Chapter 2 Farming, Depression, Drought

I started my journey to becoming a pilot in February of 1939, long before I even knew there would be a war, much less a war so big and terrible that it involved almost all the world and would be fought in air, on land and sea. Roosevelt had been elected by a landslide (532 electoral votes out of 540) in ’36 and had a “New Deal” for putting America back to work. Thousands of people were working for the WPA (Work Projects Administration) programs and lucky to be making $60-75 a month.

At the end of the Nebraska growing season that year (’39), my dry farming partnership (during the big drought) with my younger brother had netted me slightly over $60 profit for the entire year and I owed about $500 on a pickup. My brother worked for McDonald’s Department Store, I did the farming. Like the old adage says: If your head hurts, quit banging it against the wall. We gave up farming and he sold off the machinery we had and used that money to pay off the pickup, then sold it. It was time to make a change.

Chapter 1 - The Story of a World War II Pilot

This blog tells my story as a World War II pilot. I did live through some historic times which the Millennials and even the Gen Xers seem to know little about. Even our own children, the Baby Boomers, don’t understand why we went to war and even less about why we put it all behind us and just got on with life when, and if, we got back. We never told them, how could they understand? We’re guilty of not wanting to relive bad times or share them with our children. We were also under orders not to reveal details of our service. That's why so many of our stories have been a long time coming. For what it's worth here's my war history. I admit, I'm still leaving out a lot of details mostly because I've forgotten them.

My story is no that different than hundreds of other young men who went off to World War II but I’ve been told it had its interesting moments. Of course, there’s much more to our stories than the time we spent in the Armed Services (like how our families coped at home) but that’s mainly what I intend to tell here.