Charles "Buddy" Armstrong of Dell was in the Air Force before there was an Air Force.
Armstrong, now 90, left the then-Army Air Force, previously the Army Air Corps, later the Air Force, after serving a year (1944) in England. Once he completed his year of service, he returned home to the family farm in Dell.
Armstrong contends that he did not do "anything special," explaining that "there were thousands of boys who did the same thing I did. Not all of them got to come home to their families. I have been lucky."
Only 21 years old when Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor, Armstrong enlisted in the Air Corps wanting to be a pilot.
"I knew that if I didn't enlist in the branch I wanted to be in, Uncle Sam would put me where he wanted me," Armstrong said.
A problem with his blood pressure kept Armstrong out of pilot school, but not the Air Corps. He trained as an aerial engineer and gunner on B-17s, the bomber planes of the times.
Everybody on board the plane had two jobs, except for the pilot and co-pilot, he said.
"Everybody but the pilot and co-pilot could shoot as a gunner," he said. "Some of them figured out how to shoot too."
Armstrong's tour in England lasted 11 months. Most tours were five to six months, but he stayed on as "an extra" serving with other crews as needed. He flew 35 combat missions.
Although his plane was never shot down, Armstrong knew other men who had been injured or killed in combat.
He recalls that he and others had "learned how to cuss when you're in combat."
After enlisting, Armstrong trained as an aircraft mechanic in Amarillo, Texas, then went to Washington to take advanced training. Then, it was on to gunnery school in Las Vegas before meeting the rest of his crew in Salt Lake City.
After that, the entire crew returned to Texas to practice their jobs.
Armstrong's crew arrived in England the day after D-Day and flew its first combat mission on July 4, 1944. He and his crew flew local flights, mostly, during his 11 months there.
It was only after leaving the Air Force in 1945 and returning to the United States did he learn about the atomic bombings in Japan.
"I was on a train and got off in St. Louis and picked up a newspaper. That's how I learned about the atomic bomb," he said.
Armstrong said he has many fond memories of England, including the scenery, the people and his crew. "We did everything together as a crew," he said.
He recalled a tour of London that he and his crew took. He remembers that even vehicles were not allowed to use regular headlights at night. "The lights were all domed downward so they couldn't be seen from the air," he said.
His most vivid memories are those of combat, he said. His eyes glistened with tears as he recalled friends and others who did not make it home alive. He stressed how important those friendships were and how guilty he sometimes felt because aviators were treated better than infantry soldiers.
"We always had hot food, clean clothes, clean beds," he said. "We never had to eat powdered eggs. We had the real thing. We were pampered."
The crews may have been pampered on the ground, but in the air they had to wear heated suits to keep them from freezing in -40 degree temperatures. "We had to wear oxygen masks if we were over 10,000 feet" high, he said.
Most of the missions were flown at altitudes of 25,000 to 30,000 feet.
Planes today are pressurized, he explained, so oxygen is not needed unless there is a malfunction.
"Our masks just became part of us, I guess. I don't remember it irritating my face or anything," Armstrong said.
When asked if he had message to people for Veteran's Day, Armstrong said he most regrets that many people in the United States today cannot understand what serving during the last world war was like.
"There's no way you can make (the people) understand how important our mission was," Armstrong said. "If we had not accomplished that mission, we'd all be speaking German or Japanese now."
Armstrong commended all of the soldiers of the day, explaining that they were "all civilians made into soldiers. The cemeteries are full of them."
He went on to say that more than 38,000 airmen from his base in England died during the war. "Their lives were taken from them," he said.
His experiences in the war gave Armstrong an education, he said. "I know how to value human life."
Armstrong returned to the family farm in Dell, married Louise Brownlee and had a son and two daughters. Although Armstrong lost Louise 22 years ago, he beams with pride when speaking about his son, who took over the farm, and his two daughters, who are both registered nurses.
Although he once wanted to be a pilot, serving in the Air Corps "cured me of flying," he said.
"I wasn't even tempted to fly again," and didn't entertain the thought of becoming a pilot again. "I wanted to be able to raise my kids."
Although he is not afraid to fly, "I just don't want to do it," he said.
dhilton@blythevillecourier.com