Charles Graves Chauncey was born in April 1923 in Chanute, Kansas. He went through the school system, went to Kansas University for one semester, and then enlisted in the Army Air Corps in Kansas City [Annotator's Note: Kansas City, Missouri]. He was called in January 1943 to report to Jefferson Barracks [Annotator's Note: Lemay, Missouri]. Chauncey recalled there was a lot of pneumonia cases and the conditions of the barracks were deplorable and they did not receive proper clothing. He was sent to a college training attachment in Minnesota because there was not enough room at Jefferson Barracks. He took various courses including history and physics. He befriended Jack Webb [Annotator's Note: John Randolph Webb], a movie star, while in training. After basic, Chauncey was sent to California to take physical and mental tests. He wanted to pursue navigation, but he was selected to be a pilot. He went to primary training in Tulare, California and trained on Stearmans [Annotator's Note: Boeing-Stearman Kaydet primary trainer aircraft], which he enjoyed immensely. He went to secondary school and flew the Consolidated Vultee BT-13 Vibrator [Annotator's Note: Vultee BT-13 Valiant basic trainer aircraft, also known as the Vultee Vibrator], and after graduating, he chose to pursue multi-engines. He was sent to Marfa, Texas and trained on the Cessna UC-78 [Annotator's Note: Cessna UC-78, or AT-17, Bobcat advanced trainer aircraft] or Bamboo Bomber. He received his wings and became a second lieutenant.

Charles Graves Chauncey then received training on B-17s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber]. He learned the instruments and how to do different formations. He enjoyed flying the B-17s. After graduating from B-17 training he was assigned to the newly organized 9th Bomb Group in McCook, Nebraska to fly B-29s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber]. That is where his crew was formed and where they trained. He was assigned as a pilot and copilot. His airplane commander was a functioning alcoholic. He recalled that the B-29 had a lot of problems because they were putting them into service right from the factory. There were a lot of mechanical issues; his crew lost an engine with less than 15 hours on it. One of the biggest problems was trying to cool the engine, and a lot of them would catch on fire. He remembered the B-29 to be a very noisy plane, from the four-engines to the sound of the turrets. He and his navigator did night training to Havana, Cuba and got into some hot water with their commander.

Charles Graves Chauncey bought a lot of souvenirs and alcohol while in Cuba. They returned to McCook, Nebraska and shortly after Chauncey graduated, he and his crew took a train to Herrington, Kansas to pick up their B-29 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] and then headed overseas via San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California]. In late January 1945, they got their orders which told them to head for Hawaii and then to Tinian [Annotator's Note: Tinian, Northern Mariana Islands]. Chauncey recalled listening to Tokyo Rose [Annotator's Note: nickname given by Allied servicemen to any English speaking female radio personality broadcasting Japanese propaganda in the Pacific Theater] on the way to their destination. She was telling planes to turn around and go home and played Glenn Miller. When they got to the island, they lived in tents. Chauncey remembered the rain was bad. He also recalled being told about Banzai raid threats. They even had a machine gun set up in case the threat became a reality. [Annotator's Note: A clock chimes and the interviewer pauses the interview at 0:42:47.000.] Chauncey recalled that many of the natives jumped off the cliffs even thought the Navy men were trying to persuade them not to. He also remembered a guy was caught by some Japanese, and they hung him upside down on a cross and stuck bayonets in him.

Charles Graves Chauncey's first mission was to Truk Island [Annotator's Note: Truk Lagoon or Chuuk Lagoon, Federated States of Micronesia]. He recalled having some antiaircraft resistance and thinks that the bombs they dropped did not hit their target. His second mission was to Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima, Japan]. He thinks they did not do too much damage, but he remembers seeing allied forces in small boats circling the island. He thought when they built the airbase on Iwo Jima, it really helped his crew. On 9 March 1945, he participated in the deadliest missions of bombing mainland Japan. They bombed Tokyo, Nagoya, Kobe, and Osaka. They were all night missions, and they did not have night goggles. He recalled getting a lot of resistance. On one mission to Kobe, all a sudden they saw a huge firestorm cloud, and the updraft and downdraft were difficult to manage. Some of the planes were totaled. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer stops the interview to change tapes.] They emptied their bombs on their target and were then "spit" out of the storm cloud and had to level out. They had to pass through the storm cloud two more times to empty out their bombs.

Charles Graves Chauncey was assigned missions to bomb Tokyo [Annotator's Note: Tokyo, Japan]. On one of those missions, while circling his target site, the general came over the radio and told them to speed to 600 miles an hour to knock the building down with wind. [Annotator's Note: There is a noise in the background interfering with interview at 1:06:30:000.] Chauncey had an experience going through decompression and remembered feeling severe pain in his stomach. He commented that one of the bad features about B-29 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] was that the gunners could not wear their safety belts when operating their guns. Out of his 35 missions in World War Two, 22 of them were night single ship missions. One of his missions, called a Starvation Mission, was to drop mines into the harbors, channels, and bays to limit the Japanese shipping. Chauncey was surprised that the Japanese would not surrender by this point. On a mission to Nagoya [Annotator's Note: Nagoya, Japan] they lost an engine a couple of hours into the trip. They decided to keep going on three engines. As they got closer to Nagoya, they received some resistance. They dropped their bombs on their target and headed back to the base. Chauncey calls it his luckiest mission.

Charles Graves Chauncey did very few daylight missions and during those missions he would fly low. Most of his daylight missions were attacking the airbases to stop kamikazes. He witnessed a B-29 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] get hit by a kamikaze. Then he saw the Japanese pilot jump out of his plane with a parachute. Some hoped the B-29 was able to get back to a safe area and most of the crew was able bail out. Chauncey remarked that they dropped the two millionth ton of bombs over Wakayama, Japan. His crew finished their 35 missions in July 1945 and returned to the United States on the same C-54 [Annotator's Note: Douglas C-54 Skymaster transport aircraft] transports the atomic bomb crew flew in on to the airbase [Annotator's Note: North Field, Tinian, Northern Mariana Islands]. They landed at Hickam Airbase [Annotator's Note: then Hickam Field, now Hickam Air Force Base, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii] and their baggage was searched for items that were not permissible. Chauncey left Hawaii on 3 August. When he got to the United States, the train transport was crowded and chaotic [Annotator's Note: The interviewer stops the interview to change tapes.] His fiancé met his in Kansas City [Annotator's Note: Kansas City, Missouri]. He got to his hometown on 4 August 1945 and got married on 14 August 1945. While they were on their honeymoon, World War 2 was declared over. He worked for his father-in-law in the oil field supply business.

Charles Graves Chauncey's aircraft was named "Goin' Jessie" with a mean-looking rabbit for the nose art. He recalled the enemy search lights on his missions which could mess up his eyes. He avoided it as much as possible. [Annotator's Note: A clock chimes in background and interrupts interview at 1:37:07.000.] He remarked that airplanes would take off at 60 minute intervals and it was sometimes difficult keeping all the airplanes in their formation because pilots could not keep the same speed all the time. He remembered that they would drop various kinds of bombs, some that were different colors. Chauncey thought the Japanese were good fighter pilots. He recalled on one mission his commander forgot to pressurize during the formation and he was pooped when the mission was complete.

Charles Graves Chauncey remarks that there were a lot of computers on their B-29s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber]. He likes that they are restoring some of the B-29s and training a few crews to fly them. He calls them flying museums. Chauncey believes people do not know much about World War 2. [Annotator's Note: A clock chimes in background and interrupts the interview at 1:54:09:000.] Chauncey recalled the smell of the smoke when they were on bombing missions to Tokyo. It reminded him of the smell of chicken feathers in a bonfire. He remembered two of his gunners were throwing up because of how potent the smell was during the missions. Chauncey got along with his crew members and even taught one of them how to drive a jeep, which did not go well.