HomeMy WebLinkAboutJoseph R. "Joe" Clark, Brazos Valley Heroes^
By Bill Youngkin
Special to The Eagle
We have all seen a lot of Aggie rings, but you will
never see one smoother than the one worn by Joseph
R. "Joe" Clark, class of '44 and now of Bryan. It still has
some identifying marks, but you have to look close.
As Clark recalls, "I got word that we were being
allowed our senior ring even though we had not
graduated, as most of us were in the service. I picked
mine up in the Fall of 1944 while I was on leave before
going to England. I wore it on all 32 of the missions I
flew and I have worn it every day since I picked it up."
Clark started life on a dairy farm in Handley, Texas,
between Fort Worth and Dallas, in October 1922: His
family moved to Stephenville, where he graduated from
Stephenville High in 1940.
"After I graduated, I enrolled at John Tarleton
Agricultural College for one semester. My father had
died in 1932 and my mother got a job at midterm of my
first semester at Tarleton as the head of the American
Legion Project House at A&M, so I left for A&M with her
and helped her while I was in school.
"I remember Sunday, December 7, 1941, because I
was walking the `Bull Ring.' I had accumulated a few
too many demerits and was walking them off that
afternoon. I remember the second lieutenant in charge
of Bull Ring coming out and halting our marching. He
announced we were now at war because Japan had
bombed Pearl Harbor. I thought he would dismiss us
from Bull Ring, but he told us to go back to marching.
"On September 19, 1942, I hitchhiked to Dallas to
volunteer for the Army Air Corps flight cadet program.
After a lot of tests I was accepted but told to return to
school. They would call us back when they were ready
for us. In January 1943 I was called to active duty at
Shepherd Field, Wichita Falls, Texas.
"I was sent to several sites, to include one school at
Iowa State Teachers College in Cedar Falls, Iowa. There
were also 500 WAVES in training there. We had a lot of
companionship for a few months at that school."
Clark received his pilot training in Visalia, California,
and Marana Field in Arizona and his advanced flight
training in Marfa, Texas, where he receive_ d his
commission as a second lieutenant.
"After I was commissioned I was sent to Roswell,
N.M., to train as a B-17 pilot. We assembled our crews
at Hunter Field in Savannah, Georgia, and after a little
bit of training together, we headed to England over the
northern route on January 6, 1945. Our first stop was
Bangor, Maine. We got off the plane in shirt sleeves and
ran to the PX to buy all the warm clothing we could find.
At Goose Bay, Labrador, the weather was anywhere
from 30 to 50 degrees below zero. We had to take the
batteries out of the plane to keep them from freezing.
before we could start the engines. We slid instead of
rolling over the ice for take-off.
"We took off at 2 a.m. in a blowing snowstorm and
were flying almost blind all the way to Iceland. That's
when you hoped your navigator really knew what he
was doing. We lost two planes on that leg but we finally
managed to land and completed the last leg, landing at
Valley, Wales.
"Our plane was taken away for refitting and we
were assigned to the 306th Bomber Group at Thurleigh,
England. That is where I spent the rest of the war. I flew
four missions as the co-pilot on other crews until our
crew flew its first mission on February 23, 1945, over
Dresden, Germany. It was ourfirst mission, but Dresden
was almost our last mission near the end of the war.
"That last mission over Dresden involved 800 planes.
We were in clouds and had to change altitude, and
several planes collided. On our bombing run, we had
bombs falling out of the sky in front of us, which meant
there were planes above bombing through our group. At
one point, I had to turn so steep to avoid a collision that
we lost power and dropped 2,000 feet before we could
get our speed back and get back information.
"Shortly after that mission, we were conducting a
bombing run on a German airtield at 11,000 feet when
we had a bomb hang up in the bomb door. A couple of
the crew took some tools and got into the open bomb
door to try to dislodge it. That was when I saw a flak
burst at eye level directly ahead of me antl then another
100 yards closer. I knew the Germans had us zeroed in
and I pulled back to gain altitude as quickly as I could
and was able to just get above the flak level. My radio
operator called and asked me what the hell I was doing
as I had almost dumped them out of the plane. But we
avoided the flak and the bomb was now gone."
Clark flew 32 missions before the war ended and
was discharged. He returned to A&M, where he got his
degree in accounting in 1947. Upon his return, he and
his mother purchased the A&M Grill across from the
post office at Northgate. He sold that after graduation
and spent several years in Saudi Arabia before returning
home to farm, ranch and own several properties and
businesses around the state and country, to include
several banks. His last bank was in Granbury, Texas,
which he helped form in 1984 and sold last year. He is
now retired in Bryan.
"In 1996 all our crew, including wives, except one
crew member who had passed away, met in Las Vegas,
Nevada. It was the first time since the war that we had
all gotten together. Thirty-two missions made us close.
We found we were still close almost 50 years later."
Joe Clarks name can be found on the Brazos Valley
Veterans Memorial. For more information, to make
a contribution, or if you know a World War 11 Veteran
whose story needs to be told, contact the BWM at www.