George Roth (WWII)

Transcription

1 My name is John Zimkus, I am the Historian and Education Director of the Warren County History Center, and I am here with George Roth. George, does the historical society have your permission to have the digital memoirs here as a donation for scholarly and educational purposes? Yes. Thank you very much. George, what s your full name? George P. Roth, Jr. Okay, where were you born and when? Pottsville Pennsylvania. What year? Okay, how did you get into the military service? I joined the Army Air Corp in ? Yeah, uhm-hmm. Okay now prior to that, what were you doing, were you in school? High school, yeah. Now why did you join in 1940, the war hadn t begun yet? Well I always wanted to go into the service, and at that time, there was no work around there anyway, and if you join the Army Air Corp, you can go to school. Okay, so it was in 1940, okay. And it was a year or so later that Pearl Harbor was bombed. About a year and a half. Year and a half, okay. Page 1 of 29

2 Now where did you do your initial training? Well I went into the service at Bolling Field basic training. Uhm-hmm. Then we went down to Langley Field Virginia. Is Bolling in Virginia too? No, Bolling is in Washington DC. Okay, okay. And now is basic training the same as a regular infantry man at that time? Oh no, we didn t have none of that stuff really. Basic training was more like drilling and stuff, and like when we went to the mess hall and stuff like that, we went on our own, we didn t march. To the mess hall or none of that stuff. So after basic, what kind of training did you get? Right after basic I went to work on airplanes, then they sent me to school. At that time, when they were start building the service up, they only had one school, Chanute Air Force Base for aircraft mechanics. So they sent us to civilian schools. I went to a civilian school in Philadelphia called Rising Sun. Now being in Philadelphia, were you close to home at all? Yeah I was really close cause I was only about 90 miles away from home. Oh, that s not bad. But I didn t go home much because I had more fun in Philadelphia than I did there. Page 2 of 29

3 Okay, now once you completed your training, where were you stationed? I went back to Langley Field, Virginia. Langley Field, Virginia. Now were you in Langley when Pearl Harbor was attacked? Yes. Yeah, we had a full group of Martin B26 s, and war was declared, we had that group, I was 2 nd Bomb Squadron, 22 nd Bomb Group. Now, were you a mechanic then? Yes, yes. Now being a mechanic you stay on the ground don t you? Right, yeah. Most of the time. Yeah, most of the time we did, yeah. So once the war begins, how did things change? Well we left Langley Field on Monday, Sunday war was declared and Monday morning we had, out of the 57 airplanes, we had about 50 of them fly out to California to the Mojave Desert. Okay, now what rank are you at this time? At that time I was a PFC. PFC okay, now is there a mechanic squad or is there a certain one mechanic per plane, or Yeah we worked on one airplane at that time. Page 3 of 29

4 Okay, and how many were there working on this one airplane? About four of us. Four of you okay. Was there a sergeant in charge? Yes right, yeah. The crew chief. Crew chief and then three of you? Right, right. Okay, so now you re in the Mohave Desert, how long were you there? We only stayed there about a month. We pulled coast patrol, and then January 1942, we were on a boat, we didn t know where we were going, but we ended up in Brisbane Australia 30 days later. Okay, now you said you had coast patrol, what is that? Well coast patrol for like Japanese submarines and stuff like that. Okay, so the Mojave Desert is not near the coast. No, no, it s like Lancaster, California, it s about from L.A. I would say it s probably about 90 miles or so. Okay, now what you do when you re on coast patrol? Well I just fly around looking for, on the ocean looking for submarines and whatever. Okay so you re flying at this time? Yeah, I m not the - but the crew is. Okay, okay. So you re fixing the plane so they can fly? Right. Now are they flying out of the Mohave Desert? Right. Yes. Page 4 of 29

5 Okay I understand. So now you go to Australia. Right. And what did you say, Brisbane? Brisbane, yeah. And how long were you there? Well we were only in Brisbane for about oh maybe a month or so. Okay, so what is it now, about April or March 1942? Yeah around there yeah. Okay now outside of working on your planes, has the plane you work on seen any action yet? No not yet, so in fact, our airplanes couldn t fly from San Francisco to Hawaii. So they had to take them up to Sacramento Air Depot, I don t remember the name of it anymore, but they took the wings off, and they took them down by ferry down to San Francisco and put them on a boat to Hawaii, and then in Hawaii they put them back together again. Then they flew them to Australia. Now, do you go on the boat too? I went on the boat. And we were there before airplanes got there. So we pulled up, and in the meantime some of the fighters that came over and crates and stuff so we put them together and stuff. Now does it feel strange being in the Army Air Corp but being on a boat? Yeah because it took us 30 days to get there. Page 5 of 29

6 Okay, so now you go to Hawaii first. No, I didn t go to Hawaii. Oh. I got on the boat in San Francisco. Straight to Brisbane? Yeah, yeah, right. But the plane went to Hawaii, and then was put together okay. Right, right. Okay, so after your month in Brisbane, what happens next? Then we moved up to Townsville, Australia, which is the northern Australia. Uhm-hmm. And Townsville was the jumping off place for New Guinea. In the meantime, the only place the Australians had in New Guinea was Port Moresby. So when we flew missions, he had to fly them from Australia and landed at Port Moresby, refuel, and then go on a mission and the same thing coming back. And in the meantime, some of us would go to Port Moresby for about a week or two, we stayed there, and then the airplanes and come back and then we they traded off people at Port Moresby, and eventually the infantry took enough lands like the next place you went to was I got the thing written down, let me get it. Sure. Port Moresby is somewhere in the Philippines right? I think he said it was in New Guinea. Page 6 of 29

7 New Guinea, okay. Now what was the name of the place you re flying out of Northern Australia again? Martin B26 s. Now are you staying in northern Australia while the plane is going? Right, yeah. So it s going from northern Australia, getting refueled At Port Moresby. Port Moresby, and then doing your mission, and then doing the reverse. Right, now on some of this, they sent we go to Port Moresby and we d stay there about a week or so refueling airplanes trying to come back to Australia. But we only stayed there about a week at a time, they rotated us. Now in Australia, your time there, did you fraternize with the Australians or were you pretty much on the base? No we were about 40 miles from Townsville, I did get to go into Townsville about two or three times. But other than that, it was like semi-outback, you know. Was it called Townsville? Townsville, Australia. How do you spell that? T-o-w-n-s-v-i-l-l-e. That s in Queensland. Now at Port Moresby, this is in New Guinea, correct? Right yeah. Page 7 of 29

8 Now is that a relatively safe location or is that No it wasn t safe because we had no ground troops there or anything for the Japanese airplanes came over, in other words we had no active guns for them. So, they couldn t stay there, our airplanes couldn t stay there overnight. As soon as they landed they took right off and got back to Australia. Then later on, they took enough land that we all went to Nadzab, Nadzab, New Guinea I went to. Now how long was this Townville type base to Port Moresby, to Oh I d say about seven months or so. Seven months, okay. So now it s towards the end of 1942 I believe. Yeah, uhm-hmm, close to What changed then? Well the Australians and the American Infantry, they started taking parts of New Guinea now, so we moved up, first we went to the Dora Dora (?), then we went to Nadzab, or it was the opposite, Nadzab and then Dora Dora (?). And by that time, after we were in Nadzab or Dora Dora (?) they took most of New Guinea then except they bypassed part of New Guinea then, the Navy controlled the waters then. Then we moved from there up to a place called Owie (?) which was in the Dutch East Indies. Now with the type of plane you re a mechanic for is a what again? We started out with a Martin B26. Martin B26. Page 8 of 29

9 But then we went to the B25 s, and after B25 s we went into B24 s. So we changed three times, airplanes three times while we were overseas. Now, what kind of payload does a 25 or 24, or 26 have? I don t remember anymore. B26 and B25 was just two engines. Uhm-hmm. B24 was a four engine aircraft. Now each time you changed planes, did the crew stay the same or were you put on different crews? They tried mostly to keep us on the same crew. Okay, now often you see these, a lot of these bombers back in those days had nicknames, do you remember any of the nicknames of these planes? No but I could Oh he s got a book. This is the book from the World War II. Oh wow. You can look through there. You can see some of them. Oh you see a lot of that. Open that up you ll find nicknames in there. Now when you re working on your planes there, are there evidence of fighter pilots, Japanese fighter pilots shooting at them? Oh yeah, yeah. How much they come back they may be riddled with bullet holes or whatever? Page 9 of 29

10 No not riddled but they get shot up some yes. So what would be the typical thing you would do as a mechanic on that plane? That part we didn t do much, they had sheet metal men do that kind of work. Oh okay. So you re just making sure the engines are working and everything else. Right, right. In fact my name s in here, only about two or three words when I was I did get my name in it someplace. Well we ll look that up. I ll have to find it, anyway I ll bet it s right there. There seems to be a bookmark in there. Maybe here? Oh that s about President Johnson. Oh, that s Lyndon Johnson. Yeah, yeah, he was in Naval Reserve, and he was sent over there by the President to check on the war over there. And if you read in there about him, the airplane he was supposed to go on, I ll give you that to read if you want to. Oh okay. The airplane he was supposed to go on, he didn t go on because he was late getting there and it took off. But that airplane never came back. Oh. Oh wow. I ll give you this if you want to read this. Page 10 of 29

11 Oh I appreciate that. Oh that d be great. So now, as the war progress, you go from the 26, to the 25, to the 24. Right, yeah. The 24 has got the four engines. Right, and in the meantime I m Crew Chief then. Okay, so you ve been promoted. Yeah, I made Master Sergeant when I was over there. Now, when you re Master Sergeant, I imagine you re given a whole different crew, right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I made Master Sergeant when I was I made Master in Okay, now when you re Master Sergeant, where are you stationed now, at that time? I was I New Guinea. New Guinea. With these 26 s, 25 s, and 24, where s the farthest they flew attacking the Japanese, do you know? Well I d say the furthest was when we were in Owie (?) to the Philippines. I don t know how far away, but quite a distance. Yeah, yeah. Now did the with 25 s and 24 s, did they also have to stop someplace and refuel or were they No, they flew a shorter range. Oh okay. Page 11 of 29

12 And sometimes, see they also could ve put a Bombay tank and sometimes it ll hold more fuel, but then they didn t carry as much bombs then. Yeah, yeah. Now, so now you re in New Guinea, you re the Master Sergeant, how long were you in that position in that location? Well I made Master in 1944 and I came back in , okay. Is the closest you got to Japan New Guinea, or did you get further? Well I come home from the Philippines, Samar in the Philippines. Like here s the place that I ve been that s from my whole career of service. That s wonderful. And you stayed in Twenty-two years. Twenty-two years. Oh is that right, okay. Wow. Now, when you got into the Philippines that was after what, three or four years of being totally controlled by the Japanese? Yeah, now we got Samar, it wasn t a very big place. It was just like a little village, that s all it was, it wasn t very big. But that s the only place I got in the Philippines was Samar. Okay, did you see any of the American Soldiers who had been in POW Camps in the Philippines while you were there. Page 12 of 29

13 Not in the Philippines, where I saw them was when I come home, we flew from the Philippines to a landing in Dutch New Guinea. And the boat I came back on was a half hospital ship. So there was a lot of people that was prisoners of war, guys who were shot or something on that boat. So I saw some of them there. Were any of the crew members of the planes you worked on killed in action? Did they lose any Not on my particular airplanes they didn t. Is there any one individual in your experience who stands out in your mind as somebody very memorable in your war experience, whether it be the pilot or someone else? Well my best friend was the name of Jack Webster, he and I were good friends. See, when I went into the service, there was a lot of us lived around the same area. Like he lived about 10 miles from where I lived. In fact from the county I lived in, there was 15 of us went into the service at the same time. So, it was I stayed with the same outfit almost five years. What was good about it there was quite a few of us grew up in the same area see. Okay, now his name was Jack? Yeah uhm-hmm. Now what role did Jack play in the war? He was a radio operator on the aircraft, on airplanes. Now were you able to see him every so often? Oh yeah, I d see him every day, yeah. Oh that s great. Did you have much contact, whether it be in New Guinea with the Philippines with any of the native population? You re getting your exercise. Wow, look at that. Oh yeah, uhm-hmm. There s one in the back of it too. Now is this picture in New Guinea? Page 13 of 29

14 Yes, that s in Nadzab, New Guinea. Are you in this photograph? Yeah, that s me right there. The tall guy, okay. So here you are. So now they seem very friendly, were they very helpful against the They were good to Americans, yeah, they were friendly. Now, you re wearing in this picture you re wearing a safari hat. Yeah, we called them Frank Buck hats. Okay Frank Buck, okay that s right. The lion tamer and performer. Oh right. Well we got issued them in Australia. It s not actually the outfit I expect an aircraft mechanic to be wearing with your Frank Buck. Well I m not working then. This guy one guy s in shorts. But most of the time when we were out in the open in New Guinea we wore long clothes because of the mosquitos. But inside the jungle like we were mostly, if you re working on the airplanes you wore shorts and stuff. Yeah, because of the mosquitos did many of your crew or members of the flight crews become sick with malaria and other diseases? I never had, I had dinghy fever, which is something like malaria. Okay, and how long did that lay you up? About two weeks I guess. Okay, now did you stay where you were located or did they take you to some sort of No, just went back to my tent, that s all. Page 14 of 29

15 Okay, okay the let s see What did you eat? The same old stuff all the time really. Yeah, was it rations? You get tired of eating it after a while. Yeah, was it rations? Oh yeah, all rations, yeah. We had a mess hall but same old stuff, everything was in a can. Yeah uhm-hmm. When the war ended, were you in the Philippines at that time? No, when the war ended, I was back in the states when the war ended. In fact, when the when I came back from the Philippines and about March 1945 March or April of 1945, and I went home to Pennsylvania. And then they sent me all the way back to California, to Santa Ana, California for reassignment. And the war Europe was over then. So I had 138 points and you could get out then they start discharging people, and if you had 76 points, you could get discharged. So they sent me from Santa Ana to Wright- Patterson, and I got out of the service for two months. I stayed out two months and then I went back in again. Now, what was the reason you came back to the states? Came back to the states? Yeah, when you were in the Philippines, why did they send you back while the war was still going on? Well, we got sent back, we were supposed to go to B29 School, but when the war in Europe was over, they no longer needed us because they had plenty of people then. Oh okay. The B29 s a much bigger bomber. Oh yeah, yeah. So I never got on B29 s at all. Page 15 of 29

16 Now it says here on the sheet you re showing us that you had five brothers in World War II. Yes. Then I had one brother in the Korean War. Okay, now the five who were in the war, where are you in chronological order there. Well, I would say Are you one of the older ones? No, three brothers older than me. Jake, Joe, Eddie. Now there was three of us in the service before the war was declared. My brother Ed went in 1938, then I went 1940, my brother Bill went 1941, and the other two brothers were drafted, Jake left, and Joe drafted, yeah. Now, were they were some of them in Europe and some of them in the Pacific? My oldest brother Jake was in Europe, I have a brother Frank was in Europe, and my brother Ed was in a CBI What s a CBI? China Burma India. Oh, okay. And my brother Bill and Joe never went overseas. I have a brother he was in the Korean War, he was in Korea. But he was too young for World War II. Now is he the one who died in Korea? No, he didn t die in Korea, no. Oh I m sorry, I read that wrong, I apologize. No, no, I didn t have no brothers die at all. Page 16 of 29

17 They all came home. Oh that s good. The He retired in Reno Nevada. Now you stayed in the military, you got out for two months you said. And then you decided to re-up? Yeah, right. Now did you keep your rank? Yes. Okay, and what did you do for the next was it 20 years, 22 years? Yeah, well I reenlisted from Wright-Patterson, and it s on there, tells you all the places I ve been. Oh okay. And when I went to Aubrey (?) England, [00:26:07] airlift. We got $200 inspections on the B24 s in England. They flew from Germany over to England, and we did the inspections on them there. Now are you still the Crew Chief for I m not up further now, I m a Hangar Chief. Being Hangar Chief, are you in charge of All the maintenance under that hangar. So you have several crew chiefs reporting to you? Yeah, yeah, well we have Dock Hands they were called Dock Chiefs we had working in the hangars. Page 17 of 29

18 And then it says here you went to Rome? Yes, Griffiss Air Force Base in Rome, New York. And then eventually Alaska. What was it like, here you are in Europe after the war. What was it like in England after the war, was it Well I still had I got there in 1948, England still had rationing though and all this. And of course I had my family over in England now. Okay, so did you get married during the war? No, after the war. I got married in Dayton, Ohio and when I got orders to go to, I was already married when I go to England, so I went over by myself, and then my wife and one daughter came over later. Now you had the two months off in 1945 after the war, then you re-up, and it s during your time between 1945 and 1948 that you get married then? Yeah, I got married in Now while I was in England, we were supposed to go back, see at that time, the Army had a lot of the ships, Army had their own ships that were like passenger ships for troop ships. Uhm-hmm. And we were on the boat at I can t think of that place in England, but anyway, we pulled out of there and the ship had a buoy in the water. So we went over to Germany then to dry dock in Germany. And I had my wife and daughter with me. And the Army at that time, took over a lot of hotels and stuff, this is So we lived in a hotel, government took care of it, we had meals, in fact our evening meal, we had music with the evening meal, this was when I was in the service. And my wife was so close to seeing her grandmother, see my wife was born in Dayton, but her family came from Germany. Page 18 of 29

19 Oh. So she had a lot of relatives, in fact her grandmother was still living. So we tried to get a leave to go see her grandmother but I couldn t get one, so she was so close to seeing her, but we never did get there. Now, when did the Army Air Corp become the Air Force? In ? You were in the military at that time, outside of changing names, was there much change? No, we wore the same uniform, that was I was stationed at Wright-Patterson then, and when we changed uniforms we had the same uniform except we wore black shoes and a blue tie. That s about the only difference, and a hat, a blue hat. We got the complete uniform, I m not sure, but I think it was in 1950 when I at Griffiss Air Force Base in Rome New York. Now, you retired from the military in Okay, and we re talking about 22 full years. Right. Is that the time most people would retire, or could you have stayed longer? Well I could of stayed I really retired because I was on helicopters then. Oh okay. And we were having a hard time getting parts, and we would take them from one airplane and putting it on another and I just got tired of it, so I retired. Page 19 of 29

20 Uhm-hmm, and where did you retire to? Where did you move to after you retired? I came to Dayton because my wife was from Dayton. Okay, and that s what brought you to Warren County? Right. Yes, okay. I worked out in corrections for twenty years, but I got twenty-five year retirement cause I bought five years military time. Okay, so were you a guard there or? Yeah, I was a Lieutenant when I retired from out there. I worked mostly in the infirmary. Now, what was your final rank in the military. Senior Master Sergeant. Senior Master Sergeant, and what were you in charge of at that time? I was a Line Chief then. Uhm-hmm. I was at Stead Air Force Base in Reno Nevada. Of all the variety of different places you were stationed, which one did you enjoy the most? Randolph in Texas. What made that special? That place was altogether different. I lived in a set of quarters down there, four bedrooms, hardwood floors all the way through, pecan trees in my yard. It was about 20 miles out of San Antonio I Page 20 of 29

21 guess. It was nice place. Oh that s good, I wouldn t have expected, no that sounds very lovely, I wouldn t expect it to be the best place. Is there anything that we haven t covered that you think we should know about as far as your experience in World War II? I don t know, I enjoyed all my time in the service, I really liked the service. Now, you were also in the Air Force now during the Korean War. How did that effect your I never got to Korea, I came back from England in 1950, well it was 1950 when the Korean War started so I had just come back from overseas. So I never got to Korea, but in 1953 then I went to Alaska. Instead of going to Korea I went to Alaska, I spent two years in Alaska. Okay, now when you were in Alaska, was the war still going on in Korea? It was just about over. Okay, did any of the planes you worked with, or you were involved with, did they have service in Korea or were they basically just a fence? You mean after World War II? During the Korean War. Now during the Korean War, I was when the Korean War started, I was that was ARDC, our research and development. So we had a mixture of all different kinds of aircraft there. Oh okay. Now was the when they went from the B26 to the 25, to the 24, did they discontinue or stop using the 26 s or No, what happened on the B26, we lost most of them, and there was just enough left for one squadron, so they gave them to the 19 th Bomb Squadron, and the airplane I had on, had went to the 19 th Bomb Squad. So I went I was attached to the 19 th Bomb Squadron for about three months. Then I went back to my own Squadron. Page 21 of 29

22 Now there s one thing I haven t asked you, what Squadron were you in for most of your 2 nd Bomb Squadron. 2 nd Bomb Squadron. 22 nd Bomb Group. 22 nd Bomb Group, okay, and that is for most of your World War II experience. No, I got out of basic training in September 1940, and March or April 1945 I was in the same outfit, over four and a half years, the same outfit. What was now did you report to any officer outside of the pilot or was there a Oh I never reported to the pilot. We had an Adjunct Squadron Commander. The only time I reported to the pilot was when he came down to fly the airplane. Uhm-hmm. But as far as officer in charge, we had a Squadron Commander. Was there much of a relationship between the flight crew and the grounds crew? Yeah because in war time, unless the commanding officer got killed, so you call the Lieutenant or Captain, whatever they were, you could talk to them, like anybody else. Now there s no saying I m an officer or anything like that. Were there any of those circumstances you sometimes see where I don t know if we can get the plane ready for this next mission, and I say do your best or whatever. Oh yeah, there was times when we yeah, but most of the time we did it on time. What was the major issue in dealing with the planes, what would break down the most? Page 22 of 29

23 Probably the engine probably. But other than that why they were pretty good. Now, if the engine breaks down do you just try to find parts to fix it or do you ever get an opportunity to put a different engine in? Oh yeah, we changed engines quite often. Oh did you, okay. See cause generally you fly so many hours and then you have to change it. Uhm-hmm. Okay, did you have trouble getting parts? No, we didn t. See World War II, if we had any trouble getting parts sometimes, we d get some parts from a wrecked airplane or something. So you could take parts off a wrecked airplane, except, any airplane that was on fire, you couldn t take anything off that one. But any other airplane, but the part was inspected first before it was put on. Who would do the inspecting? We had inspectors, every squadron had about two or three inspectors. Do you it sounds like you really went through a whole gamut of different kinds of planes. From the B26 to jet planes. Did you have No, no not jets. Not jets? Oh after the war, I was around jets some when I was in the ARDC and AMC, but most of my time was on conventional aircraft. Oh okay, good to know. Page 23 of 29

24 Did the squadrons lose a lot of planes during their missions? Well like I say, the B26 s we lost all but enough for one squadron, we had 57, and there wasn t more than 15 or 16 B26 s left. Now they weren t all combat accidents, some were taking off and all different kinds of stuff. Like sometimes an airplane took off and never came back, but you don t know what in the Pacific with all that water, you don t know what happened to it. Now, were the B24 s with their four engines, how many engines could they lose and still fly? They could lose one. But the other two, the 26 and the 25, if they lost one, is that going to be about it? It all depends on how long they have to stay in the air. But they could land on one engine if they had to. But it wasn t the best. Did any of the it s hard to know, but did any of the planes run out of gas someplace? Not that I know of. They may have on a mission, but they never came back, we don t know. Yeah, now in your position, where you were repairing the planes, were you ever attacked by Japanese fighters or bombers or anything. Well at Port Moresby they d come over to Port Moresby, cause like I say, there was nothing there. But the only other place that I remember when I was in Nadzab, they came over there a couple times. Oh nighttime we d get we d call it a nuisance raid. They d fly around at nighttime and they d change their pitch on their engines so they d make the noise and stuff, and they d want everybody to go to the trenches and stuff. And after a while you d get tired, but once in a while they did drop a bomb close by and then a little late to run to your trench then. Now I mentioned, were you ever stationed anywhere where there were any land conflicts going on, or was it mostly further behind in that? Page 24 of 29

25 Oh we were further behind really. I guess closest was when I went to Samar be the closest in the Philippines, but they still weren t there. Now the planes you re working on are on bombing runs. Did they coordinate with the Marines and other forces or Oh I m sure they did, but that was nothing I knew about, that was Headquarter stuff. So you re just there to make sure they can fly. Did you have your own set of tools that you Oh yeah, everybody had their own toolbox yeah. Own toolbox. And you kept it with you at all times? Cause I know my husband has his own toolbox and he wouldn t leave that. Yeah, we all had our own toolbox. He needs to share, he doesn t like to share. Now, how often did you actually get on an airplane or did you do that much at all? For a while overseas I was on flying status, I would just go up on test flies and stuff. I was on flying status or maybe about a year or so. I got to go on two missions but they were what they call milk runs. There was nothing, some ground fire and that was about it. Page 25 of 29

26 But we were lucky it was just milk runs. Yeah, now in that status, did you take someone else s place or you sort of Twice the guy got sick or something that I was out on my airplane and the pilot asked me to go with them, and I did. Do you have any other questions? No that s it. Okay, well like I said George, is there anything else you want to add that we haven t mentioned here? No. Well it s a May we have a copy of this. Yeah, I got that copy from the YMCA. See out at the Y, everybody that goes to the Y that was in the military can make one of them out. I saw that in the book. Yes, yes. I saw that in the book uhm-hmm. Now this picture of you George, is this toward the end of your career? No, that was in I was down in Australia on a rush leave when that happened. So you can see I ve got a full uniform there. I was down in Australia on a rush leave. Now stationed as you were in New Guinea and other places. Did the USO ever come by and try to entertain you while you were there? Page 26 of 29

27 No, they had the Red Cross people once in a while get juice or something, that s about it. Yeah, so Bob Hope didn t come visit you. Someplace he did and I don t remember where. He did, I don t know whether it was Bob Hope or who, but somebody came one time to someplace. But I don t remember really where I was. I ll have to look for his name back there. Anyway I only have about three or four words in there. That s wonderful. You know, it s a funny thing, our Squadron Commander we had one time, his name was George Rath, I had the same name as him cept mine was an O and he was an A. And that s George Rath like the movie star. R-a-t-h, yeah. Now did people sometimes misread your name and think the big guy was coming by. A couple times I got his mail mixed up. But one time after I retired though, that was after World War II, we used to have reunions every year. Uhm-hmm. And this was probably about maybe 20 some years after the war or something. And I was sitting at a table with this guy. And he said I flew with you in World War II. I said nope, not me, you flew with George Rath. He with my name, George Roth, so close. All right. Well thank you very much George, we appreciate your willingness to talk to us and to share your memories and we want to thank you for being so kind to talk to us and also thank you for your long service in the US military. Would you like me to look? Page 27 of 29

28 SECOND FILE What a dream, isn t that sweet, Simba. Rose of San Anton. I think I had this some place. Here it is. His assistant was Staff Sergeant Roy S. Carson, and the mechanics were Staff Sergeant George B. Roth, PFC Kowalski. By October the latter had been replaced by Sergeant R.J. Marinella. There you are. All right. That s pretty cool. And this is from a book, what s the title of the book Revenge of the Red Raiders. Eagles over the Pacific volume II. Page 28 of 29

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