WW II hero celebrates 100 years (Part 1)

Eighteen-year-old

Jack Buckner was in his second year studying architecture at Georgia Tech at night while working days at Western Electric Company.

A 1940 graduate of Fulton High School in Atlanta where he was senior class president, Jack was having fun at a roller skating rink in Lakewood Park on December 7, 1941, when he heard the news over the loudspeaker that Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor. He knew he had to do something.

Bob Meyers

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Jack joined the Army January 19, 1942, the day the Army lowered the enlistment age for Aviator Cadets to 18.

Thus began a saga of sacrifice and courage that took young Jack to fight in distant places under the most challenging circumstances.

Jack is a special person. He celebrated his 100th birthday on Feb. 3, 2023. He and his wife Florence will observe their 79th anniversary on Feb. 25. He flew 50 perilous missions as a bombardier in World War II and shot down two German Luftwaffe fighters in the process. What a great story he has to tell.

After passing the written test and physical exam at the local Army recruitment center, Jack was sent home to pack a toothbrush and shaving articles. Upon returning to the recruitment center, Jack joined other volunteer enlistees who passed the entrance exam that day. They marched together to the Terminal Railroad Station where they took a train to the Army’s Maxwell Field (now Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base) in Montgomery, Alabama, for initial training as Army Air Corps cadets. Next stop for Jack was the Army Bombardier Flying School at Kirtland Army

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Air Field in Albuquerque, New Mexico, noted for training 5,200 bombardiers during the war.

Upon graduation in August 1942, Jack was commissioned a second lieutenant and was sent to Hendricks Field in Sebring, Florida, the first training school in the United States for heavy bomber crew instruction. There, he began training on the B-17 Flying Fortress, developed by Boeing Corporation, that dropped more bombs during WW II than any other aircraft. That training was followed by advanced training at Gowen Field Army Air Corps Base in Boise, Idaho. It was there that his 10-man crew was formed as part of the 347th Bombardment Squadron, 99th Bombardment Group, which was composed of four squadrons with nine planes each.

The final eight months of training was at Sioux City Army Air Base which was constructed shortly after Pearl Harbor for advanced group training prior to overseas deployment.

The crew picked up their plane at the Smoky Hill Army Airfield in Salina, Kansas, in January 1943. The crew named their plane Warrior, and Jack was given the honor of painting the name and image on the side of the aircraft.

A bombardier had to be proficient in mathematics, Morse code, meteorology and have the ability to identify enemy aircraft quickly. Jack learned to use the Norden bombsight, a top secret weapon that he had to guard with a sidearm every time he carried it to and from his aircraft. The bombardier has to factor in the speed of the airplane, its altitude, speed and direction of the wind and the size and weight of the bomb. Most missions were from 20,000 to 26,000 feet so accuracy was a complicated assignment.

The crew’s first operational assignment was in March 1943 at the Navarin Airfield in Algeria, used by B-17 bombers against the German Afrika Korps led by Field Marshal Rommel. There was no base, just a landing strip in the desert, and no ground crews, so the Warrior crew had to load their own bombs, ammunition and gasoline from 5-gallon cans. They had no tents, so they slept under the wings of the aircraft. They had only C-rations and K-rations to eat.

It could be 120 degrees during the day in Algeria and 40 to 50 degrees below zero at flying altitudes. The B-17s were not pressurized or heated. The crew took buckets of water on missions to freeze so they would have ice for drinks after their return from their missions.

When the Americans moved east into Tunisia, the airfield was dismantled and abandoned.

The Warrior’s first mission was to bomb ships and docks at Naples, Italy. They had five direct hits on a ship, and all planes returned safely to base.

In July 1943 the Warrior was tasked with the destruction of airfields and railroad yards during the Allied invasion of the island of Sicily. Rommel accumulated ammunition and food for his Africa troops on the island, and he had to be stopped. The Warrior also bombed the harbors in Tunis where Rommel kept his boats. The objective was to prevent German supplies from entering North Africa.

To be continued.

My appreciation to Martine Broadwell for her assistance with this column.

Bob is director emeritus of the Milton Historical Society and a Member of the City of Alpharetta Historic Preservation Commission. You can email him at bobmey@bellsouth.net.