Now you had you had mentioned that you had worked, you worked in a leather plant?

Yeah I worked in Gretton Knights (?)

Gretton Knights okay. And did you work there just during the war or before the war…?

No I worked there before the war

Before the war okay.

But then I had to go into the service.

You did.

Yeah.

What year did go into the service? What year did go into the service?

Oh I could tell ya. I know it was three years in there, three years 3 weeks, 3 months. About 42.

Okay.

I would say.

Did you serve in the pacific or in Europe?

All over Europe

All over Europe? Okay

Yeah all over Europe. I was in, ah I’ll tell ya what I got here.

Okay.

Its very interesting (motioning to a framed letter)

I can grab that for you if you’d like

I was in the what they call the, the 9th tactical air force and we were behind patton.

Yes sir.

And this says it was, this was the time when there was the battle of the bulge

Okay

and we couldn’t get our planes up so we all got this sent to our homes. This here. Its very interesting.

Wow this is very impressive. It’s from Patton himself huh?

What’s that?

It’s from Patton himself?

Yeah that’s the original, that’s the original. It was sent right to my home. I was in the service but they never gave it to us they 
just sent it to our homes. Everyone was in the 9th air force and the 8th airforce. The 8th air force was bombardment, p-52’s and the 9th was the p-47’s and the p-38’s, the fighter planes.

Wow. Thank you for showing me that.

There’s a lot of stuff in there, its very good.

Umhm…um do you remember ah what, what a, do you remember what it was like when you first heard about pearl harbor and that the us was attacked do you remember how people reacted in town?

I heard about it. I remember it was on a Saturday. I was not in the air force. I was not in the air force no.

You were in Worcester when you heard?

I was in Worcester yeah.

Were you working at the plant that time, the leather?

That was a Saturday.

Oh okay.

I wasn’t working that day.

But during that time you were working and the plant.

Yes.

Okay. Um and did, did you immediately decide to enlist?

 Did I what?

Did you immediately decide to enlist? Or…when did you make the descision to go into the air force?

When I had to go. When I had to go. My time came up.

Okay.

And I volunteered. They were taking me anyway so I volunteered to get what I wanted to. I wanted to go to the air force.

Okay. Okay

Yeah that happened.

Were you scared to go off to Europe?

Was I scared to?

Yeah?

No, no.

Were you, were you proud? Proud to go serve your country?

Oh yeah! The only time I was scared was when they wanted to take me up in the plane. In the, in the p-47, to give me a ride, and I, I was scared then. I’ll be honest with ya but the plane had to be called out of, out of service.

Okay.

So I didn’t go up.

Okay, ummm did you get any letters from hom? Were you , were you in touch with people from home?

Did I get any letters from home?

Yeah.

Oh they always, they always sent me letters. Oh yeah I got a lot of letters.

Was it, it must have been good to hear form home and feel like you’re still connected to the states.

What was that?

It must have been good to stay in touch.

Well oh yeah. My mail didn’t, my mail didn’t go in and they were worried. And they sent in to find out what was wrong and I, an officer asked if I was alright, and I said yeah I was alright just the letters were not going in.

So everyone was concerned with staying in touch with you?

Oh yeah that’s right.

Yeah, was your family worried about you?

Yes, that’s why they kept checking.

Umhm.

They sent in letters and then when they send in letters, the officer of my outfit has, has to find out, asks me why I’m not writing. And I tell him I’m writing the letters just aren’t going in. So there’s nothing you can do. They knew they weren’t going in.

Right. Um when you got back from the war…

When I got back?

Yeah

When the war ended I, I fell off the plane, and they sent me home with the, and the war was ended then yeah.

Okay. Was your family happy to have you back home?

Oh yeah.

Yeah, do you remember any big celebration? Did they throw a party for you or anything like that?

No.

No, but they were happy to have you back home?

Oh yeah.

And you were happy to be back home I’m sure.

Oh yeah yeah

umm, And when the war ended, when the war ended what was the feeling like? Was everybody relieved that the war was over?

I was, I ended up in Germany when the war ended.

Really, what was it like there? What was it like

We all ended up in Germany and just then a german plane landed, landed on the airport and we thought it was a was a faux just to get in a crowd out there so they can hit us but they didn’t do nothing, they said that they, they were gonna do that.

Ummm, did you haveany family members that were also in the war, any brothers?

Yeah my brother was in the war. I don;’t know hat he was in.

Okay, so your mom must, your mom had two sons? Your mom had two sons in the war?

yeah.

So she must have been very worried?

Oh yeah

Yeah, did you feel like everybody was really supportive of the troops back home?

Oh yeah right

Certainly, a lot of, a lot of the women had to go to work when the men went off to war. Um did any of your friends, or women that you knew had to go into the factories during the war?

well a lot of women were sewing those cases ya know there were, you had ot be able to sew on the machine these cases they were coming in from the shoe factory, working in the leather factory, gretton knights comes in they just helped making thousands of cases.

okay, so when you went off to war ah a women took your spot, took the job you were doing and did it while you were gone?

I don’t know if anybody took my spot.

Okay, lets see what else…did you have a wife when you were off at war?

Did I have a wife?

Yeah

No I wasn’t married.

Not during the war okay. Umm, did a lot o the men have wives or were most you single? Did a lot of the men, the soldiers have wives?

Actually some of the wives were cheatin’ on their men.

Really?

Oh yeah, this tank sergeant came home he got out he got out came home then he came over to my house cause I was already out of the service and he says he’s going back in, I said what, what’s the matter? He says my wife is pregnant, I’m just getting out. And that’s true too.

Really that’s too bad.

A lot of that happened anyway.

Um was it really hard on them to be away from their families and stuff.

Oh yeah.

Yeah did you miss your home a lot?

Did I miss it? Yes, but when you have to o you have to go. And I had to go no if’s and’s or buts, period you had to go.

Umm, lets see, I have a list of all kinds of topics, I’m trying to pick from them. Umm, Franklin Roosevelt…

What?

Franklin Roosevelt was the president during the war…

Who was the president during the war?

Franklin Roosevelt. Umm, was he a popular president?

Oh yeah. He was a popular president, yes.

How did you feel about the job he did leading the country?

About the what?

The job he did leading the country.

Leaving the country?

Leading, leading. Being the president. Do you think he did a good job?

Leaving the country?

Leading.

Leading?

Yeah.

Well that was my duty. That was my duty. There was no choice about going. I had to go whether I wanted or not.

You a big baseball fan? Big baseball fan?

Big what?

Big baseball fan?

Oh yeah, it was 1 to nothing.

You a red sox fan? Red sox fan?

No more now. I had a seasons tickets for 18 years.

Wow.

But I don’t have one now. When droper was in there I said never again. They got people like him in there. Give him a wide wall and a swing.

Yeah. Umm, do you a, were you ahh, obviously you were happy when the war ended.

I was happy?

Yeah.

Of course I was happy I knew I was going home. Some of them could’ve stayed in if they wanted to.

Did most of the men go home or did some of them stay in?

But I had enough points to get out.

Oh okay. Um so you were able to go home?

Oh yeah.

Did you get a job right away?

Well they have to give you the job you had.

Really?

Oh yeah, whenever you have ot go into the service they gotta leave your job open.

So you were able to go right back to the leather plant?

Oh yeah. No that I wanted to but I had to

Right. Obviously you did a great service to our country and I thank you.

What’s that?

You did a great service to our country. Thank you.

Oh yeah

Do you feel like what you did was appreciated?

What I did was appreciated?

Do you feel like people appreciated it?

By that letter, I was.

Yes.

You can read it all you want it’s really a very good letter. That’s why I framed it. The only one’s who got that letter were the 
ones who were at, were in the tactical air force and the officers of the third army. That’s the one, the third army were under Patton they the ones that got caught in the battle of the bulge. We couldn’t get our plane sup in the air. So they was really, they was getting murdered. There was no way we could get our planes up in the air. I remember the weather was very bad. The weather was very bad and day in and day out they couldn’t get the planes up in the air.

Umm, well I mean obviously you, you certainly feel like you were appreciated.

Oh yeah.

Oh yeah, I’m sure the work you did was appreciated. Umm, that pretty much covers the questions I had. So it was very good, very nice talking to you.