Calvin F. Bannon was born in Seattle, Washington in 1921 and had two older brothers. One of his brothers flew a B-17 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] over Europe during World War 2. He grew up in Seattle where his father worked as an attorney for the IRS [Annotator's Note: Internal Revenue Service] enforcing the liquor laws in Washington. His father built a house on the waterfront where Bannon lived for most of his childhood. He graduated high school in 1939 and found a job with the Boeing Company, and then went to college. And the Army Air Corps came to recruit students to become air cadets after the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. [Annotator's Note: A telephone rings in the background at 0:05:27.000.] Bannon enlisted into the Army Air Corps as an Air Cadet several weeks later and was sent to Wichita Falls, Texas for boot camp then to the University of Oklahoma [Annotator's Note: Oklahoma State University–Stillwater in Stillwater, Oklahoma] for aviation classes. He was then sent to Corsicana, Texas for flight training, then to basic flight training in a BT-13 [Annotator's Note: Vultee BT-13 Valiant basic trainer aircraft; also known as the Vultee Vibrator], and then was sent to Oklahoma to train in a twin engine Beechcraft. Bannon almost crashed a plane when his friend, Bass, refueled the plane incorrectly. He landed the plane with the wheels up between a house and a barn. The force of the landing caused Bannon to hit his face against the instrument panel, flattening his nose. Bannon and Bass went to the house to ask for help. The owner was so shaken up that he was little use to them. Bannon laid Bass down on a bed and used an old-fashioned phone to call for help. Soon medics arrived and took them to the hospital where both remained for about two weeks. Because Bannon missed two weeks of training, he fell behind the class he was in and had to pick up training in the class that was behind him. When the Air Corps gave Bannon and Bass another plane, they went up when the weather conditions were not good. Their exercise was to locate the radio beam and when they succeed, they asked for landing instructions. At first Bannon was confused because they were lined up with a railroad track, but soon he saw the landing strip and was able to make a successful landing. When he graduated from flight school, he was promoted to Second Lieutenant.

After Calvin F. Bannon completed flight school and received his commission in Texas, he was sent to Miami Beach [Annotator's Note: Miami, Florida] near a port of embarkation. Bannon and his friend, Bass, enjoyed the city-nightlife while they waited for orders. Bannon took his friend out fishing and on a sailboat. Bannon took a plane as a passenger overseas to an airfield in Cuba, then to South America. Then he boarded a B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] and headed to Africa, and then made it to Karachi, India. Bannon was shocked by the living conditions of the local people. Everyone lived in poverty. He stayed there for a few weeks and then was sent to British Air Force Base in Dinjan, India to join the 10th Combat Cargo Squadron [Annotator's Note: 3rd Combat Cargo Group]. While he was stationed there, he played tennis with the British at a tennis club and drank a lot of tea. The British locals invited him over to their homes and socialized with them. Bannon was not assigned a particular airplane and flew several cargo planes. He flew 900 hours in six months. His mission was to fly food, ammo, personnel, and equipment to various airfields throughout the China-Burma-India campaign [Annotator's Note: generally referred to as CBI]. He faced difficult weather conditions because of the mountainous region and his group was not given oxygen or de-icing equipment. Because he did not drink, he was assigned to a lot of missions during his time in CBI. Sometimes it was tough to drop the cargo on the target due to the weather conditions. On one instance after he made his drop he saw a C-47 “plastered” up on a mountain. There was another time where he dropped supplies to a bunch of troops fighting against the Japanese. They lost a couple of the planes because they ran into mortar fire. After a few drops, they encounter Japanese Zeros [Annotator's Note: Japanese Mitsubishi A6M fighter aircraft, referred to as the Zeke or Zero]. Luckily, the Japanese were not very good, and Bannon was able to invade the enemy. Bannon was given orders to fly the Burma shuttle, which no one wanted to do because it was not considered combat time. [Annotator's Note: There is a break in the video at 0:48:46.000.]

When Calvin F. Bannon returned home from his tour overseas [Annotator's Note: with the 10th Combat Cargo Squadron, 3rd Combat Cargo Group], he stopped in Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii] then landed in L.A. [Annotator's Note: Los Angeles, California]. He then took a train home to Seattle [Annotator's Note: Seattle, Washington] after two years of being away. After the war ended, Bannon enlisted in the Air Force Reserves and stayed until 1950. He attained his degree in electrical engineering on the G.I. Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment] and worked part time at the Boeing Company and as a telephone operator. After he graduated from school he worked for the City of Seattle as an engineer for thirty years. He was also involved with a lawsuit in relation to a death of a city employee.

Calvin F. Bannon's most memorable experience of World War 2 was when he encountered Japanese Zero [Annotator's Note: Japanese Mitsubishi A6M fighter aircraft, referred to as the Zeke or Zero] planes and they had no protection to fight against them. The war changed his life because he got a free trip around the world which opened his eyes. Bannon thinks that America should be in a lot less wars today. He believes there should be institutions like The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana], and we should continue to teach World War 2 to future generations. He worries that other countries will drop atomic bombs on America. He is thankful for all the people that helped him along the way, and he had a full life.