HomeMy WebLinkAboutL. S. "Bill" Pope, Brazos Valley Heroes �_. � , ,
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'"• When the war began, L. S. "Bill" Pope was a "As the war progressed, you, your crew and
student at Michigan State and thought the war your plane became as one. You knew what to do,
would be over before he could graduate, so he left how to do it and when to do it. It was pretty amaz
school and joined the Air Force in 1943 to be a ing how well you came to understand your plane
pilot. and what it could and could not do."
During training an incident occurred that It was on one mission that such understand -
almost cost him his life. "We were in training at ing came to be tested. "We were returning from a
Lake Worth just outside Fort Worth when mi air- bombing mission and because of some problems
plane was clipped by another plane. My number that occurred, I realized that we were not going to
three engine's hydraulic system caught on fire. As have enough fuel to make it home to England. You
I tried to go around and attempt to land, my plane could ditch the plane and bail out or try to land it.
stalled out, breaking apart, and fell into Lake We found a field in France that a farmer had start- 1 :
-' Worth. I came to, still strapped to and sitting in my ed plowing with his horse. When we flew low over
seat near the shore in chest deep water. I was able the fields and then came back around, he realized
to unstrap myself and walk to shore, basically what we were going to do. He unhitched that horse
unhurt." from the plow and hit the ground just as we flew � "`
� "When something like that happens to you, over him to land. We landed and were able to stay
you begin to think that maybe flying wasn't meant on the field. We scrounged enough fuel to get us
. for you. Despite my close call, I still wanted to fly back and then I, the co -pilot and radio man got
so I was able to join up with the next class and into the plane to fly it back, if we could. All of the
complete my training without any problems." The other crew members stayed on the ground with all
problems he was to encounter flying thereafter of our equipment that wasn't essential to fly the
would be in the skies over Germany. plane. By that time several dozen of the locals had
Pope was sent to England to fly B-24's. He gathered to see if we were going to crash or take
was stationed at Norwich, England and would fly off. We headed across the field and were airborne
'' 23 missions over Germany and German held terri- before we got two - thirds across the field."
. tory until the war ended. With each mission, the e all of his fellow pilots made it back. Pop a
distance to the target became longer and the anti- kept a sweater that one of his best friends and fel-
aircraft fire more effective. "There were at least 50 low pilots wore while off duty. "I wanted to keep it g
air bases in England before the war was over and to remind me of him and those persons that 1
' on more than one occasion, we put over a thou- thought so much of but weren't coming home with
i °., sand planes at a time in the air for a bombing mis- me. 1 will always remember them."
sion." Pope returned home after the war, completed
We would take off and fly out over the North his education at Michigan State in 1947 and began �.
e Sea and fly around in a circle until everyone got a career in academia serving as the head of the
into the position they were to have and then head Animal Science department at Oklahoma State,
3 out for our mission. I went on two one thousand associate Dean of Agriculture at A &M and Dean of .
plus plane raids over Berlin with the last one being Agriculture at New Mexico State before returning
on March 29, 1945. It was said later by the to A &M where he is still involved in leadership
Germans that this raid broke their resolve to con- development.
tinue on with the war. On that raid our bomb doors Bill Pope's name can be found on the Brazos
wouldn't open so we had to crank them open man- Valley Veterans Memorial. For more information, I v
ually and barely got them open in time to drop our to make a contribution, or to nominate a veteran,
bombs." contact the BVVM at www.veterans mernorial.ora_