Speaker 1: What are we fighting for? The best soldiers in the
Speaker 1: world are the ones who know what they're fighting for
Speaker 1: and to make our soldiers the best and farmed in
Speaker 1: the world, the water Fartment has been presenting talks by
Speaker 1: a well known person experts in that various fields of
Speaker 1: knowledge before our troops and army into stuck. During an
Speaker 1: overnight train layover in Rootwi Gi Hospital, Corporal Rupert Trimmingham
Speaker 1: awoke hungary and so went out with a few other
Speaker 1: soldiers for a bite at the station cafe. The corporal
Speaker 1: was told they would only be served if they ate
Speaker 1: in the kitchen. They were in Louisiana and these American
Speaker 1: soldiers were black. They had black failers underloading ammunition and
Speaker 1: loading ammunition and it blew well and killed over a
Speaker 1: hundred of them. The black they were just given almost
Speaker 1: many of jobs. I get in sense before we get
Speaker 1: to camp, show me we see white person walk and
Speaker 1: a black person was walking there. The black person and
Speaker 1: jump off the curb were Dumfountain. Welcome to Service, Stories
Speaker 1: of Hunger and War, a production from I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and Me your host Jacquelin Reposo. So what are we
Speaker 1: fighting for? Call to serve in World War two for
Speaker 1: those with specific racial and ethnic identities contained huge levels
Speaker 1: of hypocrisy. We should be rightly appalled by the Nazi
Speaker 1: concentration camps, but as well here in detail in our
Speaker 1: episode with laws in Ichirosakai, Japanese American citizens were being
Speaker 1: interred here and Jim Crow's segregation laws didn't evaporate when
Speaker 1: African Americans entered the armed forces. For most of the war,
Speaker 1: troops were entirely segregated, with most black units led by
Speaker 1: white officers and many barriers delaying their advancement, but victory
Speaker 1: was still the word during this time. We heard Frank
Speaker 1: DaVita referred to victory al in his episode in East Jackson, Mississippi.
Speaker 1: The Food for Victory Association set up a fair in
Speaker 1: August of to educate civilians about how, as the local
Speaker 1: Jackson Advocate newspaper put it, without the proper food, we
Speaker 1: cannot win the war. And a few months later, a
Speaker 1: letter from a reader published in another African American newspaper,
Speaker 1: the Pittsburgh Courier, inspired citizens to fight a double V campaign,
Speaker 1: a promise to actively support war efforts and encourage not
Speaker 1: only victory over fascism abroad, but also victory over racism
Speaker 1: at home, those servant were to push and prevail, and
Speaker 1: those state side were to keep pressure on politicians and
Speaker 1: to keep publishing. George Hardy, a retired lieutenant colonel who
Speaker 1: started his career as one of the prestigious Duskegee Airmen
Speaker 1: the All African American Fighter Pilot Group, leads us into
Speaker 1: this double V world today. Of the one million African
Speaker 1: American men who served during World War To, George is
Speaker 1: somewhat of an outlier as well. Hear most African American
Speaker 1: troops were put into support positions like supply and those
Speaker 1: requiring manual labor, but George was a combat pilot. He
Speaker 1: doesn't mince words when it comes to some of the
Speaker 1: hardships he faced in his pursuit of higher rank. But
Speaker 1: like many of his greatest generation, he does brush off
Speaker 1: some of this history too, and you'll hear heavy silences
Speaker 1: as he reflects. And so. Now, from his quiet home
Speaker 1: aside a pond in Sarasota, Florida, let's slow and sit
Speaker 1: and spend some time with George Hardy. My name is
Speaker 1: George Hardy, and I'm a retired lieutenant colonel, United States
Speaker 1: Air Force. However, in World War Two. I was in
Speaker 1: the Army because it wasn't a separate air force at
Speaker 1: that time, part of the United States Army Air Corps
Speaker 1: and then United States Army Air Forces. I was born
Speaker 1: in n phil If he was divided in many areas,
Speaker 1: you had areas of Africa Americans live, Italians live, Irish
Speaker 1: and whatnot. And growing up on Red Street in South Philly,
Speaker 1: I went to all the George Smith Elementary School. Now
Speaker 1: that school wasn't all Africa American school teachers principles everybody
Speaker 1: who goes right on the edge of a black area.
Speaker 1: Then I went to Junior High school predominantly white, mainly Italians.
Speaker 1: Then I went to Celphodofia High School to ins and
Speaker 1: eighty one of my graduating class, only four were Africa American.
Speaker 1: So you see how the race was divided into the city.
Speaker 1: There was racial tension, but I didn't feel it too much.
Speaker 1: I made several friends down there. One of my best
Speaker 1: friends was a Jewish kid, and then a couple of
Speaker 1: Italian kids, but the only contact A with them was
Speaker 1: at school. Two separate lives, two separate friends. Those friends
Speaker 1: at school and then those friends at home. And that's
Speaker 1: the way life was, but you get used to that
Speaker 1: after a while. There were seven of us in my family.
Speaker 1: I was next to the oldest. My older brother was
Speaker 1: born three. My mother always always at home. She did
Speaker 1: the cooking, she did the ironing, she did everything. My
Speaker 1: father he had worked and he had come home, and
Speaker 1: my father was a disablinaria. But my mother wasn't. What
Speaker 1: she would do most is wait until your father comes home.
Speaker 1: We got along very well, and I love my father.
Speaker 1: I used to tink it with everything around the house,
Speaker 1: and I would take things apart. And I remember I
Speaker 1: got to the nice clock off the mantelpiece and got
Speaker 1: it behind a chair, and my mother caught me. Oh, George,
Speaker 1: come here, well, I'll put it back together. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: leave it alone, and wait till your father gets home.
Speaker 1: And I sweated the rest of the day because he
Speaker 1: got home. Eddie, come on and show you what George did.
Speaker 1: He looked at me and he shook his head and
Speaker 1: he said, you know, Alma, I think he's going to
Speaker 1: be an engineer. And he picked up the pieces and
Speaker 1: took him to the table, sat down, and while they
Speaker 1: put them together that he was talking to me, who
Speaker 1: was such wonderful sitting with him. We were just good friends,
Speaker 1: and at that moment I decided I wanted to be
Speaker 1: an engineer. But when you talk to kids, you've got
Speaker 1: to be careful what you say and how you say,
Speaker 1: because it may affect them. One little moment can make
Speaker 1: the difference in the child's life. They'll tell him which
Speaker 1: will be the important point, And that changed my life.
Speaker 1: Rather I did anctually get to graduate engineering degrees. Who
Speaker 1: my father was from Philadelphia. My father now and then
Speaker 1: would fix a special dish that I love, kidney Stu
Speaker 1: beef kidneys. When he fixed that, I love to eat
Speaker 1: a delicious My mother's from the Bahamas. She's English, from
Speaker 1: Spanish and some Indian. But she drank tea, so in
Speaker 1: our house we didn't have coffee with at tea. When
Speaker 1: I went in the service. For years, I never drank
Speaker 1: coffee before I went on a mission. I just drink
Speaker 1: a glass of water or glass of milk and fly
Speaker 1: my mission. My brother and two of his friends joined
Speaker 1: the Navy. My father was upset because of Afro American background.
Speaker 1: The Navy own accept them as mess attendants and they
Speaker 1: made my brother cook on a small destroyer. I remember
Speaker 1: December seventh, Sunday, I was upstairs doing my homework and
Speaker 1: I had the radio one to the Eagles football game.
Speaker 1: Didn't want my mother to hear it. They interrupted to
Speaker 1: mention that Pearl Harbor had been attacked. I didn't tell
Speaker 1: any boy about it because I won't ful be listening
Speaker 1: to radio in the first place. So my brother been
Speaker 1: three in the air few years out over the North
Speaker 1: Atlantic in that tin can. A lot of my classmates,
Speaker 1: some of them over eight team, so they joined the service.
Speaker 1: Remember Pearl Harbor, Remember Pearl Harbor. I couldn't join because
Speaker 1: still too young to go into service, but I wanted
Speaker 1: to beggest my brother. I got that slip the parents
Speaker 1: signed for you, the Navy would take you at seventeen.
Speaker 1: Talked to my father. He shook his head and said, no,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to sign it, but let's talk about it.
Speaker 1: And we talked about it. That is he did to talking.
Speaker 1: All I wanted was being engineer. Took science courses, I
Speaker 1: made it in math, and now to go around preparing food.
Speaker 1: They said, that's real come down, And by time he finished,
Speaker 1: I had no desire to go into the Navy as
Speaker 1: Miss Attendant. I realized he made sense. I love listening
Speaker 1: to him. This country, it all came down from slavery.
Speaker 1: After the Civil War, the South, when they got their
Speaker 1: rights back, put in play segregation laws and a lot
Speaker 1: of those people in the South were in the military,
Speaker 1: and so the military was segregated. And that's the way
Speaker 1: the country was at that time. You travel through the
Speaker 1: South Afri American, you couldn't stay at hotels with whites
Speaker 1: or eating any restaurants that separate entrances for Afro Americans
Speaker 1: and movie theaters. But it all boiled by the fact
Speaker 1: that the slavery was the basis of it, slaves, and
Speaker 1: then now people in the South didn't want to mix
Speaker 1: with them. That's the way the country was at that time.
Speaker 1: No matter what it is, it still our country. We
Speaker 1: were not Hitler over here or Jesus. Thing would be
Speaker 1: even worse. The Japanese, the way they treated the Chinese,
Speaker 1: it was awful. You know that they came here. They
Speaker 1: would be after you too because you're different. And so
Speaker 1: the thing is you wanted to fight for what you
Speaker 1: know rather than what you don't know. You're ready to
Speaker 1: fight for your country through all wars we had Afro
Speaker 1: Americans fighting for this country just the way life is.
Speaker 1: I guess President Roosevelt talking to the military about Afro
Speaker 1: American pilots, nay share what we can't have are for
Speaker 1: American pilots because the services segregated and all the flying
Speaker 1: squadrons of white President of why can't we have a
Speaker 1: black flying squadron. So they prepared for a black flying
Speaker 1: squadron ninety nine and they've selected Tuskegee because TuS Key
Speaker 1: had been involved in the civilian pilot training program to
Speaker 1: prepare pilots because of what was happening in Europe and
Speaker 1: someone decided to do this. They felt that Tuskey had
Speaker 1: the best program and good flying weather. And Tuskey you
Speaker 1: had to hire civilian instructors, black instructors to train them
Speaker 1: to fly. And now I wanted to fly an airplane.
Speaker 1: The Battle of Britain, the fighter planes save Britain, and
Speaker 1: Germany is going to invade Britain, but they're going to
Speaker 1: soften it up with the Luffwaffe. The English were first
Speaker 1: people who use radar. They were able to keep their
Speaker 1: fighter planes on the ground until the German planes got
Speaker 1: close enough than the fighter planes took off and they
Speaker 1: had full fuel tanks. Germans flying from France. They have
Speaker 1: to go back before too long. The fighter pilots beat
Speaker 1: them back, and so the Battle of Britain was wanted
Speaker 1: the fighters. In June forty two, the Japanese is going
Speaker 1: to take the island of Midway and came with these
Speaker 1: four carriers. We ended up sinking all four of those carriers.
Speaker 1: So the air, hey, that's that's great center. As Churchill said,
Speaker 1: never in the field of human country for so much
Speaker 1: owed by so many to show too. And so I
Speaker 1: decided in forty three I wanted to fly watching forty
Speaker 1: three the Army and the Navy said, if you are
Speaker 1: seventeen and a high school graduate, you can take the example.
Speaker 1: He averred that, and what did I do? I'm still
Speaker 1: think Navy past exam and they realized who I was
Speaker 1: from my birth certificate, and they failed me on my
Speaker 1: physical because some problem with my wisdom teeth. I went
Speaker 1: to the dynasty. He said, there's nothing wrong to your teeth.
Speaker 1: He said, they just don't want you. Then said, well,
Speaker 1: I'll go to the Army. They sent me home until
Speaker 1: I turned eighteen to report of July active duty orders
Speaker 1: to go to Keyston Army Airfield and Bloxy, Mississippi, for
Speaker 1: basic training. They put us on the train, three of
Speaker 1: us from Philadelphia. We're all going to Tuskegee after the break.
Speaker 1: And then the captain turned to the driver and said,
Speaker 1: where can he eat, pointing to me. Stay with us. MHM.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to service stories of hunger and war from
Speaker 1: my Heart Radio. I'm Jacqueline Roposo and we're here with
Speaker 1: retired Lieutenant Colonel George Hardy. He's on a train leaving
Speaker 1: Philadelphia and route to becoming a fighter pilot in the U. S.
Speaker 1: Army Air Corps. There's actually more to Corporal Trimmingham's train
Speaker 1: station story. Back at that cafe, two dozen guarded German
Speaker 1: POWs then sat in the dining room, eating, talking, smoking,
Speaker 1: having what appeared to be a swell time. What is
Speaker 1: the Negro soldier fighting for? He then questioned, in a
Speaker 1: letter to Yank Military Magazine. Are we not American soldiers
Speaker 1: sworn to fight and die if need be for this
Speaker 1: our country? Then why are they treated better than we are?
Speaker 1: Rather than the specifics of what was in his k
Speaker 1: rations or base camp food, George is more apt to
Speaker 1: similarly recall the circumstances around which he was able to
Speaker 1: eat were not to eat, And as Trimmingham noted, whether
Speaker 1: or not you're included really matters when you're putting your
Speaker 1: life on the line for all of your fellow citizens
Speaker 1: and being asked to trust those around you with it.
Speaker 1: Let's continue with George's journey. Now, this isn't the first
Speaker 1: time we've boarded a train with a serviceman. Check out
Speaker 1: our first episode with Pat d Ambrosio and you might
Speaker 1: hear a difference in how they recount their experiences. They
Speaker 1: gave us Pullman tickets, which surprised us. Three privates from
Speaker 1: Philophia Vienno Railroad to Cincinnati, and that was really great.
Speaker 1: We're in a Pullman car at the two berths on
Speaker 1: each side, so we had that section and the other
Speaker 1: people were in the rest of the car, most of
Speaker 1: them are white. But then when we got to Cincinnati,
Speaker 1: they switched to the L and N Railroad and we
Speaker 1: still had Pullman tickets and we were the only Afro
Speaker 1: Americans in this car. So everything was fine, except when
Speaker 1: we went to eat to the dining car. Leaving Cincinnati
Speaker 1: go to the South and the laudess I'll say white
Speaker 1: and colored must be separated as far as eating. So
Speaker 1: they had a heavy curtain across with a few tables
Speaker 1: behind it. For Afro American we had to go through
Speaker 1: to the dining car and then sit behind the curtain.
Speaker 1: And the curtain was waited so that someone went through
Speaker 1: it with blows on the bottom. And that's where we
Speaker 1: had to eat. When we went through the South do
Speaker 1: we got to be LuxI, Mississippi. But that's okay. Well
Speaker 1: we got the Keyston and then things got worse because
Speaker 1: once they got the keys the ups face we were
Speaker 1: absolutely segregator. We're on em barracks. We trained separately. We
Speaker 1: had a separate mess hall. We'd go to the firing range.
Speaker 1: Whenever we were there, we were the only ones there.
Speaker 1: Other time whites would use it. And then went to
Speaker 1: Tuskegee in September called his Training Attachment. We had some
Speaker 1: good instructors of for American guys. They taught us in
Speaker 1: the pt nineteen and that's what I flew in. It
Speaker 1: was just a lot of fun. I was still eighteen
Speaker 1: when I learned to fly a received my wings as
Speaker 1: a pilot and my commission as a second lieutenant, and
Speaker 1: you know, the racial problems keep coming in here. I
Speaker 1: was selected to go to a gunnery mate out in Texas.
Speaker 1: They have a competition with the top gunners. Somehow they
Speaker 1: picked me to go, and that was the experience I
Speaker 1: I didn't like to go to the gun remat. We
Speaker 1: went out in two T six is. A captain flew
Speaker 1: one and I rode in a back seat with him
Speaker 1: and a lieutenant, both of them a white instructors. I'm
Speaker 1: the one in the contest. So the first thing we
Speaker 1: do is went to a naval basset La puncher train
Speaker 1: just outside of New Orleans. Well, I knew the navy
Speaker 1: was segregated, but captain went ahead and I got out
Speaker 1: to him and said, well, he can sleep around there.
Speaker 1: I went and washed up and got dressed, put my
Speaker 1: uniform on, and went to the captain's door to find
Speaker 1: out what we're gonna do about eating, because he's in charge.
Speaker 1: He wasn't there. I went down, I said, you know
Speaker 1: where the captains? Oh, he and the lieutenant they went
Speaker 1: into New Orleans. They left me. Didn't you tell me
Speaker 1: where they're going? So I caught the bus win in
Speaker 1: New Orleans and got something to eat and came back
Speaker 1: the next day. Of the meat went off and I
Speaker 1: didn't win anything. It was just not the nicest affair.
Speaker 1: They wanted to go to Houston before they went back
Speaker 1: to Tuskegee, so we went to Ellington Field and landed there.
Speaker 1: I guess they realized what happened, and the captain said,
Speaker 1: I have a vehicle that's gonna pick us up and
Speaker 1: take us into town. You can ride with us, and
Speaker 1: after we dropped off, you can go to where you
Speaker 1: want to go. And we got in this vehicle and
Speaker 1: the driver, the captain and lieutenant and meet and they
Speaker 1: asked where's the best stakes in town? And he said, well,
Speaker 1: you go to ship ahoydu. Most people go there, So
Speaker 1: he took him there and then he pulled up in
Speaker 1: front of the ship Ahoy and a lot of officers
Speaker 1: standing around. And then the captain turned to the driver
Speaker 1: and said, where can he eat? Winning to me and
Speaker 1: the drivers looked at me and said right in there,
Speaker 1: And the captain looked at the lieutenant and they said,
Speaker 1: come on, let's go, So the three of us would
Speaker 1: in there. So I eat in that restaurant with them,
Speaker 1: and that night a lot of dancing in an egg
Speaker 1: and as glad lights were dark, but they had a
Speaker 1: good steak. I went over in February a fighter Squadron
Speaker 1: three second Fighter Group station in a base called Rama Telly.
Speaker 1: I just ate in the miss hole. Everything they had
Speaker 1: where they had, I ate it. You had to have
Speaker 1: a good meal first thing, breakfast and breakfast. I would
Speaker 1: fill up on breakfast and I just ate anything I
Speaker 1: could get, except that the military had powdered eggs, and
Speaker 1: I hated those powdered eggs. I got a cigarette ration.
Speaker 1: I didn't smoke cigarettes, so I would take my cigarettes
Speaker 1: and trade them to the Italians for eggs. I forget
Speaker 1: how my eggs you can get for a pack of cigarettes,
Speaker 1: and I would take my eggs to the cook and
Speaker 1: ask them to fix my eggs sunnyside up. And that's
Speaker 1: what I did for breakfast over there. I hate everything
Speaker 1: else they had, but I didn't like booth powdered eggs.
Speaker 1: If you look at the map of it Le, there's
Speaker 1: a spur out on the eastern side. We're just right
Speaker 1: at that point. That's where Ramatelli was. We talked to
Speaker 1: the east. By time gear came up, you out over
Speaker 1: the Adriatic. I flew a fight airplane fight. Airplane is
Speaker 1: a plane that has guns on it. The D models
Speaker 1: we have six machine guns on it. Only one person
Speaker 1: in the airplane, and so it's a fast airplane. When
Speaker 1: you're flying airplane, if you look straight ahead, you're looking
Speaker 1: through your gun sight and you aim your airplane and
Speaker 1: you have your gun sight up there. You just put
Speaker 1: the thing on the target and the triggers on your
Speaker 1: stick that you use a control airplane. Every time you
Speaker 1: pull the trigger, the six guns would fly through anose plane. Now,
Speaker 1: the bomber airplanes they carry bombs to bomb over Germany.
Speaker 1: We had those scoops in Italy. They would take off,
Speaker 1: get in formation and fly at high altitude to drop
Speaker 1: bombs on factories and things not in Germany, and the
Speaker 1: Germans would send up fighters to shoot them down. We
Speaker 1: would escort the bombers to fight the German airplanes in
Speaker 1: the air. That was our job to protect the bombers.
Speaker 1: So that was what I did. By the time I
Speaker 1: got over there, there weren't many German airplanes left. The
Speaker 1: only time I fired my guns was on strafeing missions.
Speaker 1: Sometimes on a short mission. After the bombers are safe,
Speaker 1: you'd go back over Germany and look at targets of opportunity, trains,
Speaker 1: barges or trucks on the highway. You want to make
Speaker 1: sure the Germans can't move equipment and stuff around. Or
Speaker 1: I love to shoot an engine because they tend to
Speaker 1: blow up. But sometimes the targets fired back at you.
Speaker 1: So there you could see the shells coming back. You
Speaker 1: can't see the MAXI. But yeah, I tell you that
Speaker 1: something is happening. It pumps up the Germans and that's
Speaker 1: the reason they want to get younger people to do that.
Speaker 1: A guy forty some years old, so are you crazy.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna go down there. There's guns down there.
Speaker 1: But a guy eighteen, nineteen years old, he's going down.
Speaker 1: The captain says, do this. You're going to turn in
Speaker 1: and go down and space people because the guy head
Speaker 1: you said, listen, and you follow him down. And that's
Speaker 1: the way you learn. You don't have the fear of
Speaker 1: I can't do that. When you go to pilot training,
Speaker 1: I can do anything. I went over in February nine
Speaker 1: and I flew twenty one missions in March and April,
Speaker 1: and then the war ended in maya forty five. I
Speaker 1: got up to Milan and places like that, but the
Speaker 1: Italians didn't have the restaurants and things like that that
Speaker 1: they had today, so you didn't enjoy that much. Most
Speaker 1: of the people they had very little, and a lot
Speaker 1: of them would come around to try to work to
Speaker 1: do things for you. That's how I got my eggs,
Speaker 1: people coming to bar the things they wanted to get cigarettes. Remember,
Speaker 1: they fought a lot in Italy up the East coast
Speaker 1: and was tough fighting. The Germans have destroyed a lot
Speaker 1: of stuff before they would give it up. The Italians
Speaker 1: had a real rebuilding job to recover from that. In
Speaker 1: World War One, the other Germans didn't think they were
Speaker 1: really beaten. They felt they were betrayed by their leaders
Speaker 1: because they still had a full army and they surrendered.
Speaker 1: But in World War Two they were completely devastated and
Speaker 1: so no more of that. And the Japanese we weren't
Speaker 1: sure about invading a pan We estimate and we would
Speaker 1: lose at least half a million man because the Japanese
Speaker 1: wouldn't surrender on these islands. But once they were completely beaten,
Speaker 1: now it's a different world. They've got to survive. I survive,
Speaker 1: and good Lord boldly through so I survive. I can
Speaker 1: survive anything. We're leaving George mid story. He returned home
Speaker 1: from Italy and moved to New York to continue his
Speaker 1: education and be closer to his future wife, Beatrice, and
Speaker 1: they started what would be their family of four children.
Speaker 1: But then there was many moving parts of the Double
Speaker 1: V campaign started coming together. Trimmingham and Yank Magazine received
Speaker 1: hundreds of letters in response supporting Trimmingham's questioning of democracy,
Speaker 1: and it was later considered a milestone for moving the
Speaker 1: cause forward. Then there were the accomplishments of African American
Speaker 1: troops abroad. As a group, the Tuskege Airmen flew fifteen
Speaker 1: thousand sorties over two years. Sorties are short attack missions.
Speaker 1: They captured or destroyed two hundred and seventy five German planes,
Speaker 1: one thousand trains or trucks, and a German destroyer, and
Speaker 1: the Germans only downed twenty five of the group's bombers.
Speaker 1: The next successful squadron had an equivalent average of forty
Speaker 1: six downed planes. Then the Army conducted a classified survey
Speaker 1: of two hundred and fifty white officers who had served
Speaker 1: with black soldiers. Sixty four percent admitted to initial skepticism
Speaker 1: about integration, but after having served together, seventy seven percent
Speaker 1: had a more favorable view, and while sixty nine percent
Speaker 1: said they performed the same as white troops, seventeen percents
Speaker 1: said they performed even better than them. Yet, from all
Speaker 1: branches of service, no African American World War Two veterans
Speaker 1: were given the Medal of Honor until when seven were,
Speaker 1: with only one, Vernon Baker, still alive to receive it. Still,
Speaker 1: the double V campaign triumphed when President Truman finally signed
Speaker 1: Executive Order one into effect in desegregating the armed forces entirely,
Speaker 1: and George was recruited to return and help fortify the
Speaker 1: now independent Air Force. He joined back up soon, flying
Speaker 1: combat missions on bombers in the Korean War, and as
Speaker 1: a forty five year old lieutenant colonel, he then flew
Speaker 1: in Vietnam. So we're going to hear more from George
Speaker 1: incoming seasons. There is so much about the landscape behind
Speaker 1: George's story that was omitted from our classroom history books.
Speaker 1: You can find some links to archival newspapers, photos, and
Speaker 1: more on our Instagram and Facebook. We are at Service
Speaker 1: Podcast and at George's page at Service podcast dot org
Speaker 1: and You can hear more of George in our for
Speaker 1: the Mechanically Minded episode, a short primer on military production.
Speaker 1: In our next episode, we board a ship with William
Speaker 1: walk Her, Chief Petty Officer first Class of the Navy.
Speaker 1: As William travels the Pacific, will incidentally hear more about
Speaker 1: the double V campaign from his ship's food holds back
Speaker 1: to the diner counter. I want to share one more clip.
Speaker 1: George was married to Beatrice for twenty five years and
Speaker 1: then to his second wife, Bonnie for almost the same
Speaker 1: before she passed, and he's close with his children and
Speaker 1: two stepchildren too. Considering how our first six veterans this
Speaker 1: season are all widowers, I asked George how he keeps
Speaker 1: going after so much time fighting it ends up. While
Speaker 1: the mess hall life wasn't for him all those years ago,
Speaker 1: it is food service now that helps to keep him
Speaker 1: in the light. I work in the food pamtry two
Speaker 1: days a week, serve up the nineties some people and
Speaker 1: do what I can. I will help anybody who someone
Speaker 1: needs help. Someone's got to do. It just won't be
Speaker 1: me Service. As a production from I Heart Radio and Me.
Speaker 1: Coln Riposo, our supervising producer, is Gabrielle Collins. Our executive producer,
Speaker 1: Christopher hasiotis Steven Satterfield voice Corporal Trimmingham for us, and
Speaker 1: I urge you to check out steven show Point of
Speaker 1: Origin right now on the I Heart Radio app or
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you to Joe Faust
Speaker 1: of Tuskegee Airman, Inc. For connecting us with George for
Speaker 1: this episode. I highly recommend you explore more at Tuskegee
Speaker 1: Airman dot org. And thank you to Mike at the
Speaker 1: Sarasota Airport Hurts rental desk. He told me that when
Speaker 1: veterans come through, everyone in rentals comes out to stand
Speaker 1: in their appreciation. And I think these gestures of respect matter.
Speaker 1: Let's keep doing them and talking about them. Thank you
Speaker 1: for listening, and thank you those who are serving and
Speaker 1: those who have served