HomeMy WebLinkAbout William "Bill" Woodings, Brazos Valley Heroes"I enlisted in the Army Air Cadet program in January
of 1942. My friends said I was crazy to do that and sug-
gested I should just wait for the draft. There was such an
influx of people into the Air Corps that the army started a
slowing process for the people like me coming in the pro-
grams. All my buddies were drafted long before I entered
the service.
"I was eventually ordered to active duty in January
1943 and sent to Miami Beach for basic training and then
or) to the University of Arkansas for code work, plane and
ship recognition and other mental aptitude testing. The last
of that testing was done in San Antonio, which was a nice
little town then. It had the RNerwalk back then, although
not as big as it is now.
"I finally got to fly at Corsicana at primary flight
school. That PT 19 was a good plane to learn to fly in. From
there, we went to Enid, Oklahoma, and Altus, Oklahoma,
for advance school on a twin- engine plane. In May 19441
got my pilot rating and my first lieutenant bars the same
day.
"I came home for the first time and while home mar-
ried my sweetheart, Jane. We spent our wedding night
together and I headed to Liberal, Kansas, the next day to
train as the pilot of a B -24. Flight training was a dangerous
activity, but I didn't realize it that much until Jane Game to
Kansas. Whenever she would look out our window and see
black smoke coming from another training crash at the
airfield, she was always worried it was me.
"I survived my training and even served for a while as
a student instructor, which was an even easier way to get
killed. I eventually was sent to California, where the crew
for my plane was assembled. We trained, at what is now
Edwards Air Force Base and that training molded us as a
crew that stayed as a crew for the war and after.
"We eventually ended up at Guam as part of the 7th
Air Farce, 11th Bomber Group, 42nd Bomb Squadron. We
flew missions to Truk, Marco and to Peleliu.
"The most nervous we got on a mission was to Truk
Island. We had not been able to knock out the Japanese
anti - aircraft guns, so our plane and three other planes
country during World
trained on us at that low level. After we made that run we
had to make a second run at the same height so our gun-
ners could take out ground personnel and positions.
"It worked, but I can tell you that piloting a B -24 at
50 feet was a whole lot different sensation than piloting
one at 10,000 feel, which was our usual bombing heights.
There's a lot more happening at 50 feet.
"By July 1945, we were on Okinawa flying missions,
striking targets on the lower Japanese Islands. We hit Kuri
Island and the submarine pens at Kobi Island before the
war ended.
"But our most dangerous mission occurred. while
trying to collect weather information for a weatherman
we had on board for a typhoon approaching Okinawa. The
weatherman wanted to check out the lower and upper
elevation of the clouds. We checked out the lower one,
but before we could get to the upper iem, we got caught
up in it.
"A typhoon is a Pacific hurricane. When we went
into it, it was one wing up and one wing down and then
reverse. It was all we could do to keep flying. We eventual-
ly hit the center, which was perfectly calm. The sea was as
smooth as glass, then we were back into it. That typhoon
destroyed the naval base located on ukinawa."
After the war, Wooding went to work at Gulf Gil.
Eventually he worked at Magnavox, where he retired in
1986.
"We were in Indiana when we retired but came to
Texas to be near some of our children. We love the winters
here but hate the summers.
"Several years ago, a member of our crew became
terminally ill. All of the crew gathered in El Paso to be with
him before he died. We stayed in contact and got together
for those type occasions since. Now I'm the only member
of the crew left."
For more information, to make a contribution, or if you
know a World War II veteran whose story needs to be told,
contact the BWM at www.veteransmemorial.org or Bill
Youngkin at (979) 260 -7030.
The Eagle
Here when you need us
Viet Nam Vet Bob Pardo will be the guest on
"Veterans of the Valley" this week on KAMU -N
Veterans of the Valley, hosted by W W's Tom Turbiville, can be ti it
seen Fridays at 8:30 p.m. and Saturd sand Sundays at 6:30 p.m. ch,nnel IS /. r
William "Bill" Woodings, now of Bryan, was a native were given the specific mission to knack them out. We
of Verona, Pa., and was attending college at the University were ordered to go in at 5U feet to drop delayed -action
of Pittsburgh when World War II began. bombs. The theory was that they couldn't get their guns