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HomeMy WebLinkAboutBarney B. Beran, Brazos Valley HeroesBy Bill Youngkin Special to The Eagle If records had been maintained by the World War II veteran who held the most varied rank and who flew the most different type planes, then it's a good bet those records would be held by the same person -Barney B. Reran of Lyons, Texas. Beran's story begins on a farm between Deanville and Caldwell on June 8, 1923. According to Beran: "1 attended school at Hlavaty school through the ninth grade and attended the last two years in Caldwell. When I graduated in 1940, I was 16 years old and working as a farm laborer for other people because my dad had died three years previous. "I earned the grand sum of $1 per day but that is all a kid could earn back then. The day after I turned 18, June 9,1941, I went to Bryan and joined the Army. I was sworn in at the induction center in Houston and was sent to Kelly Field in San Antonio. At Kelly I was trained to be a member of a ground crew. I wanted to fly but you had to be 21 and have at least two years of college to be in the cadet flight program. "Sometime between June 1941 and the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Army established the enlisted pilots program. You only had to be 18 and hold a high school degree to qualify. 1 signed up immediately. I did well in my tests but was disqualified when I went before the examination board. My problem was that I had been tongue tied since birth. My tongue was stuck to the bottom of my mouth and it was, difficult for me to pronounce words correctly. The board said they would have to flunk me because I wouldn't be able to commuhicate over a radio. One of the board examiners was a major in the medical corps. Before they dismissed me, he told the board to hold my application for six months because he was going to operate on my tongue and I should then be able to talk properly. "Six months later, talking almost normally, I was accepted into the enlisted flight program and was in the last class of the enlisted pilots program. On November 10,1942, I was discharged as an enlisted man and was recharged as a flight officer. It was a new position but had no rank. I remember going to a hotel during a period of time when l was ferrying planes and the hotel clerk asked my rank. I said, `Flight Officer.' He said: `I can see you are a flight officer but what is your rank?' On May 23, 1943, I received my commission as a second lieutenant. By that time, I had held three different serial numbers, had two discharges and not lost a day of service time. That's probably a record of some sort." Due to Beran's unusual situation, the Army seemed to have a hard time placing him. According to Reran: "They didn't seem to know what to do with me so I was sent to Love Field in Dallas and put on plane ferry duty. I ferried every type plane the army had, flying them all over the country and to the Carribean. All together, I flew "I finally received orders to report to St. Joseph, Missouri for C-47 training. I was to leave for the war, out of Miami but at the last minute the orders were changed and I was sent to Reno, Nevada. On the way to Reno, I flew over our farm and buzzed it until my mom came out. I dropped her a note in an envelope. I still have that envelope and note today. It was the fastest letter she ever got from me'during the war. "I was sent to Assam Valley, India, part of the China- Burma-India theater as a C-47 pilot. Our job was to fly supplies from India over the Himalaya Mountains to Kum Ming, China. This was called, `Flying the Hump.' Before the war was over, t would fly one hundred and five round trips over'The Hump."' It would be on one of those trips that Beran - now an experienced pilot who checked out other less experienced pilots scheduled to fly The Hump - thoughtwould be his last flight. Beran recalled: "I was flying as co-pilot with this new guy going back over The Hump to our base in India. We knew the weather was worsening in India and really knew that by the lack of radio chatter that we were the last plane being sent back over The Hump. When we got near our base, the tower guy said it is zero, zero and to go to Chabou. That meant thbre was zero visibility and zero ceiling. When we got to Chabou, they told us the conditions were the same . We would have to crash land and if that was going to be the case, we needed to go back to our home base to crash. I will never forget those instructions. "By now I had taken over control of the plane. We headed. back to our base with no ceiling, no visibility and now no fuel. I was down to one 150 feet when I saw the rotating beacon on the top of our tower. I slid over to where I figured the runway would be. At less than 100 feet we saw the runway lights and landed. had two guardian angels with me that day. One on my left shoulder and one on my right." Reran survived that flight and many more, including being buzzed by a Japanese fighter plane. Reran was discharged from the Army as a captain in January 1947. He went to work at Shell Chemical where he retired in 1983 and returned home to Burleson County. When asked about his experience in the military, he said: "The Army did me a lot of good. Because of the army, I was cured of being tongue-tied. It made me into a person, far different from that boy that entered the Army in 1941. I really appreciated my time in the service." If you want to have a name added to the Veterans Memorial, for more information, to make a contribution, or if you know a World War l/ veteran whose story needs to be told, contact the BWM at www. veferansmemorial.