Chester J. Butcher was born in Pinhook, Louisiana [Annotator's Note: an area in Lafayette, Louisiana] in December 1922. During the Great Depression [Annotator's Note: the Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States], his father, being an electrical engineer, worked in the battery business. He picked up and recharged batteries and helped with the electrification in the rural areas. Later, he started a franchise that sold various appliances like refrigerators, washers, and gas ranges. Butcher lived with his immediate, and extended family, which included his grandparents and great grandparents. He had five siblings, and his brother's wife and children also lived in the house for some time. The family never had any money. Growing up he never heard of the term, allowance. He did what he was told to do and worked hard. He did not realize he was poor. Since he lived on a farm, he never starved and ate very well. All the children re-wore each other clothes. All the children worked from a young age and concentrated on the thing that mattered - survival. Even though life was not easy, he enjoyed his childhood because he did not know any difference. During the Depression, a lot of people lived on farms or in small towns, and since no one had money, they often bartered with each other. Butcher ended up going to West Point [Annotator's Note: United States Military Academy in West Point, New York] for college due to the insistence of his father and his father's friend. He was attending Southwestern Louisiana Institute [Annotator's Note: now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in Lafayette, Louisiana] making good grades, but he applied, took the entrance exam at West Point and passed. He then had to make an appointment and the only way to do that was knowing a politician. A Louisiana Representative, Dudley Joseph LeBlanc [Annotator's Note: American entrepreneur and politician], offered to get Butcher an appointment if his father agreed to vote for him in the next election. Butcher's father agreed. When an appointment became available, Butcher was given a physical exam and rushed up to the school. Butcher had only been outside of Louisiana once before when he played for his school band in Mississippi. Because he had to get up to West Point immediately for the appointment, he flew to New York City [Annotator's Note: New York, New York] on a C-47 [Annotator's Note: Douglas C-47 Skytrain cargo plane], then took a train to West Point, New York. He arrived a day late and was punished by doing double the work on the first day. West Point was, initially, a difficult adjustment for Butcher. He was used to long lectures at Southwestern Louisiana Institute, but at West Point they were required to read assignments on their own and then were tested in class the next day. The school used an honor system. Cheating was a major offense, and a cadet could be expelled if caught cheating. When he first arrived in July 1939, he lived in a tent and was taught the fundamentals of military life. Passing was very difficult and about 20 percent of cadets washed out of the program. It was a great achievement to pass the final exams and cadets received a star to place on their bathrobe as a way to show off their accomplishments.

Chester J. Butcher was resting and listening to the radio [Annotator's Note: at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York], when the announcement came on that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. The West Point leaders called all of the cadets to the barracks to prepare their rifles. They were separated in guard units and patrolled the school grounds. Many of the three-year and two-year cadets were excited and eager to fight in war. The war department asked for West Point cadets to apply for the Army Air Corps. All the cadets were required to take the examination for flight school, and then the Army Air Corps selected individuals who passed. He passed the examination and was sent to primary school and learn to fly on Stearman [Annotator's Note: Boeing-Stearman Model 75] trainer planes. Once he completed primary, he was sent to basic school and flew a heaver and faster plane. He then was sent to advanced school where the planes were heavier, faster, and more maneuverable. The planes in advanced school were more dangerous, and a pilot could get in trouble very fast. He graduated from flight school in the fall of 1942, and then returned West Point for six more weeks of academic study. He graduated from the Academy in January 1943. He was assigned to a P-47 [Annotator's Note: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft] outfit immediately after graduation. He went through an exhaustive training program before being shipped to England in June 1943 with his unit [Annotator's Note: 357th Fighter Squadron, 355th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force]. Butcher did not like the P-47 initially because it was a large and heavy for a fighter plane. It had a turbo super charger which allowed the plane to have a decent amount of high-altitude performance. The P-51 [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] replaced the P-47 because it was much more maneuverable and had longer range. The P-47 became a dependable ground support plane because it was sturdy and well armored with eight machine guns. The P-51 only had four guns, initially. Each fighter group had three squadrons with 25 pilots in each squadron. When the group goes into combat, they only field 16 airplanes. In a squadron there are only four flights, and each squadron fields four airplanes. There is a total of 48 airplanes in a group on each mission.

Chester J. Butcher was sent overseas to England [Annotator's Note: with the 357th Fighter Squadron, 355th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force]. Upon his completion of squad training, his group was sent to Camp Kilmer [Annotator's Note: Camp Kilmer, New Jersey] near Dover, Delaware for gunnery training. They had a lot of time on their hands as they waited to be assigned to a troopship, so the men played a lot of touch football, which would turn into tackle football. Many of the pilots contracted poison ivy from the game field. They boarded the Queen Elizabeth [Annotator's Note: RMS Queen Elizabeth] still recovering from their itchy rash. The ship was large with over 16,000 people on board. Because the Queen Elizabeth was a fast ship, enemy submarines could not keep up with her, so they crossed the Atlantic safely and debarked in England. His group was assigned to the Steeple Morden British airbase [Annotator's Note: Royal Air Force Steeple Morden near Royston, England], which was initially a simple grass field until the Seabees [Annotator's Note: members of US naval construction battalions] constructed three concrete runways. His living quarters were very basic and he slept on a bunk in the main bay of the hut, while the commander had a little room. For entertainment, they would often try to find a car ride into the nearest town or ride a bicycle. Many of the servicemen had accidents on the bicycles because they did not know how to ride them properly. They would often drink warm beer at the bar while elderly people stared at them. He did not interact very much with the locals because the locals were too busy working at factories or serving in the military.

Chester J. Butcher [Annotator's Note: assigned to the 357th Fighter Squadron, 355th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force at Royal Air Force Steeple Morden near Royston, England] flew combat missions in P-47s [Annotator's Note: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft]. The Germans had some advantages. They were flying from their own country and had a drive to protect it. The Germans took a lot of chances to knock the bomber planes down, however they did not pay attention to the fighter pilots that were assigned as escorts on the mission. They were more concerned with the bomber planes because they did more damage on the ground than the fighter planes. The Germans had a rudimentary radar system along the French coast. They could track and locate bombers and fighter planes entering the area. This gave them another advantage against the Allies. Due to these advantages, the Allies suffered 10 to 30 percent casualties on each mission. Not many pilots in the beginning of the war made it to their 25-mission goal. It was decided by military personnel that the squadron engage in low-level sweeps that strafed German military airfields. To hit the planes on the ground, he had to fly very low. They were often hit with anti-aircraft guns which added to more casualties of the fighter pilots. On his first strafing mission, he was sent to Bourdeaux, France. As he went into the strafe the area, he instantly turned on his back. As he turned his plane right side up, he hit the top of a tree and further damaged his plane. His tail had been shot up by 20-millimeter guns [Annotator's Note: German Flak 30 and Flak 38 Flugzeugabwehrkanone 30 and Flakvierling 38; 20 mm anti-aircraft guns]. After his plane crashed into the tree, he lost consciousness. He woke up to find himself on the ground outside his wrecked plane. He had no idea how he escaped from the crash. He was badly injured with multiple bones broken, including his shoulder, collar bone, ribs, nose, jaw, and he lost several of his teeth. [Annotator's Note: Video break at 0:50:37.000]. Some of his squad flew over his wreckage site and presumed him dead. Butcher's parents received news that he was missing in action and did not know he was alive until four months after the plane crash. After he assessed himself, he stumbled into some woods because he assumed the Germans would be looking for him. At night fall, with make-shift crutches, he found a little road and began to head down it for a few hours until he came upon a German check post. He decided to take a path around the check post, and he did not go very far until all hell broke loose. He had triggered a bouncing betty land mine [Annotator's Note: German S-mine, Schrapnellmine, Springmine or Splittermine]. He hit a piano wire which ignited the mine [Annotator's Note: Butcher asks to break 0:54: 20.000]. The burst blew 60 fragments into Butcher's head, neck, and back. He became paralyzed due to the large fragments in his back and did not get use of his legs until six weeks later. [Annotator's Note: Butcher stands up to show the jacket he was wearing when the land mine ignited]. Germans quickly surrounded him and told him the war is over for him.

After being badly wounded and captured by the Germans, Chester J. Butcher [Annotator's Note: a fighter pilot with the 357th Fighter Squadron, 355th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force] was put in a truck and sent to a Bourdeaux [Annotator's Note: Bourdeaux, France] rail yard, which was a holding point, where a few other POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war] were being held. He boarded a train and was sent to a make-shift-hospital in Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France]. He was taken to the ninth story of the building. There were no bars on the window and asked the head guard, who was a German corporal, why, which he responded by saying they were not concerned with them trying to escape out a window so high up. During his time in the hospital ward, he never saw a doctor, never given medicine or treated for his wounds [Annotator's Note: The interview is interrupted at 0:59:38.000. Video break at 0:59:42.000]. There were French nuns that were conscripted to work in the hospital ward and Butcher thought they did a great job for not having any medical equipment or materials. Every morning a German corporal came to his bed and with needle nose pliers and pulled the little shrapnel fragments out of Butcher's back. He had completed 74 missions before his P-51 plane [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] was shot down by the Germans while trying to strafe an airfield. Although the mission to strafe was considered a successful mission, there were a lot of casualties. Out of the 25 men that were in his squadron, only five completed World War 2 without being captured, wounded, or killed. The P-51s were not best suited for strafing ground targets because it only had four guns, and it had a liquid-cool engine that made it extremely dangerous if any little fragment hit it. German planes were durable and if one crashed it was very normal for the German pilot to survive the crash and fly in a new plane the next day. He was credited with shooting two German planes down. The German pilots were very experienced and clever in their combat decisions. After a few weeks in the hospital ward, he was able to walk again. He was then sent to be interrogated. As he was transferring trains, a mob of Germans wanted to kill Butcher and other American crewmen because Nuremburg [Annotator's Note: Nuremburg, Germany] had been bombed that morning. Luckily the guards with the POWs protected him from the raging mob. When he was interrogated, he was brought into a small room with a small drop light that remained on all the time. After a while he lost track of time which made him crazy. They fed him at different times and interrogated him at different times, so he could never tell how long time had passed. He was not violently tortured. The Germans tortured their prisoners psychologically. When he was interrogated, they already knew all his personal information. They knew what squadron he was in and who were his friends. The Germans wanted to know if the Allies had any new tactics or equipment. After the German interrogation, they determined Butcher was, stale, meaning he had no new information, he was sent to a POW camp shortly thereafter.

Chester J. Butcher [Annotator's Note: a fighter pilot with the 357th Fighter Squadron, 355th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force] was sent to a Stalag Luft III [Annotator's Note: Stalag Luft III in Zagań, Poland as a prisoner of war]. American British airmen prisoners had the best treatment than any others because of Herman Göring [Annotator's Note: German Reichsmarschall Hermann Wilhelm Göring, or Goering, commanded the German Air Force and was second only to Adolf Hitler in the Nazi chain of command] had an affinity for fighter pilots. He himself was a fighter pilot in World War 1 and was the Commander of the Luftwaffe in World War 2. Göring decided that to build his own prison for the airmen POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war] which was Stalag Luft III. He allowed for the Red Cross to deliver food parcels in the prison, and he also allowed for mail to be distributed. Many of the prisoners starved. He slept on a triple deck bunk on a straw mattress. The winter was cruel, and they were only given a couple of briquets for cooking. The only clothes they had were the ones they were wearing when they arrived at camp. The prisoners developed a strong support group amongst each other to keep the moral up. There were times when prisoners would become depressed and feel sorry for themselves, but there were other prisoners that helped them through the difficult times. They also started their own educational system. Because most of the airmen had a four-year college degree, they would teach each other different subjects, including religion. They were able to get some books brought into the prison. Having the education system helped the prisoners keep their minds off prison life. For medical treatment, they were given pills for gas. They received a Red Cross package about every three months. The packages consisted of a few cans of meat, coffee, crackers, and sugar. They would make cakes and coffee drinks. The key component to surviving the camp was to wake up every day and be thankful to be alive. They did have interactions with the German guards, especially when the guards tried to steal from the prisoners. They would often barter for items with the guards. One time Butcher traded an item for a radio so he could listen to the news. He was interred in the POW camp during Thanksgiving and Christmas of 1944. They did not do much for Thanksgiving, but during Christmas they tried to make a special meal. They also created a band. Butcher was a trombone player. However, one time a prisoner came to him and asked to borrow his instrument. When the man returned the trombone, Butcher noticed that it smelled and would not work properly. He found out that a couple of prisoners used it to create a still.

Chester J. Butcher [Annotator's Note: a fighter pilot with the 357th Fighter Squadron, 355th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force] was in a prisoner of war camp [Annotator's Note: Stalag Luft III in Zagań, Poland]. Hearing the news and information about the progress of World War 2 was very important to many of the prisoners and kept the morale high. Hearing the positive news report gave the prisoners hope that they would soon be free. In December 1944, the Russians came near the camp, so the Germans moved the POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war] out of camp during a heavy snowstorm. They walked for three days, losing many prisoners along the way. They came to a railway station and the Germans packed the prisoners in train cars. They could not sit down. About every six to eight hours the train stopped to let prisoners out so they could go to the bathroom. After three or four days they train arrived in Nuremberg, Germany. Butcher and the prisoners were brought to a labor camp near the Nuremberg rail depot. The Germans knew that the Allies would bomb the rail depot, which they did. Some of bombs hit one of the labor barracks killing 100 prisoners and injuring more. Later towards the end of the war, Butcher and fellow prisoners were marched again to another prison camp in Munich [Annotator's Note: Munich, Germany]. Again, the prisoners faced friendly fire aerial bombings. By this time, the ground was wet and muddy, which made their living situation worse because they were living in tents. In April 1945, Butcher was liberated by a tank squadron when Patton's army [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] arrived in Munich. He reunited with an old classmate from West Point [Annotator's Note: United States Military Academy in West Point, New York]. Soon after liberation, C-47s [Annotator's Note: Douglas C-47 Skytrain transport aircraft] landed in the camps to take the prisoners to Camp Lucky Strike [Annotator's Note: one of the transit and rehabilitation camps in France named after popular cigarette brands; Lucky Strike was near Le Havre, France]. Butcher was one of four officers that supervised the exit of all the prisoners, so he was last to leave the labor camp. They moved into a cheese factory and stayed in the executive quarters with bed and food. When he was in the hospital in France, he was given a full physical and psychological exam. The phycologist asked him where he would like to go now. Butcher wanted to rejoin his squadron and fight the Japanese in the Pacific. The doctors deemed him crazy. [Annotator's Note: Video break 1:52:00.000.] When the tanks had arrived at the camp, he had been expecting them. In fact, the Germans were preparing to move the prisoners again to the Alps, but they were liberated before they could. He was still at the labor camp when Germany surrendered to the Allies, and he was quickly transferred to Le Havre. He was sent back to the United States on a Liberty ship [Annotator's Note: a class of quickly produced cargo ship], which took nine or 10 days. It was a nice trip and he ate a lot of food. While a prisoner, Butcher often fantasized about a home cooked meal or a good steak. When he got off the troopship, he boarded a train to New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana] where his family met him at the train station. They returned to Lafayette [Annotator's Note: Lafayette, Louisiana] together and proceeded to have a welcome home celebration. Butcher was home resting when he heard the news of the atomic bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945]. All three of his brothers and his father served in World War 2.

World War 2 changed Chester J. Butcher's life very positively. His experience of war and being a prisoner of war taught him a lot of responsibilities at a young age. He supervised his prison barracks and helped his fellow prisoners on the marches. He was responsible for over 200 people at one time. Butcher was fortunate to have parents that instilled good values in him, which helped him survive the war experience. His mind tends to linger on the positive memories, but unfortunately today, many of the newer generations of people try to victimize themselves. Butcher retired from the service in 1974 as a Brigadier [Annotator's Note: Brigadier General]. There should be institutions like the National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana], and they should continue to teach World War 2 to future generations.