The following is an excerpt from a story, taken from Ken Marvel interviews, that I wrote for the upcoming Heritage, the annual publication of the Klickitat County Historical Society. I was struck on how it parallels the story in the link at the end of this article. Bob was a B-17 Bomber pilot in WW II. After graduating from Goldendale High School in 1938, he attended the University of Washington working toward an Engineering degree. His obituary states: “He proudly enlisted in the Army Air corps in 1942. He trained and was assigned to pilot B-17 aircraft. After completing 50 missions in Africa and Europe Bob returned to the place he loved, Goodnoe Hills, to farm with his father. Bob was a person with an unassuming, unpretentious manner. Returning from Europe in 1943 three members of the Goldendale Sentinel “pounded” him with questions, trying to get a “thriller” to write a story about. In his “matter of fact” way he told them “There isn’t a thing I can tell you that would make a good story” “I was very fortunate, like all the rest of the crew, no narrow escapes. Asked whether his plane had ever been pierced by enemy gun fire Bob said “No, the closest I ever came to getting hit was when a ‘spent’ bullet went through two thicknesses of my windshield. It was nothing. The bullet lodged between the second and third glass in the windshield. “Asked whether he had ever had any trouble landing the plane? “Not much, only once, when we were attempting to locate our landing field. This was before our field was equipped with radio beams to guide us in. It was at night and after flying the desert, which we later learned was built by an Arab. Circling a few minutes we landed, safely. ‘’A ‘funny thing’ about the landing was that had we landed a few yards on either side of where we did we would have cracked up, for on each side it was terribly rough. Lt. Imrie took part in the first bombing of Rome. Describing bombing attacks he said: “We just load up…take off…fly over the target…drop our load and return to our base. It really gets a little tiresome. The “rest of the story”, becomes more interesting than the mundane account given to the Sentinel in 1943. Ken gets the following stories of Bobs WWII escapades before he comes home in September, 1945 The circumstances of Bob’s becoming a pilot gives one a measure of the man he was. Attending college in an Aeronautical Engineering program, the day after Pearl Harbor was bombed, he just took off. Ken, “Did you get a draft notice”? Bob, “No I never did get a draft notice, we volunteered the day after Pearl Harbor was hit”. “I was sent to Santa Anna, California to the flying cadet program. By February ’43 we were on our way to Europe.” Looking at a picture…Ken, “Was that your airplane?” Bob “yes…a B-17G” “We picked it up in Wichita, Kansas flew down to South America, then across the Atlantic at night to Africa. We ended up in Tunisia which was where we finished our tour. “The B-17G had a nose turret where the navigator and the bombardier sat. They each had a gun but they never were very effective.” “We had an enemy aircraft coming in head on…straight at us. We could see those 20mm guns firing at us, how he missed us I’ll never know.” “Our wing man tipped up his wing, and that guy flew right between us.” “I looked him right in the face”. “When that plane went by, I opened my window, pulled out my .45 and shot at him.” My co-pilot said: ‘I think you hit him’.” Ken, “Any shrapnel inside of you”? Bob, “Oh yes, but I had it all taken out, a chunk in my leg but it didn’t amount to nothing”. “Really…I didn’t know I was hit. I pulled my flying boot off and it was half full of blood.” Bob, “One time as we were getting briefed for a mission, an Air Force Colonel came along and took my place. I wanted to go along, so I climbed into the back. He didn’t even know I was there. I got to shoot a 109 gun then. I took some pictures of an airplane on fire and a guy jumping with a parachute that ended up in Life Magazine. When I got back to Miami, Florida they took them away from me…said they were top secret. Next time I saw them they were in Life Magazine.” Ken, “Walt Smith told me that shrapnel from enemy fire would sound like gravel hitting a car going 60 mph.” Bob, “Usually we’d get the worst of it during a bombing run. The doors were open and you could hear it…really loud. The sky would be black from enemy fire.” In another interview Bob tells of the bombing of Rome. They were ordered to disrupt German operations very close to St. Peters Cathedral but not to destroy any of the old ruins in the area. The mission was successful and notable is that one of the pilots during this time was Jimmie Doolittle of the famous raid on Tokyo. Fellow pilots poked fun at Bob in that he carried an old stove plate in his plane which he sat on during bombing runs. His remark regarding it was “It was one place in which I didn’t want to be shot”. Bob’s interests were many. The number of people that his life touched is incredible. That he was a member of Tom Brokaw’s “greatest generation” is indisputable. He cared about and was interested in people. Mentioned in Ken’s interview are the many Native Americans that Bob admired whose lives touched his. In the interview Bob makes it a point to mention names that were familiar to him. While in the African theatre of the war he met Eldon Hanes, son of Bob Hanes, a Methodist preacher back home. “He was a P-38 pilot. He used to go with Helen Willis who is Helen Hill now. They used to go to places with my sister and her husband. I didn’t know Eldon very well but I did know his brother Lester. Anyway, I got through with my duty over in North Africa and they sent us down to sort of a recreational area to get healed up. Anyway, I walked into the mess hall and there was Eldon. He flew escort with us the whole time.” Ken, “So did you first meet the Hanes boys here in town”? Bob, “Yes, their father was a preacher and I think they lived right there in the Methodist parsonage. It was right where my aunt’s house was. My Granddad’s house was next to the parsonage. He had the house and acreage that went clear down to the creek. It’s where the parking lot to the church is right now. They bothered me for years and finally I sold it to the church. It was the church, the parsonage, my Granddad’s house and the house that Marty Hudson lives in now. Eldon was out of school by the time I started high school. Lester was still there though. A couple of years older than me.” Ken, “Why does that Hanes name remind me of---“ Bob, “Well, Dorothy’s brother-in-law’s Grandfather (Guy Hanes) was put in charge of Blockhouse in 1857. Somewhere, we have a copy of the orders from President Buchanan.” (This author knew well and was neighbors with the next person mentioned, and always wondered where the English accent came from.) Ken, “Is there anyone else from this area that you saw in Africa? Bob, “Bruce Hyder’s brother. Bruce and I used to correspond during the war. Bruce was over in Iceland. We wrote back and forth. He grew up in Wakiacus, his folks had a place out there. His folks about starved there. During the depression, in the winter they would dig down around the stumps and get the gray diggers where they hibernated to have something to eat. Dad felt sorry for Bruce when he was young so he hired him to come out and herd sheep. That’s when I got to know him. He’s quite the guy, old Bruce is. His mother was an English war bride from WWI.” Ed: Writing this piece gave me an occasion to visit with Bruce and Vesta Hyder, and to present them with a copy of the Imrie story. After reading it Bruce remarked: “We never went hungry although times were lean. We ate Gray Squirrels, always shot them in the head so as not to waste any meat.” Bruce recently celebrated his 92 birthday and is in excellent health.
Posted on: Sat, 18 Oct 2014 17:32:47 +0000
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