Explore Fred Weiss’s captivating story that takes you from his upbringing in Bloomfield, Nebraska, through his adventurous days of rigorous military training, to the moment he encounters female pilots flying B-17 bombers. This episode offers an intimate look at the challenges and triumphs of becoming a pilot during World War II and highlights the powerful lessons learned along the way. Don’t miss this incredible tale of dedication and valor that truly honors the legacy of our veterans.
SPEAKER 06 :
Afghanistan and her other wars and conflicts. America’s fighting men and women strapped on their boots and picked up their guns to fight tyranny and stand for liberty. We must never forget them. Welcome to America’s veteran stories with Kim Monson. These stories will touch your heart, inspire you and give you courage. We stand on the shoulders of giants. Here’s Kim Monson.
SPEAKER 03 :
And welcome to America’s Veterans Stories with Kim Monson. Be sure and check out our website. That is AmericasVeteransStories.com. And this show began because of a trip that I had the great honor in taking to Normandy, France, back in 2016 to accompany four D-Day veterans back to Normandy and realized how important these stories are, that we record them and broadcast them and hear them. And so hence America’s Veterans Stories. I am so honored to be interviewing Fred Weiss. And he was a B-17 pilot in World War II. And Fred, it is just great to be here with you. Thank you.
SPEAKER 08 :
It’s nice to have you here.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay. We normally don’t ask people their age, but I have to ask you your age. I’m 99. 99 years old. When’s your birthday?
SPEAKER 08 :
October 10, 30, 22.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right around the corner then.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, four months.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay, a B-17 pilot in the Army Air Corps World War II. Where did you grow up, Fred?
SPEAKER 08 :
I grew up in Nebraska. Where at, Nebraska? Bloomfield, Nebraska. Bloomfield. Bloomfield, okay. And where is that exactly? It’s in the northeast part of the state. Okay. And it’s not far from Yankton, South Dakota. South Dakota, okay. And not far from Sioux City. Okay, okay. North of Norfolk.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay, so you were born in 1922 then. Yes. Okay. So you lived through the Great Depression. What do you remember about the Great Depression?
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, there wasn’t much money. There was nothing. And… Other than that, we had plenty of food. We grew it all. And I lived in a home with my mother and her maternal parents. Okay. And at that time, I didn’t know anything about depression.
SPEAKER 03 :
You were just a kid, huh? Yeah.
SPEAKER 08 :
But I knew there was no money. No money. Frequently, my shoes were worn out. And I had no shoes, but that was all right. Wow.
SPEAKER 03 :
Did you go to school in a one-room schoolhouse? Where did you go to school?
SPEAKER 08 :
No, I went to school in the public school building, the school system in Bloomfield. And we had a kindergarten. And I know I was put in there when I was still four years old. I had an aunt that lived there, too, and she was eight years older than I. And she was in high school at the time, or in junior high, I think. And I cried a lot.
SPEAKER 03 :
You cried a lot?
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, I did when I was put in kindergarten at age four. Yeah. But then… They took me out and kept me out until my birthday. Then I went back to school, a whole different thing.
SPEAKER 03 :
Isn’t that amazing? Yeah. That’s quite a story. Okay, so you grew up during the Great Depression. When did you join the Army Air Corps?
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, I joined the service on December 30, 1941. But I was sworn in on December 31st.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay, that was right after Pearl Harbor then. Oh, yeah. Okay. Do you remember, where were you when you heard about Pearl Harbor?
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, first I had graduated high school in 1940. And that year my mother had moved out and she had gone to Ames Isle from our hometown because My maternal grandparents passed away, and by that time, they had to sell the home and move on. She had no income or whatever, but this is her first job, I think, away from home of any consequence. Okay. She learned to know a lady at one of the restaurants in a little town. And this lady had a sister who her name’s Iowa needed help. And she had a restaurant, too. So she moved over there. After graduation, I went to enroll at Nebraska U on that first winter semester. At Christmas time, my teeth gave me some trouble, and I had to abandon school, and I used up all the money my mother had given me for tuition, etc., for the whole semester. And the following semester, I guess. Back in those days, I guess tuition was about $25 a semester. Oh, my gosh. Whatever it was, it was not much in today’s standards. But I had no money left, and so I had a friend that happened to be rooming in a mortuary. in the employee’s bedroom area where he could stay. So I knew about him. He was a friend of mine from school. I went to ask Dean one day, do you suppose I can get in here? I need a place to sleep, you know. So he came back with the answer, yes, you can get in. They took me in and I had some simple duties to do. One was to dust the caskets, the new caskets that were on display, and other menial tasks to do. Among them, sometimes we’d use the hearse for an ambulance. And in those days, they didn’t have ambulances running around like they do today. And et cetera, et cetera. And I had run out of money, and I had to do something. So now I had to go to work at other places to eat. I had a room. I was in that, I had that place there, and on the 7th of December, I can picture that right now. It’s just frozen up there. I was looking to the west. We had a radio standing up there, and I remember the names of the people that were there. Max Grosshans and Harold Schwartz They’re both employees and both embalmers. And they were up there. It was in the evening, about 5.30, 6 o’clock, I think, as I recall, during that. And Dean was there, and I was there, and probably a couple of other fellows. I’m not sure.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay, so, Fred, you said you can remember the names of the guys that were there.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah. I said Max Grosshans, Harold Schwartz, and uh dean schrader and myself i know for sure and we were stunned at what we heard up to that point in time i didn’t know anything about government didn’t know anything about anything really i was just a kid off the farm and uh off a small farm but uh That just stunned me. And at that time, it was near Christmas, you know, and a couple of weeks I decided I’m going to go see my mom. I haven’t seen her for two years. So I had nothing else to do. Went to Ames, Iowa to see her. And I asked her one day, Mom, I said, what do you think about me going down and enlisting in the service? She didn’t much like that.
SPEAKER 03 :
Most moms didn’t like that very much.
SPEAKER 08 :
Anyway, she finally acquiesced after I told her. I said, well, if I enlist, perhaps I can get a better situation, which I don’t. And she agreed to it. I went down there, and I was inducted on the 30th of December that year. And on the 31st, they told me to come back on the next day. And on the 31st, they would swear me in, along with a bunch of other guys. This is a recruiting station, and it was on a cavalry post. called Fort Des Moines.
SPEAKER 03 :
So this is the end of 1941. You’re 19 years old.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, I was just barely 41. I was just 19.
SPEAKER 03 :
After you were inducted into the Army, where did you go for boot camp?
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, I stayed right there. i don’t recall ever having any boot camp at all okay it’s one of those weird things somebody i don’t know who it was but someone walked up to me and asked me what do you think you can do when you get when you’re in the service here i said well i don’t know what i can do but i think i might be able to drive an ambulance They took me in and they gave me no particular tasks to do. I hung around the station hospital there a good deal and the medical department and assumed that that was going to be my duty. And so I had a buddy who had a serial number three digits from mine and we became good friends. His name was Mike Markson. And he was an Iowa boy. And he knew his way around that better than I did. So I had menial tasks to do and the sergeant there took to me for some reason. He took me in and gave me a job and One day I walked in to him and I said, Sergeant, I don’t have nothing to do. What can I do for you? He said, well, you can clean up the basement. Well, those old military buildings like that on the arms post like that were all brick buildings and they had an open basement, as it were, half basement, I guess. I went down to the basement there and cleaned up the dust of the good and swept it and so forth. Then I got into a bin that had several bins there, probably for clothing and other equipment that they would have sort of separated. Mm-hmm. A whole bunch of shoes scattered all over in there and they were just not in pairs. So I bundled them up in pairs and such and set it up real clean and neat. And I came across a pair of shoes called Garrison shoes. And, of course, I didn’t know, had no knowledge of what a lot of that stuff was for that I saw down there. But I asked the sergeant, I said, Sergeant, these things fit me. Do you suppose I could wear these instead of these boots that I have? Because I can shine these. He said, I’ll imagine if you can. So I put those on after I shined them. And from that day on, I was just somebody special. Because I had those shoes on. Well, you already were something special.
SPEAKER 03 :
Fred, let’s go to break. This is Kim Monson. I’m talking with World War II veteran Fred Weiss, and we’re going to go to break. Before we do that, though, the nonprofit that I’ve adopted is the USMC Memorial Foundation. They are raising money to remodel the Marine Memorial out at Sixth and Colfax, and they’re going to have these different walkways, and you can actually buy a brick to honor your loved one’s military service. It’ll have their name and their branch, and when they served, and so you can do that, or you can just donate. Go to usmcmemorialfoundation.org. That’s usmcmemorialfoundation.org. We’ll be right back with Fred Weiss.
SPEAKER 10 :
RE-MAX realtor Karen Levine helps bring to life the individual stories of our servicemen and women. With her sponsorship of America’s Veteran Stories with Kim Monson, Karen honors the sacrifices of our military and is grateful for our freedom. As a member of the National Association of Realtors Board of Directors, Karen works to protect private property rights for all of us. Karen has a heart for our active duty military and veterans and is honored to help you buy or sell your home. Call Karen Levine at 303-877-7516 to help you navigate buying or selling your home. That’s 303-877-7516.
SPEAKER 07 :
All of Kim’s sponsors are an inclusive partnership with Kim and are not affiliated with or in partnership with KLZ or Crawford Broadcasting. If you would like to support the work of The Kim Monson Show and grow your business, contact Kim at her website, kimmonson.com. That’s kimmonson, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com.
SPEAKER 03 :
And welcome back to America’s Veteran Stories with Kim Monson. Be sure and check out our website. That is AmericasVeteranStories.com. I’m so honored to be sitting here with Fred Weese, World War II veteran, 99 years old. And you’ll turn 100 at the end of October this year. So we were talking about your first job in the Army. And you were talking about garrison shoes. Just tell us a little bit more. What is a garrison shoes?
SPEAKER 08 :
What are they? Well, it’s just a soft leather shoe. And it’s a shineable shoe. Most of the G.I.s had what was just a rough leather and a boot and so forth. And this was a special shoe for the garrison when they had parties and such, I suppose. Okay. Anyhow, this was a fine thing to have. Boy, my feet were growing and And this was something comfortable.
SPEAKER 03 :
We take so much for granted these days. Oh, my gosh. Okay, so what happened after that? What was your next duty?
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, this buddy of mine and I were hanging around the hospital area all the time. As a matter of fact, that’s where they took our food as well. And… It came up one time we happened to run into the bulletin board and see an item up there that suggested they were looking for some technicians and they needed to train them. And the technician job was a surgery technician. Well, we decided we’d like to try that. And, you know, they sent us out to Denver to Fitzsimmons Hospital. And Fitzsimmons was brand new in those days. And we took a course in surgical technician work. And apparently we did all right with it. They sent us back to Fort Des Moines. And we got there. The camp looked a little different. There were different things going on and more people there. And there were some women in uniform. And they were waxed. Not many, but there were some. And we were assigned to go up and get into the surgery section. And while I was up there, neither Mike nor I got anything to do except carry bedpans. And that’s not a suitable thing for me. So along came another situation. I needed technicians for pharmacy. So they sent us back to Denver here, to Fitzsimmons. And we went through that course. And that took a couple of months. So we got back to camp that time at Fort Des Moines. And there was a whole lot of change by that time. They had lots and lots of women there. And they were recruiting. That was where the main recruiting station was for that area. And they had converted the stables to, and there were three of those, that they had converted to living quarters for the women. And they had consequently built a whole bunch of wards for women at the hospital. And that was, just in a couple of months, they had done all that stuff. So I’m standing one day in the pharmacy. And the pharmacist had left the area for some reason. And a full bird colonel came up to the window to get a prescription filled. Something with… I forget right now what it was, but it was medicine that we actually had to make it there. We used the USP and the National Formulary for our books that we had to work with. And it was made with alcohol, raw alcohol, drinkable stuff. And it was a good mix anyhow. I told Mike after this guy had left, I said, Mike, we’ve got to get some of this. And we, well, you know, this guy looked very young, and he was a full bird colonel, and he was wearing wings. Boy, he was a top-class person. So we went to the, we found out where the, what’s it called? a place where we could go and ask if we could get into service, into the Air Corps. So the next day we had off, the next opportunity we had, we went downtown Des Moines and got into a recruiting station and Told the sergeant there that we’d like to be introduced to the Air Corps somehow.
SPEAKER 03 :
And was this colonel, was he in the Army Air Corps?
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, he’d been in the Army.
SPEAKER 03 :
So that’s why, okay, got the connection.
SPEAKER 08 :
That was the lead-in, yeah.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yep.
SPEAKER 08 :
The sergeant said, you two dummies are going to have to take a test. Okay. And so it was just information whether or not we were smart enough to even write our names, you know. Okay.
SPEAKER 03 :
So you passed that, huh? Yes, we did.
SPEAKER 08 :
As a matter of fact, he put us into a big room, large room, very large room. One of us on one side, one on the other, so we couldn’t cheat.
SPEAKER 1 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 08 :
Anyhow, we… We’re told then, after we finished that, he said, well, you gentlemen sit down here and stay here. I will dismiss you when I’m finished with you. And at any rate, he came back and he says, you two dummies did pretty well. Somebody will be calling you.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 08 :
We had a call a couple weeks later and went into the company or detachment office. And there’s a lieutenant standing there, second lieutenant, brand new guy. And he’s a redheaded guy. His name was Morris. I’ll never forget him. Lieutenant Morris. And he called us to attention. We froze like an icicle. We didn’t know what was going to happen next. And he read off a riot act at us, and then he stood up and stuck his arm out, and I didn’t know what was going to happen then. He says, at ease. And he says, congratulations, and thank you for your initiative. So we were then called to go to have a physical. And we went out to Fort Dodge, Iowa. That was a Fort Dodge campsite right out west of Des Moines. And my buddy and I passed the physical. But my buddy was told, well, you’re short about five bananas. Gets himself some bananas and eat them, a lot of them.
SPEAKER 03 :
He didn’t carry enough weight, huh?
SPEAKER 08 :
He didn’t carry enough weight. Next thing we know, he comes out of there and the sergeant says, well, you’re short. He went back and had another exam shortly after that. Oh, my gosh.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, my gosh. Hey, Fred, let’s go to break. I’m talking with Fred Weiss. He’s a World War II veteran, flew B-17s, talking about his experiences. Before we do that, another great… sponsor of the show is Hooters Restaurants. They have five locations. That’s Loveland, Aurora, Lone Tree, Westminster, and Colorado Springs. Great place to get together to watch sports. They have specials, lunch specials, happy hour specials, Monday through Friday, so be sure and check that out. The way they became partners of the show, it’s a great… Great story. It’s a story of capitalism and free markets and freedom. So check that out. That’s on my website at KimMonson.com. We’ll be right back with Fred Weiss. And before we go to break, I’ve got on the line with me Karen Levine. She is a REMAX award-winning realtor. She’s a sponsor of both the shows, both the Kim Monson Show and America’s Veterans Stories. And it is because of her and our other sponsors that these stories come to you. Karen Levine, welcome to the show.
SPEAKER 12 :
Thanks for having me, Kim.
SPEAKER 03 :
Boy, things are crazy out there in this real estate market. We’re seeing public policy has had such an assault on single-family home ownership. But yet we know people want to own their own homes. And so you’ve been in this business for a long time. I think what’s happening is kind of unprecedented. But with all your experience, you’re still helping people successfully get into homes. And specifically, there’s some special things for veterans that you can help them with as well.
SPEAKER 12 :
Most definitely. I think the one thing our government has done well is provide veterans the opportunity for homeownership with their VA financing, the VA loan, which allows a veteran to be able to get into a home with no down payment. They have to come up with their closing costs. And in this very competitive marketplace, if veterans have been… well managed their money if they have well managed their finances and have been able to put away monies for a home those monies can then be used with for what we call an appraisal gap and what’s happening in this very very competitive marketplace is homes are selling above their appraised value And people would think, well, that’s not wise. But it’s wise in an appreciating marketplace because appraisals are historic. So it’s data that’s already happened. So as prices are rising, buyers are having to offer more money than what the appraised value would be to be competitive. And this, with the VA financing, gives veterans an opportunity to get into homes if they’ve been able to save some money for that appraisal gap. And I have been very successful in helping our veterans become homeowners and utilize this fabulous financing and these tools in the marketplace to help them be successful and become a homeowner.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, and being a homeowner is something that we’ve talked about it many times is one of the ways that middle class America is able to create wealth for themselves and for their families. Now, I just wanted to mention new bills because we are seeing new bills out in some of the suburbs. and it’s important that the home buyer has representation, and all they need to do is have you accompany them on their first inquiry into those new bills, and then that way the builder’s on one side of the table, the buyer’s on the other, but they have representation by you who has a whole lot of experience. So we’ve got about 45 seconds left. How would you like to explain that, and then how can people reach you?
SPEAKER 12 :
Well, I think what’s important for them to understand is there is opportunity in the new home arena. And there’s some amazing communities, some great builders out there. And all the builder has asked is that when you come to check out their product that you bring me with you, you with the buyer, that I come with you. And that’s just on the first visit, but I will accompany you on many other visits because I’m representing you, the buyer. The person on site, the on-site salesperson, is representing the seller, which is the builder. And their goal is to sell as many homes as possible. Of course, that’s many of our goals. But with that said, they are not going to divulge to you information that might be helpful in your And I have a background in new home construction. That’s where my career started over 30 years ago. So I’m able to bring that knowledge to the table so that you can make an educated decision about your home buying opportunities. And I would encourage you, if you’re considering new construction or resale in the home market, that you would give me a call at 303-877-7516.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s Karen Levine, 303-877-7516. We’ll be right back.
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SPEAKER 1 :
And that I love
SPEAKER 03 :
And welcome back to America’s Veterans Stories. Be sure and check out my website. That is AmericasVeteransStories.com. And I’m thrilled to be sitting here with Fred Weiss. He is a World War II veteran, was a pilot of B-17s. We’re hearing about his experiences. So you’re in the Army Air Corps now. Where do you go from there, Fred Weiss?
SPEAKER 08 :
Not yet, but I’m on the way. On the way, okay. We’re leaving Des Moines. We have an assignment to go out to. to Santa Ana, California, Santa Ana Army Air Corps Station. This would be the pre-flight area where we’d be examined physically and mentally and even at calisthenics and bring us up to speed to go to our next beginning of flying. And so we spent a couple of months there. We had to go through bariatric tests and so forth like that. see if we could comprehend identification, aircraft identification, and things of that nature. And we were in several, oh, there were just tons of us out there, of people. And we were there for about two and a half months, as I recall. While we were there, we had to go through a couple of things. And my friend Mike and I, when we went to the bariatry thing, I came out of that just fine. And I supposed that at that time I was chosen to be a pilot or go through pilot training. Mike did not make it. He was washed out. But he went to navigator school then. And Navigator School washed him out. And I lost track of him from that time on. But I did run into him many, many years later here in Denver.
SPEAKER 03 :
Did you say what happened to him?
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, I don’t know. I guess he just didn’t have the physical and mental knowledge for it. I didn’t know any different. And… My mantra from that day on, when we first got in there, was to work hard and to study hard and don’t get in trouble. And I didn’t want to wash out. And that was a no-no. A lot of people did. And consequently… My statement was to myself, if you wash out, people back in Bloomfield, Nebraska, will probably say this narrative well never would be worth a dime. And, you know, it was my bringing up that caused that part. But that was my idea. So this held true all the way through my training. Every time I got in a tough spot, I had to remember that. And I got myself through.
SPEAKER 03 :
Work hard, study hard, don’t get into trouble because you didn’t want to wash out. That’s great advice for people.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, you know, I was a kid that didn’t have any sisters or brothers. And I lived alone with my mother and grandparents for all those years, through 16.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay, well, so pilot training, you’d never flown before, right?
SPEAKER 08 :
I had never been in an airplane before. Wow. Okay, this base had no airplanes on it at this point. So when we finished that, they sent me to Thunderbird 1 at Glendale, Arizona, outside of Phoenix. And there was a Glendale No. 2 Thunderbird just over the next ridge. and these were civilian training stations at one time but now i’ve been taken over by the air corps and i was assigned a pilot trainer named mr walker He was a man that probably, I don’t have no idea, but he was probably 45 years old or something close to that. And he was a little bit heavier than any of us were. And a great guy. Because he took me up and, well, let’s get out on the field and I’ll tell you what we had to go through. We were students in taking ground school, learning what aircrafts were about and what the lift was all about and such as that. And we would do that for a half day, and the other half a day would be on the flight line. And half the time on the flight line, you were wing walking, so that they wouldn’t run into other airplanes or into anything with the wings. You could be out there and direct them a bit. And we would be cranking the engines, and the other half of that flight time was actually flying. So we had a quarter of a day for that, most every day. And it was scheduled differently almost every day. What plane were you training in? The PT-17, a Stearman. And Walker took me up on the first flight. And in that, I remember him getting in the front seat, in the front cockpit, and I was in the back one. And he showed me about buckling up and so forth. He put the belt on and so on. And the belt had a funny-looking… device on on the top of it it looked like kind of a sneaky s-shaped thing and that was the the thing that you would release it with and we were wearing flight suits and the flight suits had long had big sleeves in them you know large sleeves and they catch things anyhow we got in there and mr walker showed us some things about okay, we’re going to see if we can find a place to land. We’re assuming the engine is out, and you’ve got to find a place to land. And this was a very important thing. But next thing he said to me, okay, we’re going to do a loop. He said, have you got your belt on good tight? I said, yes, sir. And I don’t know, I might have reached down and loosened it with my sleeve. I don’t know. And we get to the top of the loop, back upside down. And I felt that there wasn’t anything under my bottom. Oh, my gosh. I never have spread my legs like that in my life. Oh, my gosh. But I didn’t fall out. I was wearing a parachute. It wouldn’t have mattered anyhow. It was an experience that I never wanted to have again, and I never had to after that.
SPEAKER 03 :
So what you did, so you spread your legs so that your legs were at the side so that you didn’t fall out? Yeah. Oh, my Lord. That’s amazing. That is just amazing. So you finished the loop. Then what happens?
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, of course, from there on, I did pretty well. And he checked me out and I was soloing at the regular time about, I don’t know how many hours, probably five or six hours. And then we would fly. We’d get out and fly and do all kinds of aerobatics and all that sort of thing. It was a wonderful airplane to play with. And from there, I graduated from that thing. That was two and a half months, I believe, something of that nature. And probably just over the 4th of July weekend, something of that nature. And then we were transferred to Minter Field at Bakersfield, California. And while at Minter Field, we were in the BT-13. We called it the Volte Vibrator. Volte made the airplane, and the vibrator just shook like the dickens. Oh, my God. It was just noisy, and it could be a 450-horse engine. Now, that was a big engine compared to what we had previously. Okay. 220-horsepower, I think. So while we were there, we— had various experiences like uh we had to we had been introduced to radios we’d been introduced to uh flaps and stuff of that nature we’ve been introduced to a cockpit that had a slide over the top of it, and we could see all around as we flew. And it had a front and a back seat on it. And then we had an Air Force officer by that time, Air Corps officer at that time as our instructors. And We had to do certain things, like we had to do stage landings, which was you go over a device that was similar as a high jumper. If you hit the rod up there, that rod would fall off, the pipe pegs, and that would wash you out if you couldn’t make that thing work for you. So anyway, the point of it was to get down on the ground as quickly as you could after you make an approach to land. Well, that took place. And on one occasion we were coming in for that landing. And we were told to get out of the area and get back in our practice quadrant. And what the reason was, was simply it was a B-17 coming in for a landing. And we were landing on a tarmac, which was a square piece of asphalt. So they had to bring this airplane in, this B-17, and it had to cross from the furthest point for the landing surface. And then we were called to come on in after that airplane landed and was safely back on the flight line being checked out for fueling or refueling or something. I asked the captain then, are we going to be allowed to go see that airplane when we get down, get our logs filled out and such as that? He said, well, I imagine so. We’ll see about that. So he allowed for that to happen. We walked over like we were not too anxious to get over there, but we had to walk slowly. You don’t run out there. We walked under the wing, and we saw these turbo buckets going on and on. Turbo buckets, that’s for the turbine engines. They had splined engines. wheel that just spins like the dickens probably up to 22 000 rpms or something like that and it was hot under there and i got out in front of the airplane i stood back to view the cockpit and the silhouette of the airplane and i saw women up there One of them was in the cockpit in the pilot’s seat. And one was on the wing checking the fuel tanks. And another one was climbing up on the side of the fuselage for something else. And I just was mesmerized by that. I couldn’t believe it. What are these people doing out there? They happen to be wasps.
SPEAKER 04 :
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER 08 :
I had never heard of it before. And it just put me down to something terrible. I just couldn’t believe that. I had heard of Amelia Earhart, but I had never, ever heard of people, women, flying airplanes like that. You see, these people had a minimum time in anything. But they had the nerve and the ability to fly those darn things.
SPEAKER 03 :
Let’s go to break. I’m talking with World War II veteran Fred Weiss. When we come back, we’ll continue the conversation. Stay tuned.
SPEAKER 05 :
Call Lauren Levy at 303-880-8881. That’s 303-880-8881. Call now.
SPEAKER 02 :
From the mountains to the prairie.
SPEAKER 03 :
Welcome back to America’s Veterans Stories with Kim Monson. Be sure to check out our website. That is americansveteranstories.com. I am interviewing Fred Weiss. He’s 99 years old. He was a B-17 pilot in World War II, and we haven’t even gotten to that yet. So during break, Fred and I were talking. We’re going to schedule another time. to do an interview about all that. This is so fascinating to me. One thing, before we went to break, you said this B-17 comes in and you go out to take a look at it and it’s being piloted by women. Now, I had talked to someone who had said, was it Could it have been Hap Arnold? They were concerned that one of the bombers was having a record of crashes, and so that they had some women flying those so that the guys realized if the women could fly it, they could fly it. Does that have anything to do with that, or do you know?
SPEAKER 08 :
I have no idea.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay. But you were surprised that it was women that were flying this B-17.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, I had never run into women flying before. I had never even conceived that idea. Uh-huh.
SPEAKER 03 :
And so you see the B-17, though. Did you like the plane when you saw it?
SPEAKER 08 :
Oh, yeah, of course I did. I was mesmerized by the size of the thing. And that it could get off the ground at all. But I knew it was flyable. I had seen it, heard of it, and so forth. Now, we were at Minner Field at that time. And on that stage landing thing, I had not done well with it the first day. And this captain said, Weiss, if you don’t get that down right now, The next time we fly, you’re washed out. Well, it made me think about it again, that mantra of mine. So I did graduate from that area and then went down. The next issue was to go to advanced training, advanced pilot training. And this put us in either multi-engine or we were in single engine. And he had already told me I would never be in a single engine. So that was fine. So we were on train. We were detrained at a place out in the middle of the desert. And we didn’t know where we were. It was down in between Marfa, Texas and Alpine. And there was a field called Marfa Army Airfield out there. We had to get off there, off the train. You could see nothing. We marched out there to the place. It was all of our baggage on our shoulders. It seemed like a mile or more. And we were out in the desert. It was in southwest Texas. Now, we were flying at that time the Bobcat. And it was a two-engined aircraft, and we called it a bamboo bomber. It was made of wood. I think it was a Cessna. We had experiences there that were different, too. Now we had retractable gear. We had flaps, and we had radio transmissions. We had a fly-by-night system. And we had to do stuff like that. It was an airplane that could carry two people and possibly three. And so we had two students flying as we were checked out. And I enjoyed the airplane. There was nothing to it. It had no power at all much, but we did stay up in the air.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, that’s a good feature.
SPEAKER 08 :
It was. And as I graduated there, I graduated as a flight lieutenant. I had no idea why, but I assumed that I was not as able as some others. But that wasn’t the truth. They had run out of spaces for second lieutenants. So we were temporarily in that category. I don’t remember the serial number that well. T-2835. And I remember the serial number so well. Yeah, that’s amazing. 170… I’m going to have to go back and get the other one. I’ve got it written down somewhere. Anyhow, they… Give us that same, that ranking. And now we were being paid the same as the second lieutenant. It didn’t matter anyhow. So I got my second lieutenant here after I got to the second station I was assigned to. However, we were then introduced to go down to Roswell, New Mexico. And that was a station, I think it was Roswell Army Airfield at that time. But it was B-17. Now, this time I got to get up close and personal with a darn thing. And I’ll tell you what, it was an airplane that just fascinated me. And we went up with our two students and an instructor. And, of course, I had a flight engineer with them. And maybe an observer, I don’t know that. But that training took two and a half months. And then I was assigned to go to Lincoln, Nebraska, pick up a crew. And when I got there, they put me as a pilot. And I had a co-pilot. And I had eight other guys. So a total of ten. Nine other guys. Yeah, a total of ten. So a total of ten, yeah. We trained in Rapid City, South Dakota. Well, at Rapid City, we had to do aerial work, and the first thing we had to do was go out and prove that we could fly instruments. And I did pretty well, apparently, on the first instance of flying instruments. We had to go out and orient ourselves into the cone of the beacon that was right over on our station, on our fields. And you get that stuff done, and you had no windage and such as that. And they listened to the radio and we had oral null at that time. That was our beacon type of radio. And it was just a sound, an A or an N. And when you get to the middle of that, it was a solid tone. So that’s what we’re looking for, is try to get that solid tone. And I did make my flight into it and came out right over the spot. Now we had to go out and turn around and come back in. Now the signal is reversed. And I hit it again right on the button. And at that time, my engineer said, I think we’ve got a good crew. And that was the end of that. I will tell you that the next thing I did, I had to go fly formation. On my first flight of formation flight, we had a whole crew aboard. And I’d just gotten in position to fly in my own spot that I was assigned to be. And all of a sudden, my aircraft started shaking like the dickens. Couldn’t figure out what it was. I changed prop positions. I changed the throttle forward and aft and put down flaps and lifted them. Tried to lift it, put the gear down and so forth. Everything worked. couldn’t figure out why they’re doing that so we went i broke formation i told the camp the commander of the formation but i had to break out my airplane was shaken and he he didn’t like it what he said it was not very nice okay Anyhow, I went in to land, and it shook like the dick, and I thought it was going to come apart, that whole airplane. I can’t emphasize enough about the vibrations we had. So we got on the ground, and I got stopped, and I could see an officer running up to the airplane, and it was the maintenance officer. He says, he got on board and he said, everybody off here but you. And he pointed at me. He said, we’re going to fly this airplane. We’ll prove to you that there’s nothing wrong with it. So he got us all off and the engineer, I think, came along with me. I’m pretty sure he did. Anyhow, we took off and the moment that we broke ground, He started yelling, Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, all the way around the circuit coming back in. And he had all the fire trucks out there and everything else. And he was shaking like a leaf. And I’ve never heard another word about it. Oh, my gosh.
SPEAKER 03 :
Fred Weiss, we are out of time for this interview. This is part one. We’ll be scheduling part two very soon. This is fascinating, talking with Fred Weiss, World War II veteran, flew B-17s. And my friends, these stories are so rich. We indeed, we stand on the shoulders of giants. So God bless you and God bless America.
SPEAKER 06 :
Thank you for listening to America’s Veteran Stories with Kim Monson. Be sure to tune in again next Sunday, 3 to 4 p.m. here on KLZ 560 and KLZ 100.7.
SPEAKER 01 :
The views and opinions expressed on KLZ 560 are those of the speaker, commentators, hosts, their guests, and callers. They are not necessarily the views and opinions of Crawford Broadcasting or KLZ management, employees, associates, or advertisers. KLZ 560 is a Crawford Broadcasting God and country station.
