Chester Brewer was born in Sewickley, Pennsylvania in 1922. When the Great Depression struck, his parents lost their home. They got a restaurant that only lasted one summer. His father then started contract painting in Sewickley. His mother, brother, and he went to Yukon, Pennsylvania, a coal mining town. His grandfather was killed in a coal mine, so they moved back to Sewickley. His father then worked as a steward for the American Legion [Annotator's Note: an American war veterans organization]. They later moved to New York City [Annotator's Note: New York, New York]. Brewer graduated from junior high. He went to high school at the School of Aviation Trades for three years. He specialized in machine training. The United States was not in the war yet. Companies were coming to the school interviewing. Brewer almost went to work for Sikorsky [Annotator's Note: Sikorsky Aircraft] but took a job with Ford Instrument Company making Naval control instruments. He worked there for 14 months and then decided to join the Army Air Corps. He felt that pilot training was too much for him. He went to Camp Upton, New York and then Midland-Odessa, Texas. He avoided basic training because he had attended a Citizen Military Training Camp in high school.

Chester Brewer joined the Army Air Corps and was sent to Midland-Odessa [Annotator's Note: Midland-Odessa, Texas] and went to work on the flight line. They flew AT-11s [Annotator's Note: Beechcraft AT-11 Kansan advanced trainer aircraft] and trained bombardiers. He was then transferred to the Rio Grande valley where they were training fighter pilots. He got the bug to fly. He took the Aviation Cadet exam and got a notice to report to headquarters. He learned he had passed, and he was very excited. He was sent home for three weeks. People thought he had been thrown out of the Army. He went to San Antonio [Annotator's Note: San Antonio, Texas]. He took nine weeks of preflight training. He failed his math test. He received some tutoring where he learned what college must be like. He passed the exam the second time. He was so happy he jumped down the stairs and badly sprained his ankle. He did his primary training in Oklahoma in a PT-19 [Annotator's Note: Fairchild PT-19 primary trainer aircraft]. He had seven hours of solo flight. Due to the Great Depression and living in New York [Annotator’s Note: New York, New York], he had never ridden in an automobile. In an airplane, you do not notice your speed until you are close to the ground. He did not land correctly and washed out. He went to Wichita Falls, Texas to await openings in bombardier school. Volunteers were sought for gunner training and he thought that was for him.

Chester Brewer was sent to Las Vegas, Nevada and fired every gun from BB guns [Annotator's Note: air gun that fires small ball bearing projectiles called BBs] to .50 caliber machine guns [Annotator's Note: .50 caliber Browning M2 machine gun] out of the backs of AT-6s [Annotator's Note: North American T-6 Texan advanced trainer aircraft]. In B-17s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber], they would shoot waist guns at towed targets. He went up to Salt Lake City, Utah where the crews were formed. He had by-passed all of the other training, so he ended up in the tail [Annotator's Note: in the tail gunner position]. He had three more months of training, flying simulated missions of various types. It was a great group of guys. They went everywhere as a crew including dentist visits, training, and going out in the evenings. He went to Grand Island, Nebraska and picked up a brand new B-17 to fly to Europe. He was happy it was Europe. They had to give up their khaki uniforms but several of them kept the wool shirts. It snowed all night and they could not take off. They then went by train to New York and boarded the RMS Queen Elizabeth. There were 14,000 of them on the ship. They went to Glasgow, Scotland. That was the first time he had seen men wearing kilts. They went on a train and there were children along the tracks who had been evacuated from England. They would throw them their candy bars.

Chester Brewer went by train to Deopham Green, which was near his airbase [Annotator's Note: Royal Air Force Deopham Green, England]. He arrived just as a mission was returning to the base and the bombers were overhead. They were delayed while the gear of the men who had been lost that day was removed. Then they took their spots. On the first mission, their pilot flew with another crew to get experience. When they were to return, Brewer and his crew went to greet them, but the plane had gone down. His pilot was rescued. They got a two-week reprieve because the pilot was sent to Scotland for rest and recuperation. The pilot returned and still had scars on his face from his oxygen mask. Their first mission was an airfield in France. On his seventh mission, a deep penetration mission, they went to Czechoslovakia to bomb an oil refinery. From the time they neared Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany], to when they reached Czechoslovakia, they had no fighter protection and the Luftwaffe [Annotator's Note: German Air Force] hit them in head-on attacks. Out of the group of 18, only five made it back to the base. They threw everything overboard to lighten the plane because they had engine trouble. The bombardier had dropped the bombs without opening the doors and they were now stuck open, creating drag. It was a welcome sight to look down on the white cliffs of Dover [Annotator's Note: Dover, England]. They made it back and were "interrogated" while being given brandy. They needed the brandy to loosen up. They were asked all kinds of questions about the mission. They had to take care of their own guns. The parachutes had to be put in drying towers because the air was so damp in England.

[Annotator's Note: Chester Brewer served in the USAAF as a tail gunner aboard Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers in the 729th Bombardment Squadron, 452nd Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force.] The parachutes had to be put in drying towers because the air was so damp in England. On a new mission, they would pick up their chutes and put their guns in the planes. England was so foggy that they had smudge pots [Annotator's Note: oil burning devices used as a form of illumination] along each side of the runway. The crucial part of the mission was getting off the ground. They would cross the channel [Annotator's Note: English Channel]. Brewer made four runs on Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany]. They would encounter the 88s [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery]. 4,000 guns would put up a barrage that the crews had to fly through. His 17th mission was on D-Day [Annotator's Note: Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. They had graduated from tail-end Charlie, the Purple Heart corner [Annotator's Note: the most vulnerable position in the tactical formation, or combat box], to move up into the formation. Their pilot had turned 20 when they got overseas, and then he became group lead. They did not fly as often then. They were to fly 25 missions to complete a tour. When D-Day came along, they added three more. Brewer flew an extra mission with another crew because a man did not want to fly anymore. No one ever talked about him quitting. On his 27th mission, his crew was assigned to lead the whole division [Annotator's Note: 3rd Bomb Division, 8th Air Force] to Leipzig, Germany. A Major was put in the tail to be the gunner, so Brewer sat out that mission. His crew and another crew collided on the mission, so Brewer came home alone.

[Annotator's Note: Chester Brewer returned home after his 27th mission in Europe as a tail gunner on a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber in the 729th Bombardment Squadron, 452nd Bombardment Group, 45th Combat Bomb Wing, 3rd Bomb Division, 8th Air Force.] Brewer spent his rest and recuperation leave in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He was reassigned to Amarillo, Texas to an aircraft mechanic school. He then went to Chanute Field, Illinois for B-29 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] specialist training. He knew B-29s were in the Pacific. He did not want to return to combat or go to the Pacific. He missed a formation and was summoned for dishonorable discharge and court martial. They sent him to Madison, Wisconsin on AT-6s [Annotator's Note: North American T-6 Texan advanced trainer aircraft]. The Japanese were sending paper balloons across the Pacific with light bombs [Annotator's Note: Fu-Go balloon bomb, or fire balloon]. Some landed in California. He went to Fort Lewis, Washington and trained in firefighting. He went to a CCC [Annotator's Note: Civilian Conservation Corps] camp and spent time fighting fires in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. They used mules to carry equipment. Brewer heard his name included for men being sent to be discharged. He became emotional and threw up he was so excited to get out. He feels fortunate to have moved about and seen so much so young. He thinks about that often. He was 20 when he joined the Army Air Corps in October 1942. He got out October 1945. He earned the Distinguished Flying Cross, four Air Medals, and three major engagement Battle Stars.

[Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Chester Brewer about a story of when he threw his hat down at a colonel.] Brewer had only been in [Annotator's Note: in the military] about six months when that happened. He washed out of the cadets and went to Wichita Falls [Annotator's Note: Wichita Falls, Texas] for reclassification. He took examinations for seven days straight. Most of it related to mechanics and he was able to get through it. He went to Europe as a tail gunner. He went to Europe on the RMS Queen Elizabeth. He was quartered in the indoor swimming pool. They were fed twice a day. Coming back on the RMS Queen Mary, Winston Churchill [Annotator's Note: Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill; Prime Minister of the United Kingdom] and his wife were aboard. Brewer saw him get off the boat. Seeing the Statue of Liberty was a sight. He was sick the entire trip. They thought he had appendicitis, but he was just seasick. He had been in Glasgow, Scotland but not long. He went to a place where Irish girls were doing farming.

Chester Brewer saw his first person bail out on his first mission. The plane alongside of them was on fire. They had a radio that they could use to communicate with the other planes. They were telling the crew to bail out. He saw the tail gunner go out head first. He does not know if he made it. They did talk to men who had gone through the underground and escaped. Those men were sent home right away. His first mission was to France and it was a short run. The runs to Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany] were scary. They never had tail attacks. They were always attacked from 12 o'clock high. The ball turret had computing sights, but they could never use them. They just used the ring and bead sight on the end of the gun. They [Annotator's Note: enemy fighter aircraft] would go right through the formation. As a tail gunner, Brewer had the best view of anybody in the plane. Their bomb flights overall were not better than 50 percent [Annotator's Note: Brewer is referring to the success rate of the combat missions he flew]. He sat on a bicycle seat and knelt in the turret. He would carry a sock with salt in it to clean the fog off the windows. He wore long johns under his uniform. He put the electric suit on after that and then the fleece-lined suit over that. He would often check his escape hatch.

[Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Chester Brewer how he found out about his crew being shot down during a mission over Leipzig, Germany, that he did not fly on.] Rumors on the base were that the Colonel had gone down and he was on Brewer's plane. His plane was a pathfinder that had a radar dome in place of the ball turret. He listened to Axis Sally [Annotator's Note: Mildred Elizabeth Gillars, American broadcaster employed by Nazi Germany] often. They could always get American music on the radio as well as her. He often thinks about the bombing and feels fortunate that he could not see what was happening from their bombs. He was told that 70 percent would not survive their tours. He flew his last mission on his birthday. When they got back they saw a big hole in the tail. He had a heavy heart thinking about what had happened to his crew. When he came back from the Brux [Annotator's Note: Brux, France] raid, it was a big day. It was 12 May 1944. [Annotator's Note: Brewer does not finish the thought.] It was a tough thing seeing crews go down and hearing men crying on the radio. London [Annotator's Note: London, England] was still being bombed and they were given furloughs [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time]. He did not feel as though he could quit. No one else was. His mother had gotten a letter from another mother who had thought he had been lost with his crew. He wrote to his parents using V-mail [Annotator's Note: Victory Mail; postal system put into place during the war to drastically reduce the space needed to transport mail]. He could not give much detail, so he wrote in code.

Chester Brewer flew with the 8th Air Force. His crew was from all over the United States. He flew with the 3rd Division, 452nd Bombardment Group, 729th Bombardment Squadron [Annotator's Note: 729th Bombardment Squadron, 452nd Bombardment Group, 45th Combat Bomb Wing, 3rd Bomb Division, 8th Air Force]. He would do it again if he had to. He is provoked that society as a whole takes war so lightly today. His daughters took him to Washington D.C. to see the war memorial. He liked the inscription, "We came to liberate and not to conquer". He cannot recall where he was when Germany surrendered. He was working in the CCC [Annotator's Note: Civilian Conservation Corps] camp when Japan surrendered. They got beer then. Brewer feels that the museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana] is great. He hopes his theory is wrong, but we live in a day that features World War 2. He lived in the day where his dad had been in World War 1. During the Great Depression they [Annotator's Note: World War 1 Veterans] marched on Washington [Annotator's Note: Washington, District of Columbia] because they felt they had something coming. This could fall by the wayside so that in 20 or 30 years it will not be significant anymore. Something equal could come about. The "have-nots" want from the "haves" by any way they can get it. When he told his parents he was going to join the service, his mother cried and his father told him he was foolish. They changed their attitudes when he came home. His brother was a conscientious objector to the war and only served one year. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks someone off-camera if he left anything out and they talk a bit.] Brewer returned on the RMS Queen Mary with a friend of his from grade school.

Chester Brewer went to help a man build homes after the war. His former employer hired him back. He met his wife. He went to work in Pittsburgh [Annotator's Note: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania]. Veterans could get a home built with nothing down and just closing costs. The State of New York gave him a bonus that covered it. That is how he got his first home. He had flown 28 missions. He does not remember all of them but there are a few that he does not erase. The missions took seven and half to 11 hours. It took a long time to get to altitude and into formation. They flew around 22,000 to 24,000 feet. It was cold up there. Going into Northern Germany over the North Sea it would be 50 degrees below zero. When they met the 88s [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery], it would depend on where they were in the formation. Sometimes there would be smoke screens over the target. They did psychological bombing at that time.