouse. So, Mr. Conley, I would like to first thank you for your service to our country in time of war and in time of peace. And I think as far as for the beginning of the interview -- to talk sort of about the biographical information for you, of where you -- where you had first grown up and your family history and what had intrigued you for the military and then to later be enlisted into the army.
Mm-hmm. Okay. You know, I was born and raised in Lemoyne on Herman Avenue, and my dad and mom were from York County, and then my dad was a trolly operator, and of course, Mom was -- took care of five of us kids, so she had her hands full. And when I graduated from high school, my dad told me, he said, "You want to get yourself a job where they -- you get a retirement out of it." And I'm glad I listened to him, because it's paying off now. I'm -- in fact, I'm getting three retirements, and my dad, he didn't get much in retirement, you know. And then, anyway, he said, "Get a job with Uncle Sam." So I went over to Middletown, and this was -- the war was already started then, and I signed up to be a -- an aircraft electrician, and they discontinued the apprentice program during the first year I was there, and so, eventually, I was drafted, and they sent me down to New Cumberland Depot, and we stayed there, I think, 10th of December, I believe it was, of '42, and we stayed there a couple days and they had a troop train come in and picked us up and took us down to Miami Beach in a big hotel. So we thought, man, this is great, big hotel right on the beach. But there was a lot of things we didn't like about it, because they will expect you to shave every day, and we had to shave without any flashlights or anything, so I don't know what we looked like after we shaved, but, anyway, I was there a short time, and then they sent me to AM school at -- down in Texas -- no, not Dyersburg -- well, somewhere down in Texas. I'll think about it.
Can you tell us --
When you get to be 94, you forget where you were.
Can you tell us what the AM school stands for?
Yeah, aviation mechanic. And so, then, in the meantime, I had taken a test to be a fly boy, and I'm not very tall, but I was about a quarter of an inch short. You had to be 5'4.
What did it mean to be a fly boy?
You flew the aircraft. So, anyway, they sent us out to near Saint Louis, a little place called Parks Air College, and -- but I didn't do too good there. I couldn't land these aircraft. I was doing all right, but I couldn't land the darn thing. I thought I was down close to the ground and I'd bounce that thing, and I just never learned the feel of it.
Back then, they wouldn't have had the simulators or anything for training purposes, so how exactly --
No. We only used --
How exactly do you train for something like that?
Well, you're flying by the seat of your pants, and -- but some of the guys used to come back from their training and they'd have cornstalks on the landing gears, so you know they were getting down pretty low.
Did you always have someone else, then -- a seasoned --
Well, no, I --
-- pilot flying with you, then --
Yeah, I never --
-- to take over?
I didn't pass the -- they got rid of me when they found out, so they sent me back to school. And then they decided, we'd make a lower ball gunner out of him.
What did that entail?
Well, you went to school again on twin .50 calibers and --
Can you explain what a twin .50 caliber is?
Yeah, that's a .50 caliber machine gun, and the top turret, you -- on your handles, you just used the handles to fire the thing and get lined up on your target, and then you just -- when you had it in certain spot on, they had a little screen there. If you can get that plane that was shooting at you and that's green, you pull the trigger, why, you'd probably hit him. So we did that for a while, and then they sent us over to Dyersburg, Tennessee, and put us on B-17s, and that's when we met our crew. And we -- I don't remember how many months that was, but it was a month or two of training, and some of the guys got in trouble, because they shot some of the farmer's cows with their guns. See, so, guys were pretty bad in those days, too. Yeah, but then the first sergeant came down, and he said, "Okay, boys, you had your fun. Now the farmer wants some money for his cattle." So we had to chip in and make sure he was taken care of. So then, while we were there, why, we finished our training, and they took us into a big room, and this young captain was up in front of us, and he had all his chest things, full of ribbons on him, you know, and he was a combat veteran. He was a pilot. He had his wings on. He said, "All right, fellas, you're going into combat now. They're shootin' live ammunition. Look at the guy to the right of ya and the guy to the left of ya. One of you's not comin' home." And we thought, wow, what are we getting into?
What was your feeling in that moment of --
Well, we'd rather just talk then, you know? We were dumb.
How old were you at that time?
About 21.
About 21 years old?
Yeah. And the pilot was only 22.
And you knew that in the next few days, that you were going to be entering into combat?
Well, we wasn't sure. As it was, we went over by boat, but the first guys that went over, they took their -- they picked up their aircraft in Minnesota and flew it up to New Finland, and from New Finland, they'd fly it over to England, and incidentally, eventually, they had women flying those planes over.
But you took the boat?
Yeah, we took the boat.
And where did you end up? Where were you stationed?
Well, we'd come into the harbor up in England, and we were in a -- what'd they call it -- well, there's a bunch of ships, anyway, and they had protection with submarines, and stuff like that. And eventually, we'd come into England and went up the railroad station, and there's holes in the roof and part of the roof's blown away, and that was when the Germans had been bombing them. And they put us on a train, and this was nighttime, now, and they -- you weren't allowed to have any lights on. So, the next day, we ended up in a little place called Molesworth. They're about 60 miles North of London. And there's B-17s sitting out in the farmer's field, and whenever they had lost some of them, they'd take them out of the field and get them ready for combat. And so, then, we went into the -- I joined the 303rd bomb group 360th Squadron in the Eighth Air Force, and it was called the Hell's Angels Squadron and --
How did it earn that name?
Yeah. Do you want me to read it here, or should I tell you?
Whichever you feel more comfortable with.
Let me read this --
Okay.
-- because I just got this off the internet today. "Famous Flying Fortress Gives The 303rd" -- that was the bomb group -- "its Name." It said (as read): The original 303rd crews received their new B-17F aircraft at Kellogg Field, Minnesota, and were given the opportunity to name their new Flying Fortresses. And they flew up to Gander Field, New Finland, and allowed crews to check their aircraft for deficiencies before making the over-water flight to the UK, which is United Kingdom. And the Group's most famous B-17, Hell's Angels, was not named when Captain Irl E. Baldwin and his crew flew her from Kellogg Field to England. On their B-17's fourth or fifth mission, the Captain remarked on interphone that he was thinking about a name. He asked, "How about Hell's Angels from the movie of that name?" One of the crewmen, commenting -- commented him on the mission being flown, stated, "This is the closest to hell the angels will ever get." The crew then agreed that Hell's Angels would be a good name for their B-17. And the Hell's Angels nose art was designed and painted on the right side of the fuselage. And finally, the Eighth Air Force issued a directive that squadron and aircraft letters would be painted on the side of all bombers. And then, on January 1944, after several weeks of suggestions, debates, and arguments, and by a vote of the 303rd bombing group, staff and squadron commanders, the name Hell's Angels was adopted by the 303rd Bombardment Group. At that time, the numerical designation of bomb groups in England was still on the secret list, and the men of the 303rd wanted some name that was simple, so that was very good. And that Hell's Angels ship was the first one to make 25 missions, and eventually, they got it up to 48 missions, and ground crew and the six men were selected from the Eighth Air Force to return to the U.S. for a tour of the war factories. On hand for the sendoff ceremony was Ben Lyon and then Lieutenant Colonel in the USAAF on the staff of General Eaker, commander of the Eighth Air Force. On this tour, the Hell's Angels, both as an airplane and a bomb group, became famous all over the United States. The crew told hundreds of thousands of war workers of the trials and hardships of the early days of daylight bombing missions and pointed out the patches that covered the old fort from nose to tail. They were very proud of the fact that no member of the aircrew was ever wounded in action. And although this record was surpassed many times by many aircraft during the later years, Hell's Angels was a champion of the early days and will always be the champion of -- in the eyes of the 303rd. So that's the story on that.
Mr. Conley, for the sake of the interview, can you just let us know the -- where the report had come from off the internet? Could you just read that top part?
Oh, yeah, that's a good idea, because all I need is to have a computer, and they can get this. And what you do is -- I did it today, and I just put "Hell's Angels" down and "B-17 aircraft," and before I knew it, why, it was on the screen.
And what is the source for the paper that you had just read from for us today?
I'm not sure about -- maybe I shouldn't had taken this. I might get in trouble, because here's the guy's name that had it copyrighted, but I'll take that chance. "Famous Flying Fortress Gives the 303rd its Name."
Do you have a -- is there a name of the article that you could give to us?
No. You get that on there and you punch it in and then they give you a -- * * * (Discussion held off the record.) * * *
When I got there, they had 39 missions, and there was 39 crews missing, and with our crew there, there was 29 on duty then, and they flew more missions than any other outfit in England. And it seemed, I must've live the charmed life, because a couple times when I was on pass, they'd lose 8 or 10 aircraft. And one mission that I was on, they lost six, and that was right out of my squadron, but I was one that flew through it and came back. But it was -- yeah, we lost a lot of good men, but so did England. They -- if it wouldn't have been for the RAF, we probably -- the war wouldn't have ended quite as it did.
Why do you say that?
Well, because Hitler was afraid to make a land in England, and the RAF, they had radar and stuff, and they had the thing set up so they had stations that were along the coast. And when those aircraft would start coming in, why, they'd be radioed in, and then they would get these certain squadrons and get up and hit them, so ...
While you were stationed in England, are there any specific memories or experiences that you had that stand out in mind that you would like to share?
Yeah, I'd like to share one. I was hopping to Nottingham. We used to go to Nottingham. I learned my lesson not to go to London. I'll tell you why later on. And --
Is this in the year 1942, '43?
Uh-huh. Yeah.
Okay.
I run out of my thought. Now, what was I talking about?
I'm sorry I interrupted you. The --
Oh, okay. Yeah, I was hopping to Nottingham, and then this British lorry stopped and they said, "Hop in the back." And I'd jump in the back, and here, there was nothing Italian PWs back there, and they were going to town just like I was. They had their uniforms on, and I had mine. Of course, I had all my fruit salad on, you know, and then they say, "Are you fly boy?" "Yeah." So, anyway, they used these PWs to work in England in factories and -- because they had -- you know, they'd captured them whenever they had their landings over there in Italy. And then, eventually, we got the whole thing, and -- but they worked just like the rest of the people, and I guess, they had it made.
Did they talk with you about any experiences --
Well, I didn't --
-- that they had while you were riding in the back? I bet that was kind of an awkward experience for you.
It was very awkward, because I was the only GI back there. I was glad to get to Nottingham.
How long was the ride?
About a half an hour, 45 minutes.
And then what did you do once you first got to Nottingham?
Well, then, we ended up -- Frank Crawford and I, we -- he was a lower ball guy. Him and I used to run around together. And we ended up in the dance hall in Nottingham, and we -- whenever we'd go on pass, why, that's what we'd head for. We got a weekend pass, like, it was Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Incidentally, when you went on pass, you were allowed to go down to the commerce area and draw out supplies for meals, and then we used to give the stuff to the British people. And then I learned to know one family, and I used to always have a -- we had a bag that we carried, and I always had the thing filled whenever I went up to see them.
What sorts of things would you give to them?
Well, things that they couldn't get, like sugar and tea and canned fruit and cheese and vegetables, you know, what --
So you took it from base --
Yeah.
-- and brought it along with you?
Uh-huh.
Did they share anything with you then as a trade --
Yeah, I don't --
-- in return?
Mr. Turner got me a camera, I remember that, yeah, and --
Mr. Turner was one of the family members that you had --
Yeah, that I --
-- befriended?
-- learned to know. And then, once you got back off of a pass, why, they -- then you were subject to some more raids.
Do you still keep in touch with Mr. Turner?
No. He's passed away a long time ago. Mrs. Turner, she's gone. My wife and I were over there. A couple of times, we tried to find them, but we weren't able to find them. In fact, they moved from Nottingham to London.
Do you still have the camera?
No. No. I bought a camera up in New Finland.
Okay.
I still have that one, though. And then -- okay. Let's see.
When you were on the raids in England, what were your specific job duties there?
Well, I was -- my main job was to make sure my guns and everything were ready, and then we used to test firearm out over the channel. And then we crashed in France one time, and while we were down there, the guys would be shooting their -- checking their guns to make sure they're working, and this stuff -- the shells would come -- the spent shells were coming down and hitting the -- on the hospital roof.
Oh my word.
Yeah, so they stopped that business, then.
Somebody told them they weren't allowed to do that anymore.
No. Well, we got word about, if you want to fire your guns, make sure you fire them over water. And so that's what happened there. And then --
Can you tell us about what happened with the crash that you experienced --
Well, yeah, we --
-- how that came to be?
-- we had a raid to -- we were going to Brux, Czechoslovakia, and that was a long mission. It was almost 11 hours, and we were near Berlin, and these messerschmitts come up, and this guy was coming in on us, and I had gotten my turret turned around, and by the time I got the thing around right, ready to fire, why, he was blinking his right lights at us. His bullets were coming at me, and he knocked out two engines on the first pass and -- it's funny -- isn't it funny how you can remember things? And they learned to come from the front, because, that way, they didn't have much time to get a beat on them. And he'd come flying by us, and then he banked off and I don't know what happened to him. But, anyway, we dropped from 28,000 down to about 11,000 before we could hold our altitude. And we were just mushing along about 110 miles an hour, and the pilot, he didn't know what to do. Do we stay with the bomber stream and pick up some more fighters, or do we head for Switzerland? If we get to Switzerland, why, they intern you for the rest of the war there. So, anyway, he decided that, well, we'll stay with the bomber steam and then maybe we'll get more protection. So, anyway, we flew across Germany. It was for a couple hours and we flew across Germany.
And the engines were holding out during this time?
Two of them were. And when you came to the channel, why, the top turret guy always got out of his turret, and so, I'm down there, and I'm looking at the instruments, and I see the cylinder head temperature in one of the engines is in red, all temperatures almost zero, and I told the pilot, and he said, "Do you think we can make it across that water? And I said, "Well, I don't know. How long will it take?" "Well," he said, "maybe 20 or 30 minutes." I said, "I don't know." I said, "I don't -- you don't know how long these other engines are going to last." And that's when I told him, I said, "I don't know how long this engine's going to last." So he feathered that prop on that one when they feathered -- when they turned it into the wind so it doesn't create so much drag. And then we were on one engine and he turns back in overland, and when he did, why, they used to bypass some of these German ack-ack guns, and they'd let them there until they'd run out of food and ammunition. And they started shooting at us, but they were -- we were too far away, and then just some puffs come up at us, and they never did hit us. So the pilot's looking for a -- an airfield. Well, we couldn't find an airfield, so he picked out a farmer's field, and he overshot this field, and there's a woman there with a herd of sheep and a lot of big trees at the end of this field. And he pulled up to miss these trees, and then she pancaked in, and boy, when it did it, it to tore our engine off, tore the chin turret off, tore the lower ball off, and well -- and he had told me to get back in the radio room, because he told me I could jump one. And I said, "I don't wanna jump." And he said, "Get back in the radio room." And this guy I sit beside, it was his last mission, and we used to sweat the last mission out, and son of a gun, he died the next day, and all I had was a little scratch on my finger. And so then, in the meantime, when we stopped -- when it stopped moving, why, everybody jumps up and is trying to get out of this aircraft, and the oxygen bottles had been punctured and they're hissing and we thought it was going to catch on fire. Well, it didn't catch on fire. And as we were running out to the back door, and I looked back, and here, this guy I was sitting beside, why, he was laying on the floor, and I grabbed ahold of one of the gunners, Jerry Kosher, and him and I drug him out to the door, and then we seen it wasn't gonna burn or anything. And we got ahold of the -- the French people came and they called the doctors in the meantime. Canadian army ambulance came out and picked us up and took us all to the hospital. Oh, yes, incidentally, the copilot had been wounded on -- when that 109 hit us. He had been wounded in the ankle, and that was another reason he didn't want to make him -- he didn't want to make him jump. So my pilot called back to England, and they sent a 17 over to pick us up a couple days later, and they finally got us back to England. And then they gave us, we called it "flak leave." They sent us to a rest home for a week, and I think the guys were in worse shape after one week there than when we were flying, but we had fun there. We played golf and riding horses, and stuff like that.
A reprieve from the combat?
Yeah. So then we were there a week and they put us back into combat and made sure we got a flight real quick. Yeah, so ...
And then once you got back to England, I also know that you were stationed in Normandy for a period of time. Did you leave England to be stationed in Normandy?
No. We flew over Normandy when they were -- we were bombing some of the Germans, and that's the closest that I got to Normandy.
Can you tell us about some of your experiences while you were in Normandy with --
Well, I never got on the ground there. We were in France somewhere when we crashed, so ...
But then, in Normandy, is that where you did some of the -- some of the bombing runs?
Well, yeah, we bombed some of the front lines when the Germans were -- when they were making their push, they tried to cut the allied forces in half, and they come up through the Ardennes Forest. And the day before Christmas in 1944, the skies opened up for about a week or two, it was foggy, and they were really going to town. They almost got to Antwerp, and the Eighth Air Force put almost everything that they had, anything that would fly, they got up to bomb these troops, and eventually, they stopped them, and I guess it wasn't easy. But -- oh, incidentally, my first wife, her husband was down there in the Battle of Bulge, and I said to him once -- we could -- become pretty good friends. And I said to him, "Hey, Zimmy, I said, where were you during Christmas Day in 1944?" He says, "I was down there in the Battle of Bulge digging a foxhole," and he got frostbitten feet from that. And his wife has passed on, I think about six years ago. And --
Tell us what you did on some of those bombing runs that you had.
Well, on the bombing runs, that's when I had to go down there and come down out of the turrets and go back into bomb bay and beside all those bombs. And when they dropped, I'm supposed to lean over the rope hanging there and take these pictures of the bomb strike. And all this flak's breaking up around you and you're looking down at it and you're waiting for it to hit the ground so you can snap a lot of pictures and --
And hanging onto the side or rope --
Well, yeah, you're hanging on with one arm and trying to take pictures with another, and you're sweating it out, because you have a chute on, but who wants to bail out over target? Because the Germans get rid of you quick whenever you hit the ground and --
What kind of camera did you have?
I don't -- it was some kind of a GI camera, whatever they had.
Yeah.
Yeah, and then, of course -- and then one mission, though, we -- the bomb bay doors wouldn't open, so I had to come down out of the turret, and you had a handle there and you had to stick that handle in. We're up around 25,000, and it's cold. It was about 30 degrees below zero, and I'm supposed to wind these doors down to get them open so they could drop their bombs. And then after they dropped, then I had to go back down and wind them back up so we'd have less drag, and there's not much you could really do except for check for battle damage and --
Was there anyone else along with you while you were out taking the pictures --
No. I was supposed to go out there by myself. One other job that I had was tell the radioman -- we called them Tokyo tanks. They were gas -- the gasoline tanks, and they were out -- put on the aircraft. The later aircraft had them, and we called them Tokyo tanks, because they'd get more range with their fuel, and -- Oh, incidentally, I never told you about the --
Well, for the -- with the bombing runs, you were only about 20 years old, 21?
Well, 21.
21 years old --
Yeah.
-- and you were hanging out over the side --
Yeah.
-- through enemy fire, taking pictures with one hand.
Yeah, well, you --
That's pretty impressive.
Well, it got easy after a while.
There's no training for that --
No.
-- I suppose.
No, that's right. And when we first got over there, we used to have fighter escorts, and we had P-38s and P-51s and P-47s, and then, finally, they got rid of the 38s and we just had 51s and 47s. And they -- they couldn't -- the first guys that were over there, they had it rough, because they could only fly so far, and then they'd leave the bomber stream, and then those guys were on their own. And that one radio went to Schweinfurt. They lost 67 aircraft.
Why were they on their own after they went so far?
Because the fighters couldn't go any further. They were running low on fuel.
Oh, okay.
And they -- when they got low on fuel, then they would leave the bomber stream, and then on their way back to England, they'd go down there and shoot up the trains and have a good time. And incidentally -- you ever hear of Lindbergh?
Yes.
Okay. He was the guy -- he was over in Germany during the war -- before the war, and well, I guess when he'd come back, why, he kind of figured that they were going to go to war because of everything he had seen over there. But, anyway, he -- they -- the P-38 people had him fly this 38 and teach the guys how to really get more range out of them, and they were in the Pacific then, so ...
While you were fighting in combat there, what impact did it have on you to witness the casualties and the loss of life?
Well, you know, they say war is hell, and without a doubt, it is. And then a lot of times when we would go on those bomb missions, you'd get over target and it would be clouds 10/10, so they would just bomb the center of town. They'd bomb it by radar. And you always wondered how the Germans ever go through it all, but they were pretty smart themself. They had some of the first jets in combat, and we had pictures -- we drew pictures of what this plane looked like until, finally, somebody got a shot of them. But they just were a little bit late with the aircraft, and they didn't have that many of them, and they lost a lot of pilots, I guess, checking them out and ...
How did you keep in touch with any of your family or your friends back home?
Well, I always wrote home to Mom and Dad, and I always sent some money home, because, you know, the British soldiers used to say, "The trouble is, with their yanks, they're overpaid, over-sexed, and over here," because we did make a -- nice money. I was getting $75 a month plus flight pay, and as long as you were -- flew so many hours in a month, why, they'd give you flight pay, and they still do that. But, yeah, so ...
Did you get any care packages, or did anyone in your -- in your group --
Yeah. Joe Bialeski, he was our tail gunner, his mom sent us a pineapple upside down cake, and this is hard to believe, but by the time we got it, the ants were in it, so they just brushed the ants out and ate it anyway.
Anything to get a little bit of home-cooked food, huh?
Yeah, I guess. Yeah. And another thing, you never could get very much hot water in England. The first guys, when they took a shower, why, it was hot, but by the time you'd take a shower, and especially if you went on pass, why, there wouldn't be any hot water. You had to take a cold shower. And then some of the guys used to wait til they got to town to take their bath. I never did that, though.
Are there any other experiences that you'd like to share with us while you were stationed overseas?
Well, you know, let me give you one of the -- here's one. We went to mission --
Is this from a journal that you kept?
Yeah, I kept a journal and --
I bet you're thankful that you have that now to look back on.
Yeah, I do, and it's nice to look back and think, well, I came home and a lot of guys didn't come home. Here's one that we would have had. It was the 8th of August, 1944. The target was German troops and equipment on the front lines near Caen, France. We took on 1700 gallon of gas and had 38 100-pound bombs. And as we went over the front lines in France, the English and Canadian troops shot yellow smoke up to show their front lines and shot red smoke over the German lines so that we wouldn't miss. It was only about 3,000 yards between them, and the bombardier hadn't told the radioman that the bombs were supposed to drop in one-second intervals, and so Jerry told -- Jerry, the radioman, told him to salvo them; so we dropped about 30 in one spot. Flak was intense over target, but our squadron leader used a lot of evasive action and we ran into just a little flak. Wasn't even accurate. We were on oxygen three-and-a-half hours. And after the bombing was over, the Canadian and English made an advance. We flew in Miss Liberty on that one. And incidentally, that one that we crashed in, they were trying to set a record with that. It had 80-some missions on it. We crashed the thing for them. So I guess the ground crews weren't too happy when that had happened, so ...
How about any friendships or relationships that you had forged with the men that you fought in combat with, had you kept in touch with them after war or --
No. We had -- I don't know why, but we never got together. And my wife and I went to the last -- was that the last -- MRS. CONLEY: San Antonio was the last.
Yeah, we went down to San Antonio for their last meeting, and we stayed right across from the Alamo. We had a hotel right across from the Alamo.
Is that part of the veteran's reunion?
Yeah, it was a reunion. It was our last one --
Okay.
-- because it got to the point where there just weren't that many showing up and -- well, I wished I would have been with them earlier, because they did have one over in London. So I would've like to gone to that one.
Did you have any face-to-face contact with any of the opposing side -- any of the enemy contact at all?
No, uh-uh. No, we never -- we never did. I'm sure some of the guys did that went down, you know, and had become prisoners of war, but ...
When the war ended and you came back over to the States, how is that adjustment for you, to come back into the day-to-day --
Well, let me tell you about that. I was out -- I had a lot of points, because I had 29 missions and I'd seen a lot of combat, and the more missions you had, why, the more points you had. So I was trying to decide whether to reenlist. You could reenlist out in Saint Louis, and I couldn't make up my mind, and we used to fall out every morning for a work detail. And the first time, I got a job on the highway cracking rock. Well, I only lasted one day on that. I -- that was pretty hard work. I wasn't ready for that. So then, the next morning, I went out, they were looking for guys to work in the -- on the tomatoes on a farm. So, I thought, well, that's down my line; I like to grow things. So it was a good deal, because the guy left us bring his truck back to our base, and then, the next day, why, we could go back there and work for him, you know. So, that worked out. But in the meantime, I went to town one night, and there's a sign on the grass -- now listen to this -- there's a sign on the grass that said, "Soldiers and dogs, keep off the grass." And I was thinking about reenlisting. I thought, well, boy, if that's all they think of you now, I'm not reenlisting. So I went to the sarge and I said, "Hey, Sarge, I got 89 points, sign me up to get out of the service." So that's what he did.
Where did you see the sign at that was in the yard? Where were you?
I was up in Saint -- oh, while walking down the street, where I'd seen that sign.
Was that overseas?
Yeah.
When you were in England?
No. That was overseas in -- out at East Saint Louis.
East Saint Louis?
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah, that's all they think of the soldiers when the war is over.
So when you came back to the States, how did that adjustment take place with --
Well, I was okay. I was glad to get back and --
Were you married before the war --
No, I was --
-- or after the war?
No, I was still single. I waited until I was 28 before I got married, and so ...
Did you feel like you were well received?
Well, at home, I was, yeah.
And that the community accepted you back?
Yeah, and -- well, we just lived in a small town and --
You talked a little earlier about the fruit salad, and I was wondering if you could explain that to me about --
Well --
-- where that name came from and --
I don't --
-- talk a little bit about your fruit salad.
I don't know. I think the GIs, you know, they always talked about these GIs. They -- because, with your ribbons, there's all a bunch of different colors, so a fruit salad has different colors, too. So, you know, when you had a chest full of ribbons, why, you really noticed that.
What did your fruit salad look like? What kind of medals did you --
Well, mine wasn't too big. I had the wings and I had the 29 missions. You got a -- for so many missions, you got a medal to pin on your chest, and I had enough of them.
I also saw that you had a Good Conduct Medal.
Yeah. I was a sharp shooter and then there was all the different battles that we were in.
What's the EAME Ribbon with 5 Bronze Stars?
Oh, that's the different battles.
That was the different battles?
Yeah, European Theater of Operatings.
And you also had an Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters?
Yeah.
How did you earn that?
Just by flying in missions. All you had to do was fly and you'd get credit for that. And that's another thing we always sweat out. If you didn't get credit for the mission, why, sometimes you got shot up, too. But I remembered one mission we went on and we couldn't find our -- we couldn't find our squadron because it was overcast, and it took a good while to break out of the overcast, and so we were flying with the bomb stream. They went in a certain route. They always went in over Antwerp and places like that because there weren't too many guns there. And so we're flying, and we passed I don't know how many aircrafts. So, finally, we latched onto ours, and then we got credit for that, basically. But one time -- one time, we were -- we latched onto one and we had -- we blew a tire and they had another aircraft for us, and you'd jump in this other aircraft and then try to catch up to the flight. Well, we hooked onto this group, and pretty soon, they opened their bomb bay doors and we opened ours, and then the next thing you know, the guy called back, and he says, "Tail-End Charlie, what are you carrying in your bomb bay?" And the pilot says, "500 pounders." And he says, "Close your bomb bay doors. We're dropping leaflets." So we had to find another group to latch onto. Tail-End Charlie.