Vincent Villa

95TH BOMB GROUP (H)

ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

2003 REUNION          RENO, NEVADA

 (Interviewed by Janie McKnight)

JM: This is Janie McKnight of the Legacy group of the 95th Bomb Group.  Today we’re here with Vincent Villa.  Vincent, will you give us your name, today’s date, and where we are.

VV: My name is Vince Villa.  And today’s date is 9/8/03.  And we are sitting here at the Hilton Hotel in Reno, Nevada, United States of America.

JM: And what were your dates of service with the Army Air Corps?

VV: My dates of service with the Air Corps was from December the 7th, 1942 to November 30th, 1945.

JM: And what were your dates with the 95th Bomb Group?

VV: 95th Bomb Group?  I joined the 95th Bomb Group in November ‘43.  And came back to the states in May ‘45.

JM: And what squadron were you in?

VV: I was in the 335th, and also served time with the 18th weather squadron.

JM: And your principle job with the 95th?

VV: The 95th, I was primarily a flight engineer, gunner.  I spent some time with the 18th weather squadron on some of the weather planes.  That was attached to the 95th Bomb Group.

JM: Can you tell us about where and when you enlisted in the service?

VV: I went into service in San Pedro, California.  I enlisted on December 7th, 1942.  

JM: What about your training.  Where did you do your training?

VV: Oh, all over.  Training was as everybody else.  My basic, we shipped from San Pedro to St. Petersburg, Florida for our basic.  And then some time catching the train from St. Pete to Orlando to gunnery school there.  After five weeks at gunnery school, we shipped to Chanute Field, Illinois and covered some of the tech things - AM school, airplane mechanics, and so forth.  And then from there down to Hensley Field, which I did some new station training with the weather squadron down there.  Then over to Hondo and some of the other strips that were down in Texas, until approximately October ‘43.  Then shipped from there to Billings, from Billings to Selfridge, from Selfridge to Billy Mitchell, and from Billy Mitchell after a layover, we had three planes.  We weren’t attached to the 95th at that time because we weren’t in England at that time, but we shipped from Billy Mitchell up to Bangor, Maine, from Bangor, Maine up to Goose Bay, Labrador, and Goose Bay, Labrador over to Rychovick, Iceland, down from Rychovick to Scotland.  And then from Scotland, we landed at Bury St. Edmonds and stayed there a little bit.  And from Bury we went to Raddlesdon, and then from Raddlesdon to Horham, where we joined the 95th.  And that was approximately the end of October to the first or second of November of ‘43. 

JM: With all that training, were there any memorable experiences?  Or was it pretty much routine?

VV: All of my experiences were, because I was a dumb barefoot kanaka from Hawaii (laughing).

JM: You’re going to have to spell that word that comes after barefoot.

VV: K-a-n-a-k-a.  That means a man.  I was a barefoot boy, actually, from Hawaii, and had been living in San Pedro.  But anyway, most of the training episodes were all basic.  There was nothing exceptional happened.  At that time, for 18, 19 year old kids, all we wanted to do was get the hell over there to Europe and kick the hell out of Hitler, and get it over with and come home again.  And I think that happened.  Anyway, basically, stateside training wasn’t that memorable.  It was up and down.  The only thing that was memorable was that we never did any KP, which was really great.  (Chuckle) That’s all I can say about that.  No really, there wasn’t.  There was no hair raising, you know.  The one thing about it is, being young like that, we did learn a lot.  Although I was born and raised military, come from a large family - 17 kids.  There was nine boys.  Right at this date, six of us managed to retire from the military - Navy, Army and Air Force.  And my Dad was retired Army.  So therefore I was kind of brought up as an Army brat, and saw more things probably at home than I probably did in my first few months of training in the states.  I can’t say that anything was hair raising, other than learning how to become a part of another family, and the group of men - a group of men that were wonderful people.  That’s about the size of it.

JM: I think everyone feels that way.  Now, when you got to England, did you start flying missions right away?

VV: No, we didn’t start flying missions right away.  We did, of course, just like everybody else, did a lot of orientation flights and so forth.  Then they busted us up a little bit.  Put us here, wherever we were needed.  And of course, right at that time, as everyone knows, it was a pretty hairy time for the Eighth Air Force, because of what had happened and the inability for long range escort.  And we were just getting the holy heck beat out of us.  And so therefore, quite a few of us were bouncing from one squadron to another, one plane to another.  It wasn’t until around February, I would say, that I became integrated with the full crew.  And we stayed that way, barring replacements.

JM: Were there any memorable missions....?

VV: Yeah, of course the first one.  The first one I flew on, which a few months later became a milk run, but in those days, everyone of us, because we were new to the game, and didn’t know the processes of what the Germans were up to.  But most even the early ones were, to us, hair raising.  To me, I thought, well hell, we’re over here to kick holy you-know-what out of Hitler.  Of course the first time we saw flak, or the first time you saw something red coming at you, you want to come home.  That’s basically the way it was.  I can even say some of the easiest ones were just as frightening as probably some of the bigger ones.  I don’t pretend to be a hero.  I don’t want anybody to get that idea.  Doing this, like I told you earlier.  I’m doing it for my children.  I have a son that’s 50 years old now.  He’s retired Chief of the United States Navy.  The fact is, I’m retired Navy - was what I didn’t bring up.  I retired as Master Diver, believe it or not, from the Navy.  But as far as the 95th Bomb Group was concerned, I never - those are the memories of my life.  I’ve kept them pretty close.  I didn’t - there were a lot of things (emotional).  I’m sorry.  There are a lot of things I want to expound on.  I came here primarily to this reunion, hoping that I’d find two people - that I could locate them.  One, if this ever gets around, get’s on the Internet, one would be Arnold Lotti, who was a great friend of mine, who was a right waist.  The last I heard, he was living in Washington.  The other was Ray Reynolds, who was my first radio operator.  And I hope, if Ray ever sees this, Ray, I still remember some of the stories you wrote.  And I can remember you telling us that you were a feature story writer for Liberty Magazine.  I don’t know if you remember Liberty Magazine.  Ray, I’ll never forget our first few times in London.  But if you can, if you’re still alive, Ray.  I’d sure like to hear from you.  And my address will be on this tape, and will probably get on Internet. But if you ever do, I’d sure enjoy hearing from you.  God bless you.  So I don’t know what to say.  I really don’t.  

JM: Tell me some more about your crew.  You seem very...

VV: Well, Ray was close because one our mission - it was the Oslo, Norway _______________________.  Ray was our radio operator, and he was on single up above.  And his gun jammed and he inadvertently pulled his mittens off, and went to clear the gun jam.  His hands got stuck to the trips - pulled everything off his hands - meat and everything.  And Ray became closer because of that, probably to me than anything.  But thank God, everything healed back.  But he wasn’t able to fly combat any longer.  He flew mostly liaison from, you know - short flights around England, you know.  Whatever. But he was probably the closest man.  I was close to one man.  He got killed, and I vowed never again, I would never become close to another one.  That’s all I can say.

JM: Now, you said that you flew weather planes.

VV: Yeah, I flew weather.  Once we flew the Land’s End to the Azores route run which we thoroughly enjoyed because the Azores being neutral, you know.  We got down there and bring a bunch of silk stockings back.  (Chuckle) Things like that.  And I also flew Rhombus, which the Rhombus route was over the Bay of Biscay.  And what the heck was the one over the north - the Bismas Route I think was the one over the North Sea.  Or vice versa.  Rhombus was over the North Sea and Bismas, the Bay of Biscay.  And then Spitzburg - one flight to Spitzburg.  And that was about all we’d catch.  You alternated your weather routes.  So those were...

JM: Did you fly out before the missions?

VV: Generally before, in lightened aircraft.  We didn’t have too much in it, you know.  But that was it.  If people could just understand.  We have wonderful weather facilities now that we could spot the stuff coming.  But before, everybody - a lot of people didn’t realize that the Atlantic is a vast ocean, and most of the, all of England and the continent, weather comes in from there.  And of course, we had - there was nothing out there, once you got to England you wondered where the hell it was going, the next one.  So that was basically the weather planes were for.

JM: And about how far out did you fly?  Just a couple of hours before the mission was to start?

VV: Yeah, generally before.  It seemed like we got pretty - there were some guys that got lost - but we were generally pretty lucky.  But it had to be done.

JM: And did you fly in a B-17?

VV: 17's, yeah.

JM: Without the ...

VV: Yeah, oh yeah.  B-17's, yeah.

JM: And how about life on the base...

VV: (Chuckle) There was two parts of the 95th.  Horham was on one side, and Haxen was on the other.  And a lot us, getting our liberty, what little liberty we had with the time element, a lot of them went to the pubs in Horham.  We - I should say quite a few of us, especially our crew, primarily the enlisted men - always ended up in Haxen.  And we drank our beer at the Swan pub.  And I had some very interesting stories that my wife and I made in the last couple of years when I went back.  The last year and the year before that, I went back to see what the old base looked like.  And became quite attached to those people that are now renovating the Red Feather Club there -  Mr. Frank Sherman, and the Mays family - became quite attached to them, especially the younger boy, Jimmy Mays.  He’s the one that found us at the church there in Horham. I asked him about it, and he, being a little boy - 14 or so - he escorted us around.  That’s how I ended up here today.  Primarily through Frank Sherman and his family, and the Mays family, who are very, very wonderful people.  I really don’t know what - I don’t want to talk about missions.  I don’t want - people, if they want, they can look at the Memphis Belle movie, read the book, read this book, read that book.  But the one thing I am proud - really proud of - is the record of the 95th, being the only Group that received the three Presidential Citations.  That to me is the highlight of the whole thing.  They were very enjoyable, they were there.  As far as life on the base - there wasn’t that much, you know.  You go up to the NCO Club, you go up to the Red Feather Club, sing around the piano, get drunk, go back.  That’s if you’re stood down, if you’re not going out in the morning.  There really wasn’t that much.  And being, especially combat, if you’re in combat, London’s 90 miles away, and it’s quite far, although we did get down there occasionally.  So most of our trips were on bicycle over to Aye, or to Diss.  If you wanted to take a little longer ride to Diss, you could probably steal a MP’s jeep so you could get back and not have to peddle those bikes back.  But that’s what we did (laughing).  Who give a damn in those days?

JM: So, you got to Horham in November of ‘43.

VV: ‘43, yeah.

JM: And you were there until ‘45?

VV: Yeah.  

JM: So tell me about when you knew you were coming home, and how that was.

VV: You know, when you first got there, your mission tours were 25.  Then they raised them eventually to 30, 35.  But you were giving the option after to sign up for your five.  Some of us didn’t want to go back home.  Some of us took our leave over there - places like Blackpool, or some of those places where you had R&R, you know.  You do your 30, then go on back and sign up again.  In those days you were allowed to sign for five and five and five.  

JM: Is that five missions?

VV: Yeah.  That was the crux of the whole thing.  Once we put it in, what the heck, they were supposedly getting easier, so.  And we were getting letters from the guys that had gone home - some of us were getting letters from them.  They’d take the 30, and I’m sure some of these guys here did it.  They’d take the 30, then they were putting them on ‘29's and sending them off to the Pacific.  So, we might just as well stay where we knew what the heck was going on, you know.  So that’s what quite a few of us did.  

JM: So how many missions did you fly?

VV: I had 42.

JM: Is the war over?  Is that why you came home?

VV: Yeah.  We stayed - our last was in May, and then some of us stayed until June.  There was about - I forget how many airplanes.  But the basic part as far as the 95th was concerned, that was already ended.  But some of us were sent over on occupation.  We were flying - we went from England to Liberge.  Stayed there a couple of weeks.  And then from Liberge to Frankfurt am Main, and then from Frankfurt am Main to Bad Merganthiem, and from Bad Merganthiem to Wiesbaden, which later became Air Force headquarters.  But we were basically just there to - doing dummy things - photographing the continent, you know.  And flying liberated POW’s and displaced persons around.  And delousing the airplane and yourself two times a day.  That was the thing.  And then from there, they shipped us back.  Caught the ship at ______________, ended up in Newark, picked up a C-47 in Newark and flew us to California, and that was the end of that.

JM: So when you came back to the United States, you flew back.

VV: No, no, no.  We left the planes over at Orleans, France.  Yeah, they were stacking them up there and getting rid of them.  Those ones that were pretty weather beaten, you know.  Pretty beat up.

JM: And then you came back...

VV: We came back on a ship, yeah - the Louis Pasteur. 

JM: How was it?

VV: Well, we were the outcasts.  If I remember right, there were 80 of us.  And we were bivouacked at Camp Herbert Tarryton.  They had those camps over there that were all named after cigarettes.  We were in Herbert Tarryton.  We were up on the cliffs.  

JM: This was in....

VV: This was in France.  And being Air Force, we didn’t pick up too much priority (chuckle), sailing back with the Army.  So it was about three or four times when we marched down to the docks, and they wouldn’t have room for you.  So we’d march back up the hill again.  Marched back down.  No, we don’t have room.  So finally we had a colonel that did get the chicken out of his throat and was able to speak up.  And he got us aboard ship.  We were 80 Air Force among, I think it was elements of the 2nd Armored Division that we came back with.  The Air Force and the Army didn’t get along that well then.  (Chuckle) We got back, we got back.  

JM: You got back to California?  And how was your homecoming?

VV: Not very good.  I don’t want to go into that.  You know, it’s what I’ve told my wife, and things.  

(Wife): You lost your father.

VV: Yeah, I was pretty - really teed off, and that’s not the word I’d used if you weren’t a lady.  But my father had become ill.  And my father’s retired military.  And he’d become ill in June, or whatever.  And my wife had tried - not her, my wife I was married to then.  She’s passed away.  But anyway, she tried, through the Red Cross, which you had to go through the Red Cross to try to get a Red Cross wire.  And then the Red Cross came back.  My father he became, not well, but the Red Cross decided, well it wasn’t good enough, he wasn’t sick enough for me to get an emergency.  Okay.  So anyway, eventually I got home.  Like I say, we flew, we picked a 47 up in Newark, flew that - supposed to have landed at _______________ Field, which is LAX now.  And it was fogged in, and we ended up at March Field.  And transported up by bus.  At that time, my Dad and my Mom’s house was about three blocks out from the back gate at Fort MacArthur at San Pedro.  So I had a little 8 hour pass, walking - it was two o’clock in the morning.  And when I got home, I told my mom and my sisters - they were all gathered there.  And I said, well, I’m just here for a few, you know, an hour or so to get acclimation.  But anyway, I told them, I says, I want to get down - my Dad was in this Navy hospital at Corona at the time.  And I says, I’ve got to get down.  I’ve been given permission to catch a liberty run down to Corona and see my Dad.  He says, then they broke the news.  My Dad had passed away three weeks before that, and I wasn’t notified.  That right there just really ___________________ you know.  And I’m not one of these guys that string along with the ‘Nam vets in the sense that a lot of them say, well you guys from WWII, everything was roses - they were throwing rose petals under your feet when you got home.  Sure, that was true if a big troop ship came into New York.  But that wasn’t true for everyone.  Not all of us come into New York, you know.  And as a consequence, hell, we just snuck in at night and we were home.  So that was it.  Just like they did.  So, it leaves funny tastes here and there.  I don’t know if this is apropos to what we’re talking about.  

JM: Definitely. Okay.  Is there anything else that you’d like to add before we wind up?

(Wife): Tell them where you ended up - in the Navy.

VV: Oh, yeah.

????

VV: Like I said, being from Hawaii, I’m a water boy.  But I always wanted to begin with.  The only thing that prompted me to get into the Air Corps at the time was because of Pearl, you know.  For them bombing home.  But anyway, I always wanted - loved the water.  Born and raised in the water, so that’s the reason.  So that’s how it happened.  When I was given the opportunity to make the, go to salvage school in Bayonne, New Jersey, boy I grabbed it.  And that was the rest of my life.  

JM: And that happened soon after you...

VV: Right. It happened about three years - probably three years - that I was given the opportunity to go to Bayonne.  But before that, I was working for them, see.  And had one heck of a fine, fine, fine tour of duty, so to speak.  And I finally retired from them in ‘78.  

JM: Okay.  Thank you so much.

VV: Like I told you earlier, I says there’s things that the tears come if you do it.  Can’t talk about it.

JM: Well you’re not alone.  It’s very common.  Understandable.

(Wife): All his brothers in the service too....

VV: Yeah, I was fortunate.  We flew two - two and a half I would call it - D-Day _______________ because one of my brothers was cell at Normandy.  And of course I probably was 1500 feet from him when we went over (chuckle).  Then the other one came in later with Patton, and he got shot up pretty bad at the breakthrough at St. Lo’s.

(Wife) You got to see him.

VV: Yeah, I got to see him.  They had him in the evac hospital at _______________, Wales.  And my CO, Colonel Truesdale at the time, flew me down.  Even the fact is, five days, I mean seven day furlough - not chargeable, didn’t charge the record, thank God.  Gave me seven days.  But I stayed right in the ward with him.  Put in a cot alongside his bed.  And he was very, very bad.  That was probably the highlight of things - being able to see my brothers.

JM: And when was that?  What year was that?

VV: That was in - well, the breakthrough at St. Lo’s - he got his September the 3rd ‘44.  And then my wife eventually found where he was, and radiograms and everything.  Then they got a hold of me, and I got down there to see him, thank God.  That was another thing.  He was a GI.  He was the 3rd - that was 3rd Division, all ground troops.  Here a sergeant in the Air Force comes in (laughing), sleeping right along.  But we got along great then, though.  We got along great.  Yeah, it was really nice.  I hope I’m not bumbling through this thing.  

JM: Well thank you so much for...

VV: Thank you, Janie.  Thank you for all the problems you went through.

JM: Oh, thanks for your patience (chuckling).  And I hope you enjoy your time here, for the next 24 hours.  And try and come next year because there’s going to be lots of people.  The last thing is, I just want to say, we’ve been here with Vince Villa, and his wife, Delores. And thank you again for your service in the 95th and for our country.

VV: Thank you so much.