Carl Koone was born in Cleveland, Arkansas in August 1922. He grew up during the Great Depression in a family that ran a subsistence farm, and his father bought and sold livestock. Koone was old enough to realize the extent of the adverse economic impact of the times, and remembered that many of his neighbors and friends moved west, some as far as California. The older school children whose families remained in Arkansas would follow the wheat harvest to supplement the family income. Koone was working his way through Arkansas Tech University [Annotator's Note: in Russellville, Arkansas] when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. When he returned to his dorm from a rare weekend at home, he heard the news. He had studied chemistry with a view to working in the Pine Bluff [Annotator's Note: Pine Bluff, Arkansas] arsenal once it was completed, and after finishing his second year in college, he was offered and took a job there. He recalled that his first assignment was to teach middle-aged women how to pack incendiary bombs. Koone was drafted into the Army in September 1942, and chose to attend armament school. After five weeks, he elected to advance to gunnery school for the next five weeks and enjoyed the training. Then he went from Panama City, Florida to an assignment center in Salt Lake City, Utah and was set to deploy "as fast as possible."

Sent next to Ephrata, Washington, Carl Koone was issued a roll [Annotator's Note: bed roll], blankets and a folding cot, and lived in a six man tent. He flew in old B-17s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] every day and a few times at night. After a month, he was shipped to South Dakota, where they got better planes, and the crew learned to work together. Then, at Chanute Field [Annotator's Note: later Chanute Air Force Base in Rantoul, Illinois] in Illinois, they were issued arms and assigned to the 99th Bomb Group [Annotator's Note: 99th Bombardment Group, 15th Air Force]. In September 1943, Koone he deployed from Newport News, Virginia to Casablanca [Annotator's Note: Casablanca, Morocco]. As part of a replacement crew, he traveled overseas in an escorted convoy aboard a Liberty ship [Annotator's Note: a class of quickly produced cargo ship]. When the crew arrived in Central Africa, the plane to their next destination couldn't get off the ground, and their progress was delayed for six more days. He finally moved on to Algeria, where the pilots got checked out, and the crew made a serious environmental adjustment. The crew was broken up for initiation with experienced personnel, then the reunited crew engaged in missions over southern France. Of the ten missions he flew while in Africa, he got credit for the five that saw combat. On one mission, his aircraft "got sick" and had to land in Sardinia where the British were helpful in getting them airborne again. When the front moved north, Koone's crew transferred to Foggia, Italy, and were assigned an old Flying Fortress "E" [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17E Flying Fortress heavy bomber]. Koone stayed in Foggia until he finished his 50 missions.

In January 1944 the weather was good, and Carl Koone said Allied airplanes could be seen all over Europe "all day, every day." Koone's bomb group [Annotator's Note: 99th Bombardment Group, 15th Air Force] was burning up oil fields and manufacturing plants all over southern Germany. The troops knew from the news reports that the war wasn't going to last much longer. Koone got credit for 22 missions that month, but he said he was physically exhausted. He corrected an earlier statement about his first base location, remembering that he was stationed outside of Tunis, Tunisia. On a couple of occasions he went into the town, and didn't see anything he "wanted or needed." However, some locals offered them hospitality, and the lunch was "edible" but different. He went on to describe encounters with German fighter aircraft, but said that the bombers usually had escorts, and he mentioned the protection provided by the Tuskegee airmen of the 332nd Fighter Group. Toward the end, Koone said there were fewer German fighters in the air, but he commented on the quality of the Focke-Wulf 190s [Annotator's Note: German Focke-Wulf Fw-109 fighter aircraft] and Messerschmitts [Annotator's Note: German Messerschmitts Me-109 and Bf-109 fighter aircraft]. Koone distinctly remembers one up-close sighting of a German pilot. On that occasion, the enemy fighter dove between the wing and the back aileron of his aircraft and Koone, as the waist gunner, could see the "white of his eyes"; so close he couldn't shoot at him without damaging his own plane. But on another occasion, Koone got individual credit for a kill. There were over 100 aircraft in the air and Koone was shooting out of the right waist. After his first round of fire, his target circled and came back in range, and Koone shot again; the plane ran another maneuver and came back in range, and Koone "shot some more." By this time he had broken a sweat, but saw the enemy plane descend in a spiral. Although he didn't see it hit the ground, others obviously did, and his victory was reported in his hometown newspaper. Koone's group completed its required number of missions in June 1944.

When Carl Koone's bomb group [Annotator's Note: 99th Bombardment Group, 15th Air Force] moved to Italy, they were once again housed in tents. The supply situation for his bomb group was, to the extent of Koone's knowledge, always adequate. As the armorer, he was responsible for insuring the guns on board his plane were in working order; he put the "belly" gunner [Annotator's Note: ball turret gunner] in his turret and took him out every mission; he was in charge of visually inspecting the bomb bay and the bombs, and keeping them secure during flight; and if it had to do with munitions and the provision of guns, Koone saw to it. Each man, however, was responsible for cleaning and maintaining his own guns. He also worked with the ground crew on the maintenance of the aircraft. Koone describes the members of his crew and what he got to know about them during the time he was in their company. He said all of them were "nice guys." He remembers one of them faithfully writing letters home to his family; Koone, too, kept up correspondence with this mother and his girlfriend. He said that after his year in training, being away from home no longer bothered him.

Asked to describe his worst mission, Carl Koone recalled a long one that started normal and had proceeded on course toward the target when the group leader flew the formation right into the total darkness of a weather front. Koone was at the exit door with one hand on the handle and the other on his parachute, ready to go if he heard or saw anything unusual. He recalled another occasion, when the 8th Army landed at Anzio, and the squadron was instructed to fly over the mountains at small arms range toward the battlegrounds. Koone said his squadron was shot to bits. A prop [Annotator's Note: propeller] was shot off his plane, and they lost a couple of gunners. In all, there were 15 to 20 casualties and two or three planes lost, the squadron returning in less than three hours without having dropped a single bomb. The dead and wounded were removed from the planes immediately and the survivors coped with the loss by avoiding the subject. Replacements came in, and Koone tried to help them any way he could, but never got to know any of them really well. He explained that there was very little opportunity to socialize. They had a movie once a week in an old barn, but no athletic games or any other group activities. Koone said he took the base bicycle out for a couple of rides. As for going into town, Foggia [Annotator's Note: Foggia, Italy] had been a fairly large community, but it was all torn up and the inhabitants had evacuated. Regardless, he went there, just to say he had. He also traveled to Naples [Annotator's Note: Naples, Italy] once, and to the Isle of Capri on two occasions. When it was time to leave for the United States, he formed part of a crew that flew a B-17E [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] back to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. From there he took a bus, then a taxi home. Koone joked that he had to borrow ten dollars from his mother to pay the cab driver.

A typical mission for Carl Koone began with the officers going for briefings and the aircrew boarding trucks that took them to the airstrip. There was always a ground crew at the plane when they arrived and when the pilot showed up, he would make an intercom announcement to inform the crew of the nature of the mission. Koone said he checked and rechecked his guns during that time, and they would soon be off. He flew several missions over Ploiesti, Romania where there was a huge oil store. There were fighters to contend with going and coming, and the area nearest the target was highly fortified. The air was thick with flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire] from the German 88s [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery]. It was an eight hour flight over enemy territory, so each mission counted as two. There were no flak suits at first, but the crew did wear gas masks [Annotator's Note: oxygen masks]. The air was thin and it was cold at the higher altitudes. He wore sheepskin clothing and later they were issued heating devices that helped to keep frostbite at bay. But, Koone noted, sometimes the activities associated with loading and firing his machine guns could warm him up to an uncomfortable temperature. There was rarely anything to eat, unless an airman brought a snack on board. Koone said he didn't eat or drink anything for the duration of the flight. There was a funnel into which the airmen could relieve themselves, attached to a line that led out of the bomb bay. Koone said it can be entertaining to talk about, but it wasn't fun at the time.

Carl Koone was in the Army Air Corps for another year after his return to the United States. He spent the winter [Annotator's Note: of late 1944 and early 1945] at Barksdale Field [Annotator's Note: now Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City, Louisiana] in Louisiana, and his service continued at Selfridge Field [Annotator's Note: now Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Harrison Township, Michigan] in Michigan, where he was training "a bunch of Frenchmen on old B-26s" [Annotator's Note: Martin B-26 Marauder medium bomber] and packaging .50 caliber machine guns for storage. He went to a lot of Detroit Tigers baseball games, for free, that summer. He was with a good crew and really enjoyed his time there. Koone still faced the possibility of going to the Pacific, and he was "fearful." He had never really wanted to fight or spend three or four years in the armed forces. He was at Selfridge Field when he heard about the end of the war in Europe, and remembers there being a "pretty big deal" on the base. Koone got his release orders the day after the surrender of Japan. There was a big meeting surrounding the announcement, and Koone, glad to hear the news, was looking forward to going home. He was sent to Fort Smith, Arkansas for an overnight stay and award ceremony where he was presented with a Purple Heart. He didn't remember being "written up" for the honor, nor does he think it is mentioned in his military record. But he has the medal, as well as Air Medals for each ten of his combat missions, a Good Conduct Medal, and others. Koone was discharged as a staff sergeant in September 1945.

After leaving the service, Carl Koone went home to visit his family, and "fiddled around on the farm" with his father. He bought civilian clothes to wear with the civilian shoes he bought at the air base in San Juan, Puerto Rico, because they were rationed at home, on his flight back to the United States. The Arkansas superintendent of schools recruited him for a Veterans Administration program, teaching veterans agricultural management. He lived on his family's farm and stayed in that position for four years, then enrolled in the University of Arkansas [Annotator's Note: in Fayetteville, Arkansas] in 1949. He used the G.I. Bill and left there with a master's degree in agriculture. He was married by then, and accepted a job teaching agriculture at the University of Panama [Annotator's Note: in Panama City, Panama]. He ended up a Foreign Service officer for the Agency for International Development and retired from a post in Guatemala.

Asked if he had any problems with post traumatic stress disorder, he said he had some problems with loud, sudden noises, but not otherwise. While he was in the service, he looked upon it as time stolen from the rest of his life, but he knows that the experience strengthened him, and gave him a respect for life. Today, he feels that World War 2 helped get America through the worst depression it had every seen and it had a positive effect on the average American's level of living; everything flourished after the war. Also, he believes that American government aide was used more effectively after the war than at any other time in American history. Those who had goals and ambitions still benefit from that. Koone feels it important that there be institutions such as The National WWII Museum to teach the lessons of the war, as long a it is not overdone. He said he hopes that his stories can benefit the museum's efforts in bringing that history forward.