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At 8 9 years of age, C. C. "Son" Vick would expect As the war lengthened, the missions became tt—
to be called "Pop ", but not when you are 28 years old. longer and deeper into Germany and the anti - aircraft fire
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But, "Pop" he was, as the oldest crew member of his more and more effective.
B-24 bomber. "On every mission, we hoped it would be cloudy
"The pilot and co -pilot were both 18 years old until we got over the target because of the losses we '„
when we started flying together on our bombing mis- were taking. We were supposed to wear flak vests but
sions. You would be surprised how good a pilot an 18 they were real heavy and you didn't like to wear them.
ye ar old can be with proper instruction. I had all the con- But when the flak got close enough that you could see
• fidence i n the world in those guys." the red in the explosion, you put those vests on. They
'; Vick, a native of Bryan and a 1938 graduate of weren't too heavy then."
Al Texas A &M, declined a commission upon graduation. "Whenever you went into the target or coming
PI After Pearl Harbor he attempted to enlist and was turned back, you always looked to see what planes were miss -
• down by the Army because he had flat feet. A friend sug- ing from the formation. If they weren't there, you started
gested he might try again but this time in the Army Air looking for and began counting chutes, hoping that
• Corp as part of a ground crew. He was accepted and everyone made it out. After every mission, we would
• entered the Air Corp and served at Ellington Field in count and patch the holes in our plane."
mr Houston inspecting parachutes for cadets going through On one mission Vick and his crew lost an engine
. flight training. and their electrical. They landed at an allied base in
-, "With the war heating up and with America manu- Belgium but were not able to get help repairing the
facturing more and more bombers, there was a real need plane, so they had to fly back to England by the seat of
for gunnery crews to man those bombers. One day we their pants.
were all assembled and then 'volunteered' to go to gun- When we landed, they had nailed up our quarters
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very school. I spent the hottest summer in my life at and were doing inventory on our personal belongings to
Harlingen, Texas learning to fire 50 cal. guns and then send home to our families because they thought we had
the coldest winter of my life in Casper, Wyoming training been shot down."
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as an aerial gunnery crew. It would get below zero at Vick flew 17 missions with each one being longer
ground level but at 10,000 feet, it got even colder. and tougher than the last. "We were so very thankful that
Everything froze including condensation." the war finally ended."
� ' After training, Vick and his crew members were After the war ended, Vick and his crew mates were
t shipped to Norwich, England Air Base where they flew mustered out of the service in San Antonio in 1945, " but
• the B -24 bomber on bombing missions over Europe but not in time to make the Turkey Day game with Texas."
primarily Germany. Vick was in the ranching business until he sold out
"Early in the war there was German fighter resist- and retired. "When I got too old to climb the fences to
once but as the war continued, the German fighter get away from the bulls, I knew I need to retire. The good
planes became less of a problem but the German anti- Lord blessed me and my crew mates because we made i l
aircraft defense became tougher and better." it back each time and He has continued to bless me for
Vick and his crew flew missions to bomb rail all my life since, for which I am very thankful and very
heads, factories, ammunition dumps and one mission to grateful."
it Berchtesgarten, Hitler's hide -out in the Alps. Vick's name can be found on the Brazos Valley
"We flew the mission, I guess just to show Hitler Veterans Memorial. For more information, to make a
that he couldn't hide. I remember the Alps as being very contribution, or to nominate a veteran, contact the
beautiful on that mission but they were a lot more beau- BVVM at www.veterans- memorial.org, or Bill Youngkin
wil tiful on the flight back." at 260 -7030.