Paul Herpich

I spent four years in the military in the US Air Corps. It was called the US Air Corps until 1948 or so when it became the US Air Force and became a separate branch of the US Military. I served two years in the States and two years overseas after enlisting December 12^th, 1942.

I had been schooled in the states as a turret gunner on a B-29 Bomber. This was the largest aircraft in service at that time. It had five gun turrets with machine guns that were linked in groups and operated by remote control. That was the first time I had heard of computers. If one turret was disabled the other guns would still fired together. I was not in combat but was trained to work on machine guns. I was on Guam at that time. The Herpich pic2.gif (21982 bytes) B-29’s were flying so high that the Japanese fighter planes could not reach them. As planes returned from their missions I repaired the damage they'd taken and then the planes returned to their base. While I was not in combat, the ground unit provided a very necessary service in making the planes air worthy. A computer called a Selsyn controlled the guns. I worked on the computerized parts of the armaments. We took out all of the armament from a B-29 to make room for an atomic bombs. B-29’s left from Guam, Taiwan, and Saipan to bomb Japan. The planes were so heavy with bombs that the planes would drag as they left the cliffs at the end of the runway and went out over the ocean. There were some bombers that hit the water! It was about 1,900 miles from the Mariana Islands to Japan and the same distance to return to base. Any armaments that were damaged were dumped in the ocean during the mission. They also discarded some of the new armaments not needed at the time because it was too expensive to return them to the States.

Herpich camp.jpg (46606 bytes) The food was good, lots of Spam. We lived in tents, five men to a tent. There were lots of trees in Guam. For entertainment we saw many movies. Once Guam was secured the island was fairly peaceful and it became an operating and repair base for the US Air Corps. However, there were some Japanese soldiers hiding out in the very heavy undergrowth. When we went out on scouting trips we always had two vehicles with four or five men on each vehicle. Even though Guam had been secured there were some Japanese soldiers that were still resisting. There were large supply depots on Guam. The electricity for our base was provided by generators.

I had been schooled for central fire control on the B-29. There were safety features so the guns would not fire when they would hit the plane. I also had learned about and worked on the wiring system of the computer-controlled guns.

I was a Sergeant. The enlisted men worked for officers and received things in return, like sides of beef, beer, or liquor. All of the B-29's had names, and artist's drawings of Pin-up girls on their noses to make them more than just identical airplanes. These things movies raised our morale and motivated us. We didn’t know much about how the war was progressing against Japan, as we had no radios. We had only the bulletin board for information. It was hot, damp, and sticky on Guam. Guam was typical image of the Pacific island paradise. Guam had green and plush foliage with many palm trees and thick undergrowth. Texas Kate2.gif (14506 bytes)

I did not know anything about the bigger picture of the war until it was already over. I did not mind being in the military. I enjoyed military life but that was probably because I was not on the front lines or on a plane where I could have been shot down. After the war I wanted to get a college education and get a job. When I went in to the service my base camp was in California. I had never seen the ocean because I was from central Kansas. When I saw the ocean for the first time I did not really know what I was looking at. The second day at base they asked for volunteers to drive trucks, so I volunteered. The trucks were actually wheelbarrows. They moved loads of rocks from one pile to another. I Herpich plane2.gif (7346 bytes) never volunteered for anything again. I was from a small town and I really did not know what the war island2.jpg (20665 bytes) was all about. It was hard being away from family during the war but there was a feeling of togetherness between us servicemen and all of us were in the same situation. Sometimes we had military passes and buses would take us to the beaches. Some climbed trees, cut coconuts down from the palm trees and used their knives cut them open to drink the milk. I played trombone in high school, college and in the military too. We even had USO shows featuring Bob Hope.

After the war I went back to college and got a degree in math and history . I worked for one company for 49 years as a salesman. I got a 'Dear John' letter from my original college sweetheart, but there were a lot of 'Dear John' letters sent during the war. Then after the war I met my wife. It was not hard to get readjusted to civilian life for me because life on Guam was pretty good. Plus, I'd learned a lot in the service. I received two and a half years of college credit from the military schooling I received at Stanford and at Oklahoma University.

The Air Corps was quite an experience for a young man from Central Kansas. Pass it on to your classmates that the military is not that bad. There are a lot of educational opportunities in the military.

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