Barney Old Coyote was born in April 1923. He spoke the Crow language growing up. Old Coyote was raised by his grandparents who spoke no English. He learned to speak English in school. There was an Indian world and a white world. In the Indian world everything was spoken in Indian. They had none of the modern equipment or technology. Old Coyote took classes with other Indian kids. Old Coyote had no idea what was going on in the rest of the world. The kids who were of military age were concerned after the Pearl Harbor attack. Military service was the furthest thing from Old Coyote’s mind. He had classmates in high school who all of a sudden were going off to war. Old Coyote decided to join on 20 December 1941. He was not quite 21. Old Coyote heard about Pearl Harbor on the radio while coming back from a dance. The next day he caught the bus and went to Billings, Montana to enlist. Other members of Old Coyote’s high school class enlisted. They thought they were all going to be together but that was not to be the case. Old Coyote had to get his parents' permission which took him about three weeks. Old Coyote’s natural parents signed for him. Old Coyote’s brother was nine years older than him. His mother wrote a letter to the President of the United States, but it was referred to the Secretary of War. She asked the President to keep Old Coyote and his brother together. They were able to produce the letter on occasions where they were about to be separated and it kept them together.

By the time Barney Old Coyote got out of the service the letter [Annotators Note: see Barney Old Coyote Segment 1] had over 20 endorsements on it. Old Coyote went to Texas first for induction. He then went to California for special training for aircrews. He went to gunnery school in Florida, and then eventually to Georgia. From Georgia he was sent to California to be assigned to a unit. The military typically separated siblings, especially after the Sullivan brothers were killed. Clark Gable was a celebrity and he was married to a famous actress. Gable’s wife went on USO [Annotators Note: United Service Organizations] tours. They were flying out of England at the time and the USO was doing shows in France. The plane with Gable’s wife was shot down and that caused Gable to enlist. Gable and Old Coyote did their basic and induction together. Old Coyote became famous because he was an American Indian serving with Clark Gable. Before Old Coyote left to serve he was able to talk with some of the World War One veterans from his tribe. They told him never to volunteer for anything because they were going to send you anyways. George Walks was a Crow Indian from Old Coyote’s tribe. He fought in the trenches in World War One. He saw the younger guys off and he was full of advice. There was another Crow who gave good advice as well and his name was Irvin Bird Above. Bird Above told him to be careful and to stay out of the line of fire. Before Old Coyote left to serve he and his brother went through a Sun Dance ceremony. The village made it a point to pray for them. The village gave them feathers and other articles of good luck for war. Old Coyote attributes a lot of his good luck to that prayer ceremony. The Crows used to have a Sun Dance but after they settled on the reservation they stopped that tradition. The Sun Dance ceremony for Old Coyote was borrowed from the Shoshone Indian tribe.

[Annotators Note: Barney Old Coyote’s daughter steps in and asks a few questions.] The government had prohibited the Crow tribe from doing the Sun Dance because there was a certain amount of self-induced harm. They pierced themselves and tied themselves to the pole. They did not quit fasting until the tether or the skin broke. It was a three day and three night affair. The Shoshone Sun Dance was a little less violent. Old Coyote left to go overseas from Panama City, Florida. They flew their plane over. Their first plane crashed and their group flew on without them. It took a month to get a new plane. Old Coyote did the navigation and there were only three people on the plane. They crossed the Atlantic by themselves. They flew out of Florida and their first stop was Puerto Rico. They took off and called everyone back because of a storm. They missed the message to come back and flew on to Puerto Rico. They were forced down in Cuba and the wings buckled upon landing. The rest of the squadron flew on to England. Crossing the Atlantic entailed over 1,000 miles of flying. Old Coyote flew an A-20 [Annotators Note: Douglas A-20 Havoc light bomber] across the Atlantic. The A-20 was a three man plane. The radio operator acted as a navigator because they flew based off of radio signals. The mechanic flew in the back of the plane. They arrived overseas in Ireland. Their squadron and air traffic controllers were in England. They had units all over the British Isles. Old Coyote’s home base was in Ireland. When they took off they would join up with the rest of their squadron in the air. The policy was to not put the whole group together. They would complete their mission together but land at different bases. Old Coyote’s first mission was into France. It would only take 20 minutes to get over enemy territory since France was under German control at that time.

Twenty minutes out of his home base and Barney Old Coyote was in enemy territory. is first mission was to Rouen, France. Their first targets were Luftwaffe fighter bases. Their goal was to cripple the fighter bases to pave the way for other bombers. Old Coyote’s missions to France were flown on A-20s [Annotators Note: Douglas A-20 Havoc light bomber]. Some of the other missions were flown on B-26s [Annotators Note: Martin B-26 Marauder medium bomber] because they could carry a heavy bomb load. The A-20 was good for strafing planes on the ground because it acted like a fighter. Some of the missions were directed out of France and every once in a while they were directed out of England. They flew 22 missions out of Scotland and 28 out of the other bases in the area. Bombing units stayed in England and the observation and fighter units went to North Africa. The real bombing runs were out of England. The smaller planes were needed for reconnaissance. Old Coyote was based in North Africa, out of Casablanca. Some of their units from the 68th group were sent to Casablanca, some to Oran, and some to Tripoli. They were split up and some joined other groups. The A-20s were so fast they did not have escort. P-40s [Annotators Note: Curtis P-40 Warhawk fighter aircraft] were too slow to escort the A-20s. P-39s [Annotators Note: Bell P-39 Airacobra fighter aircraft] were able to escort the A-20s to a certain degree because of their drop tanks. Old Coyote flew 22 missions out of Tripoli. They moved them around and would not let them all go to one place. This was so the enemy could not discern where the group was originating from. They would confuse the Germans by doing this. All of the bases had code names. The Germans knew the code names, too. In England, Coyote was under the 8th Air Force. In North Africa, he was attached to the 12th Air Force. North Africa had a country type feel to it because there was not much around. They were in the middle of nowhere. The closest town was Casablanca and it was 50 miles away. They started off bombing islands in the Mediterranean. Some of the islands fell before ground troops landed. Bombing alone was good enough to knock them out. They bombed one base so no planes could land there. The invasion force got there and there was no resistance.

Barney Old Coyote’s unit received Presidential Unit Citations for the job they did in bombing bases in the Mediterranean. Not many groups got Presidential Unit Citations. The first town they bombed in Italy was Naples. Old Coyote recalled catching a lot of German planes on the ground. They were easier to knock out when they were on the ground. Twenty-two of the missions Old Coyote flew were with his brother. Old Coyote flew shuttle missions to Ploesti. They would bomb Germany and land in Norway and on the way back they would bomb Germany and land in Africa. Ploesti was a rough target to attack because they were under flak fire and fighter opposition. Most of the trip they were fighting. Missions into Belgium were short. Old Coyote ended up flying on B-17s at about the halfway point of his World War 2 career. In order to keep the two brothers together they had to fly on a bigger plane then the A-20 [Annotators Note: Douglas A-20 Havoc light bomber]. They flew on the same plane. Sometimes they had to go on special missions that had two waves and secondary targets. One of their commanders found out that the Coyote brother spoke Crow. This allowed them to break radio silence and talk to each other about where they needed to go. The code words were food. If they went to Italy they called it spaghetti. Coyote and his brother would alternate who was riding in the lead plane so they could communicate in Crow. Many times they were in the same plane.

They [Annotators Note: Barney Old Coyote and his older bother] went to gunnery school and did not know where they were going. Old Coyote thought he was going to be on bombers but was on the lighter A-20 [Annotators Note: Douglas A-20 Havoc light bomber]. The A-20 had twin guns and a small crew. The gunners on the big bombers were all over the plane. In the A-20 there was one gunner in the nose and one towards the bottom of the plane. They could only cover a certain area around the plane. Most of the time they were near the ground and they were able to strafe ground troops. Most of the time, on the B-17s, they were thousands of feet up. Two hundred miles per hour was fast when they were low to the ground. The B-17s were thousands of feet up in the sky and so was the enemy. The A-20s attacked at tree-top level. The guys in front of the A-20 would call out targets on the ground. Rear gunners did not get that much of a shot at anything. Coyote operated the top turret of the B-17, but he did move around to other gun positions on the plane. [Annotators Note: Old Coyote's daughter relays a story she heard about him.] The German fighters were dangerous because they had cannons. Old Coyote’s guns had limited range. Old Coyote could tell they were being fired on because the cannon shells would explode around them. The Germans were smart because they would fire and pull away. The Focke Wulfs [Annotators Note: Focke Wulf Fw190 fighter aircraft] would go right into the formation, whereas the Me109s [Annotators Note: Messerschmitt Bf109 fighter aircraft] would attack and pull away. One time, the waist gunner was hurt and Old Coyote had to take his place. He began firing and could see his shells hitting the Fw190. His gunner yelled out that he got it. They made it a policy that they could claim a kill but would not receive credit unless someone witnessed it. Sometimes it would be tough to tell who got the kill shot because ten guys could be firing at the same plane. Old Coyote was on sub patrol for a short time while in North Africa. If they saw a submarine they would attack it. If the submarine went underwater they had depth charges they could drop as well. They dropped anti-personnel bombs on the submarines. They would have to make a quick decision as to whether or not to attack the sub while it was on the surface or wait until it went underwater. They would go on sub patrol in order to clear out an area for a convoy.

Barney Old Coyote’s crew was credited with sinking a submarine; it was not an individual accolade. The escort would have warplanes that could confirm or deny whether or not a submarine was sunk. Old Coyote never found out which submarine they sunk. If they could cripple a submarine they would radio it in so a destroyer could come and finish it off. It was a team effort. The worst missions were the ones to Germany and Austria. Their defenses were very strong. They would get shot at as soon as they reached the coast. On the way back they would still be shooting at them. They would also send up fighters to shoot them down. Anytime they were over land it was hard; most of the time they saw fighters. Old Coyote could see the fighters taking off to come meet them. The fighters could get up in the air in about two minutes. The flak was always tough and it did not require a direct hit. They could sometimes see the Germans adjusting their flak fire. They used to tell them that they were going to be flying over the flak which was almost never true. Old Coyote flew a mission with Jimmy Doolittle [Annotators Note: USAAF then USAF General James H. Doolittle]. He was flying the plane Old Coyote was in. Doolittle made sure the formation was flying correctly. Doolittle mentioned that he wished someone was in the second wave who could speak Crow. Doolittle was informed that Old Coyote’s brother was in the second wave. Coyote was given permission to break radio silence. They had primary and secondary targets that were a half an hour apart. Old Coyote would let them know if the primary target was attackable. [Annotators Note: Old Coyote gives an example of something he would have said in Crow. If he said that they were going to where they are making wine, not spaghetti, that meant they were going to France and not Italy.] Old Coyote was awarded two Silver Stars; the first one was for fighting a submarine. The navy confirmed they sank it. The other was when they went on a dangerous mission. The citation was for destroying the enemy in battle. Old Coyote got credit for shooting down an enemy plane. He preferred the B-17 because it was as safe as a battleship. Coyote was able to take a flight on a B-17 a few years back and it was like old times. Old Coyote flew in the 341st Bombardment Squadron, 97th Bombardment Group but he moved around quite a bit. He had flown 72 missions by the end of the war. After 50 missions Old Coyote's brother was still flying so he joined him for another 22.

Barney Old Coyote started flying in December 1943. After he completed his missions, he was able to wait around for his brother to complete his missions. Old Coyote was there for the invasions of Sicily and Italy. When they invaded Europe, Old Coyote was already on his way home. Old Coyote went to training camps and helped to train crews when he got home. He went to gunnery school to teach. They toured operational units and talked to crews about what it was like in combat. After they were done flying their missions they did the tour. Old Coyote was with a bunch of guys who got to travel around. His brother went with them to show the air crews how they were able to break radio silence by speaking in Crow. They tried to teach others but the language was too hard. Old Coyote was discharged in 1943. He went back to college when he got home. Old Coyote was treated differently on a few occasions because they were Indian. There were other Indians there but they were from different tribes and they did not speak a common language. There was a Mexican who called himself Chief. He claimed to be an Indian. Word got around that Old Coyote and his brother were coming and, if anything, they got special treatment but never mistreatment. Old Coyote’s grandfather was at the Battle of the Rose Bud. Old Coyote’s grandfather was a scout in the Rifle Club. He was wounded twice while fighting alongside the whites. He was wounded in Montana during the Sioux campaigns. Old Coyote used the GI Bill when he came home from the service. He received maximum benefits from the GI bill because of his time served in combat. Old Coyote was able to go into graduate school. He took General Studies in college. They tried to put Old Coyote in the Signal Corps to talk code in Crow. Old Coyote worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs because he spoke Indian.

Barney Old Coyote and his brother were able to interview other Crows who served during the war in the late 1940s. They did the interviews in Crow and then translated them into English. They became well travelled because they went around and talked to other Indian groups. President Johnson and his wife were given a tour of Indian country. They came to Billings and were given a bus with reporters on it. One stop had a Cheyenne Indian who informed the President about Cheyenne Indians. Mrs. Johnson liked the way Old Coyote was explaining the tribe and the country and asked him to tag along for the entire tour. Old Coyote had several jobs in Washington. His first job was to go to Indian meetings as an interpreter. Old Coyote helped translate for the Secretary of the Interior and he also helped translate for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Old Coyote helped brief President Johnson on Indian matters. They were starting up a Job Corps program and Old Coyote had to go to various tribes to explain the jobs program in Indian. A lot of times Old Coyote could not speak the language but was able to discern what the customs were and relate that way. In the late 1960s, there was a dissidence movement of American Indians that was very anti-government. Old Coyote had to speak on behalf of the government and this put him in conflict with the dissidence movement. Most of the Indian supporters were not full Indian. After the Johnson administration, Old Coyote retired from government service. He started an Indian study program at Montana State. Montana State University made Old Coyote an honorary doctorate and put him on the faculty. Old Coyote was not officially an educator, but they made him apart of the staff. He went around the country helping other colleges start Indian study programs. Old Coyote also helped start a tax-free banking system within Indian communities. They did consulting work out of Montana State on bilingual programs. At MIT [Annotators Note: Massachusetts Institute of Technology] they created a written version of Crow which had never existed before. They also developed an alphabet for the Crow language project.