and took a heading to get us over the mountains of Austria and to where we hoped to fly our plane at a lower altitude and perhaps get the number two engine back in. As we were pulling out of formation, the navigator who sits down in the nose of the airplane with his desk facing my seat, looked up and saw blood running out of the bottom of my seat. He got the bombardier and they came and pulled me out of my seat and put me back of the flight deck. About this time, six German fighter planes began making firing runs at our plane. Most of our guns were inoperative by this point and we fired no shots at them. Miraculously, they fired no shots at us either. My crew tried to put a tourniquet on my left leg, but I got hit high up on my leg - almost up to the hip. I asked them what they were trying to do and they said they were putting a tourniquet on. I said you can't put a tourniquet on, it is too high, you'll have to put on a compress. So they did. To make a long story short ... My crew gave me as much first aid as they could for my wounds. I had lost a lot of blood, but I was conscious the three hours it took to arrive at the airport where we landed. It was not our home field, but a British airfield near an American army field hospital in central Italy near the city of Foggia. A British ambulance met our plane. The medics came in and put a splint all the way up my left side to hold my leg in position. When they did that, I said, 'You can't get me out of the airplane with that on.' They said, 'Oh yeah, we can get you out.' But they soon decided they couldn't get me out through the small opening into the bomb bay as they had planned. They asked, 'How are we going to get you out?' I said. 'You'll take the splint off, and put the stretcher underneath the opening, and roll me onto the stretcher.' They said. 'We can't do that.' I said, 'You'll have to do it, because it is the only way you'll get me out. They said, 'It will start you bleeding again.'' I said, 'Well then, so be it, that is what you are here for, to stop the bleeding.' So they did what I asked and got me out of the airplane and into the ambulance. As soon as I was in the ambulance, I lost consciousness. The next thing I remember was many hours later. I heard the nurse who was working with the IV tubes running into my arm talking to another nurse. She said, 'This is number 9 for him.' So I don't know how much blood I had lost, but I had lost a lot. But that is war! Fifteen days later, my crew in our plane, 'Strictly from Hunger,' was shot down over southern France. Some of those who bailed out were shot and killed as their parachutes descended towards the ground. Only three survived, and they were Prisoners of War for the next thirteen months. So, I guess, I was the lucky one. I spent the next thirteen months in a hospital. || spent four months and endured several surgeries in a| hospital in Italy; and then nine months recuperating at Bushnell General Hospital in Brigham City, Utah. My wife was in nurses' training and was completing her training as a nurse cadet at the Bushnell Hospital. When I learned that I was being transferred there, I didn't tell her. However, the day that I arrived there, she had been assigned to the officer's ward and was sent to meet the ambulance that was 'bringing an officer' to the hospital. When the door to the ambulance was opened, I was as surprised to see her as she was to see me. It was a happy reunion. Our picture and an article about our reunion was even printed in the Army Life September 1944 issue, which circulated among the U.S. military around the world. I was retired, due to physical disability, as a 1st Lieutenant and released from the hospital on July 28th, 1945. In addition to receiving other medals, I was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal, and the Purple Heart. James C. Hartog Jimmy Hartog was inducted into the Army Air Corps in 1943 with a Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) as a machinist. After basic training he was shipped overseas for a tour of duty in the India/Burma region. He was to serve there for twenty-eight consecutive months without a furlough home. He did get a week of 'R & R' on the coast of India at one point. Those who served in the China/Burma/ India (CBI) campaign described themselves as being at the absolute end of the supply line and had to make do with what was available in the local area. The C-47s flying the 'Hump' provided supplies to the Chinese who were fighting the Japanese. As a machinist, Hartog found himself having to 'requisition' brass and other metal material from an abandoned sugar factory in a nearby town to keep the C-47s in the air. For some of their tour they were dependent on supplies that were air dropped from cargo planes flying overhead. When he was separated from the service in 1946, he was a technician third grade. He was awarded the 'CBI' and Asiatic/Pacific Campaign Ribbons, the Victory Medal and a Good Conduct Medal. He later taught Machine Shop 101 at Weber for many years and also worked as a maintenance person keeping the machine shop operational. 32 Robert S. Haws - POW Robert was a gunner and a radio operator on a B-24 'Liberator' assigned to the 15th Army Air Force in Italy. On his sixteenth mission, his plane was shot down over Vienna, Austria. This happened on February 14, 1945, Valentine's Day. He was taken prisoner and held in Wetzlar Camp in Germany. On April 29, 1945, he was liberated by the troops of General George Patton. He wrote about what it was like coming home: I remember when I saw Lady Liberty the first and only time of my life. It was late at night on June 11, 1945, when four thousand of us newly liberated American prisoners of war from Germany were returning home. We were all crowded on the top deck of the steamship 'Sea Porpoise,' craning our necks for our first glimpse of that grand lady. As she slowly came into viewall bathed in lightsthere came a hush and complete silence over the ship. All that could be heard was the splashing of the waves at the bow and the noise of the propellers. Tears of joy and happiness flowed down the cheeks of all on board. No one could speak because of their emotions. We had witnessed that night the symbol of what we had fought for during the previous three and a half years, and it still symbolizes what America means to us today. I will never in my life forget that night when this symbol of freedom came into view in the New York harbor. God bless America. Jack Dean Hazen Jack Hazen served as a cadet in Texas. He later was a second lieutenant in the Army Air Force over his squadron in College Training Detachment (CTD). He was assigned as an instructor for bombardiers and navigation. Near the end of the war he was assigned to Harlingen Army Air Field to train as the "fire control" in the new B-29 - it was huge! He was to have control of all bombs and firearms on board which seemed like an ominous task. Jack M. Helgesen Jack M. Helgesen was a lieutenant in the Army Air Corps serving as a bombardier and navigator on B-17 heavy bombers in England. He flew over Germany and German occupied territories on his 28 bombing missions and crash landed once in Brussels. He was awarded the Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters. Theron Parker Hess Theron was inducted into the Army Air Corps in January of 1942. He served until August of 1945. He logged over 2,200 hours flying in a C-47 and participated in four combat operations in Europe, one in North Africa, and one in Burma. He participated in dropping paratroopers, towing gliders, and hauling and dropping supplies. He was separated from the service as a staff sergeant. His unit received a Presidential Unit Citation and Air Medal with five clusters. Theron attended Weber from 1946-1947. Winston W. Hickman I was trained as a copilot on a B-24 Liberator. Our primary missions were to carry bombs into Austria and Northern Italy, to knock out equipment and aircraft plants, and the marshalling railroad yards where they moved supplies to the front lines to supply their armies. We also flew missions into Northern Italy as support to our ground forces. During the war there were times when our Army Infantry forces called for Air Force bomb support at the front lines of combat. A few times, after the Air Force was given the bomb target-line, the ground forces would get a breakthrough and move forward. The Air Force did not always get the updated information and subsequently dropped bombs into areas where our ground forces had advanced. To prevent this situation, when we gave bomb support to our Army in Northern Italy, there were three safeties that had to be met before bombs would be dropped. The bombs had to be dropped before a specified time. Our Infantry would shoot up low-level flak along the front line, which the air crews could see. A radio 33