Cyril A. Buchert, Jr. was born in June 1922 in New Orleans. He grew up during the Depression. His father worked as a clerk for the railroad. His father was in France in November 1918 when the war [Annotator's Note: World War 1] ended. Buchert's mother was a housewife. The family did not feel the impact of the hard times like some others did. Buchert's parents did not own their own home until after their son was discharged from the service. The family had uncles who managed grocery stores close by, but Buchert does not remember borrowing from them. He did not realize how bad the times were until he heard over the radio that some people were jumping out of windows in buildings because they had lost all their money. Buchert entered the service in March 1943 despite having joined the Army Air Corps in 1942. He had to push the issue in order to be inducted. He had taken the written test for Naval Air flight school on 8 December 1941, the day after Pearl Harbor was attacked. He passed the test but had to have his parent's approval for him to take the physical. His father refused to give his approval so Buchert had to wait. He joined the Army Air Corps in September 1942. By the time he was called in, he thought the war was going to be over.

Cyril Buchert went into the Army Air Corps flight program but washed out. He was given the option to become a radio operator and elected to do so. He attended training which seemed to last forever. Afterward, he attended gunnery school in Yuma, Arizona. Although his training was in a B-17 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber], all his flight experience overseas was in a B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber]. After gunnery school, he was assigned to a crew. They flew hundreds of hours around the United States before deployment in late 1943. On 8 December [Annotator's Note: 1941], Buchert had tried to enlist in Naval aviation. He heard about the Pearl Harbor attack while having dinner with his father, brothers and sister. The program was interrupted by the announcement. Buchert's first reaction was to question where Pearl Harbor was located. No one in his family knew the location was in Hawaii. Buchert passed the intelligence test for the Navy but needed his parents' authorization to take the physical for induction. His father refused to approve his service because he had been in France in November 1918. His father had seen what World War 1 was like. He had spent a lot of time in France and was preparing to go to the front when the war ended. Buchert's father had written a memorable letter to his mother at that time. Buchert still possesses the letter and has shared copies of it with his children. His father told Buchert that he would just have to wait to go into the military. Buchert's father was due to get a bonus for his service in the First World War. The veterans put their porch lights on so that the postman would deliver the award to them. It was not a large bonus but it represented a significant amount of money at the time. His father continued to serve as a clerk in the railroad office in New Orleans. He retired at age 65. Buchert did his basic training in Scott Field, Illinois which was mainly a radio school. It was torture. There were three shifts of around the clock instructions. The students had to learn code. It was monotonous. After graduation, he was sent to gunnery school in Yuma. That lasted no more than a month. Buchert enjoyed that. He was flying in a B-17 and shooting a gun. Men were assigned after gunnery school to bomber crews. They flew 500 to 600 hours in the United States. Buchert thought he would never go overseas. When deployed, he flew in a big four engine Army C-54 [Annotator's Note: Douglas C-54 Skymaster transport] to San Francisco, then Hawaii, and through several islands to his final destination in Nadzab, New Guinea. He was then assigned to the 90th Bombardment Group; 321st Squadron [Annotator's Note: 321st Bombardment Squadron, 90th Bombardment Group, 5th Air Force]. The outfit was nicknamed the "Jolly Rogers."

Cyril Buchert as well as all the units flying off the island [Annotator's Note: New Guinea] were referred to as the "Jolly Rogers." Buchert was with the 321st Bombardment Squadron, 90th Bombardment Group, 5th Air Force. They flew many missions out of Biak, a small island off New Guinea. The B-24s [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] were notoriously risky during take-offs. The B-17s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] were better aircraft. Planes would be lost on take-off. On Buchert's second mission, his plane was destined for Cebu. Some of the trees at the end of the island were pulled down on take-off. The crew sensed something was going to happen. The engineer was a tech sergeant like Buchert. He was standing between the pilot and copilot. The engines were racing so much, Buchert thought they would fly off. After the plane reached about 1,000 feet, the order was given for the crew to bail out. Buchert aided the copilot with his parachute. The plane circled around and salvoed its bombs over the water. The crew was departing the plane when Buchert went forward. Only the pilot and he were left aboard. The pilot told Buchert to jump because he was about to do so himself. The pilot jumped through the bomb bay. Buchert did not want to drop through the bomb bay because there were too many obstructions to catch his chute. Instead, he jumped out the tail end door. Just a few seconds later, the plane hit the side of a hill with a terrible explosion. It lit everything up. The crew had jumped near their takeoff location. Buchert only had a minor injury to his ankle. The B-24s were very big aircraft inside. On long missions, the men would carry provisions for the trip. It was a workhorse but was treacherous on take-offs. The pilot would race the engines before releasing the brakes for liftoff. After his second mission, Buchert would fly with other pilots and copilots. It flew well and was beautiful in the air especially in formation. The B-17 did a lot of work in Europe but Buchert liked the B-24. The crew was composed of four officers. They were the pilot, copilot, navigator, and bombardier. The enlisted men manned guns, the radio and served as ship engineer. There were five guns onboard. There was no ball turret. The position was sealed up in the Pacific. The ball turret position was manned in Europe. Enemy defensive aircraft was much tougher in Europe. If the crews there made 25 missions, they could return home. That was unlike the Pacific where the airmen kept flying without a threshold. Buchert flew 35 to 40 missions. He was in theater for exactly one year. After the dropping of the atomic bombs, he had enough points to return home. He flew into Manila on his way home. The weather was harsh. It rained heavily and water was everywhere. It was a miserable time. He was finally loaded aboard a small merchant ship for the voyage home. It took about a month to reach San Francisco. He never went down below to sleep. They played cards on deck. Food spoiled. The return trip home was the source of the one major complaint he had about the service. When the ship passed under the Golden Gate Bridge, the passengers heaved their mess kits overboard. When they disembarked, there was a large sign telling them to use caution in what they ate. Overeating would be a problem although there were steaks, ice cream and other good food available to them. Food overseas had been terrible. The rumor that the Air Force ate well was a fallacy. The coffee was bad and so was the grits. The meat they received was from Australia. It was called bully beef. It was not appealing. The trip home was a total mess. Buchert would have preferred to fly a few more missions than voyage on that merchant ship.

Cyril Buchert was stationed on Biak. He was overseas for a full year. He saw few locals except when he was in Manila en route to his return to the United States after the war. While on Biak, he would go to the beach when he had a day off. He would bring his .45 and shoot at fish for entertainment. [Annotator's Note: Buchert chuckles.] There was sparse contact with civilians. He had a lady who washed his clothes off-base and returned them to him. He rarely saw her. Some natives would come on base occasionally and try to obtain cigarettes from the servicemen. The Americans made the natives say a nasty word about Japs [Annotator's Note: derogatory term referring to Japanese] before they would give them smokes. [Annotator's Note: He chuckles.] The airmen were confined at Biak, Mindoro and Ie Shima. There were no cities near those bases. On Okinawa, Buchert found the island to be beautiful, but their stay was limited. A mission they were to fly from there to China was aborted. Buchert traversed some of the tunnels on Okinawa. He was surprised to discover a Singer sewing machine in one of them. Okinawa was a significant battle in the war. There were Japanese kamikazes deployed in the fighting. They took out multiple ships. The American Army, Navy and Marines were involved in the campaign. On Biak, the enlisted men were billeted in a large tent separately from the officers. The dedicated gunners were called "career gunners" because that was all they studied. Buchert knew how to maintain the .50 caliber machine gun. It was simple in design and easy to disassemble. He loved to shoot the gun but had few targets to fire at. The biggest issue for the airmen was the flak fired by the Japanese. That was especially true on Formosa where it was very heavy. He observed three bombers flying in the opposite direction as his flight that were hit almost simultaneously. The pilot told his men to look for chutes but there were none. Thirty men were wiped out that quickly. Buchert's bomber covered the same bomb run and took a direct hit on the wing that nearly flipped the plane. It scared the crew but they made it back to base. They were very lucky that the shell passed where it did. The plane survived. Buchert's wife must have been saying prayers for him back in New Orleans. The mess facilities at Biak were terrible. The crew had to help on rare occasions. Flight assignments varied. Sometimes it was multiple times per week. Sometimes weeks were skipped or only one mission might be required. It depended on the priority of the targets and objectives being considered. Formosa was the toughest target. There were many missions and targets in the Philippines while in preparation for the invasion and recapture of the islands by General MacArthur [Annotator's Note: US Army General Douglas MacArthur]. Softening up the landing zones required daily missions for awhile. Later, the squadron would hit Corregidor a couple of times. The bombers stayed busy but then there would be a lapse in activity. Spare or off time usually resulted in a trip to the beach and a swim even though warnings were issued about the waters being shark infested. During the missions to and from targets, Buchert manned the radio to keep up with communications. There was very little enemy aircraft interference on the runs. Buchert found sending messages in code to be a pain. He also had the duty of determining speed and time when the bomb bay was opened and preparations made for dropping ordnance. Additionally, he evaluated the accuracy of the bomb runs. Flights would start very early in the morning before daylight. The mission could last ten or 12 hours. A ship would be lost on take-off occasionally. Pilots would try to avoid flak if possible. Several missions were against the large oilfields in Borneo. The landscape was so dense that any downed aircrew would have an impossible time reaching safety. Buchert's squadron [Annotator's Note: 321st Bombardment Squadron, 90th Bombardment Group, 5th Air Force] worked with the Australian Navy in softening up landing zones. The friendly ships would shoot rockets under the bombers making the crewmen nervous. The bomb runs to Borneo took off in Mindoro, Philippines and required ten or more hours. The crew even flew to Saigon to inspect a submarine that was sighted there. The flights were tiresome since they were only jumped by the enemy a few times. The incoming aircraft would leave quickly. They were leery of the American firepower. There were no bad plane attacks. The .50 calibers were a potent weapon. The weather across the equator necessitated flying through fronts and bad weather. Taking off at two o'clock in the morning meant the target was hit at four o'clock or so and then the trip back meant flying through inclement weather. Some ships were lost due to rough weather.

Cyril Buchert found that the typical targets were hangers and airfields with their airplanes. [Annotator's Note: Buchert was a radio man and gunner on a Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber in the 321st Bombardment Squadron, 90th Bombardment Group, 5th Air Force.] Barracks were targeted on occasion. Most of the big targets were on Formosa. Those objectives included railroad lines and industrial complexes. Six to eight missions were dedicated to those areas. On one mission over Formosa, the enemy was waiting for the flight and unleashed antiaircraft fire while they were still off shore. The B-24s scattered to avoid the fire. The planes usually tracked offshore before making their bomb runs over their land based targets. Besides Formosa, the Philippines were also heavily targeted. The islands of Cebu, Simor, and Luzon were hit. The bomb runs were at 10,000 to 12,000 feet altitude. Fighter escorts were sometimes provided toward the end of the war. The P-51s [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] flew with them. Early on, the P-38s [Annotator's Note: Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter aircraft] flew with them part of the way on their missions. Usually, the bombers flew unaccompanied. Planes would be lost due to weather and getting lost during the mission. At the base, the enlisted crew was separated from officers. There were few problems between them as a result. They came together just before taking off for a mission. Otherwise, they would maintain a separation on the ground. After their second mission, the engineer told the other enlisted men that the plane had a problem getting off the ground. [Annotator's Note: The engineer was up forward with the pilot and copilot on Buchert's second mission when their B-24 hit some trees on take-off and was disabled to the point that the crew had to abandon ship.] The armament man, engineer and radio man were all tech sergeants. The bombs had been armed early instead of waiting until the plane had neared the target. While the injured aircraft circled over the water, the bombs were unloaded. There were ships below but the ordnance exploded unexpectedly. [Annotator's Note: Buchert chuckles.] After that incident, the officers disappeared. The crew did not know where the officers went. A new set of officers were assigned. The pilot was now a redheaded officer who was not a young man to the crew since he was in his late 30s. He had come back to theater for a second tour. There was no problem with tropical diseases. As long as the Atabrine was taken every day, things were alright. No one had fever or sickness. The pills were issued at breakfast every morning. It was a small yellow pill that was synthetic quinine. Buchert was never much interested in USO [Annotator's Note: United Service Organizations] shows except when he was on Biak or Mindoro and Bob Hope with Carol Landis was appearing. Otherwise, the shows were just too crowded for him to enjoy. There were not too many shows available. That was the only opportunity that Buchert had to view a USO show. The Navy would come around and have something good to eat. The airmen would mooch sandwiches from them. The voyage home was miserable. Buchert would have preferred being in combat. The guys played cards all night above deck. When the war ended, Buchert was pulling into Ie Shima, Okinawa on 19 August [Annotator's Note: 1945]. Buchert was in Tokyo Bay and observed the Japanese contingent on the way to the surrender ceremony. Prior to that time, Buchert's crew had been ordered to fly over China with a load of fragmentation bombs. The mission was aborted and the flight returned to base. After the ill-fated second mission for Buchert, the crew was sent to Sydney for a week. Buchert was separated from the crew because of an eye injury requiring surgery. Buchert was flown down in a C-47 [Annotator's Note: Douglas C-47 Skytrain transport aircraft]. During the flight, he was used as a radio operator even though the C-47 had only basic communication equipment compared to his B-24. During the flight from Mindoro to Sydney, it was discovered that the compass was significantly off. Buchert got on the radio and tried to get directions. The airfield turned on its searchlights and the runway was discovered. After landing, they were told to go into bomb shelters but be cautious because snakes were in there. Later, the enemy nightly bombing run took place. Friendly antiaircraft fire harassed the enemy did not down any of them. While on Biak, Buchert never experienced enemy aircraft attacks. There were some renegade Japanese who had refused to surrender but they never raided Buchert. They did come down from the hills into the camp and killed some other troops. Buchert slept with a .45 under his pillow as a result. There was safety in numbers as the whole crew, less the officers, slept in one large tent. He was fortunate.

Cyril Buchert saw the Japanese envoys coming into the surrender program [Annotator's Note: in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945]. He hoped that no enemy fanatics would disrupt the events. He had a good feeling about what was going on. It was sometime after the second bomb had been dropped on Nagasaki. Buchert was in the area of Nagasaki about ten days after the atomic bomb had been dropped. Buchert was tickled to death. He was going home. When given the opportunity to reenlist, he declined. He was ready to return to his mother. He had enough of the service. He had gotten married on 30 December 1943. He had married his childhood sweetheart who lived only one block from his home while he was growing up. Buchert deployed overseas just a few months after getting married. Buchert was discharged as a tech sergeant at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. [Annotator's Note: Buchert proceeds to review a series of notes on dates and events that he brought to the interview.] After he was discharged, Buchert began school at Tulane using his G.I. Bill. He wanted an education in electrical engineering. He had not taken geometry and it was a prerequisite for the courses he desired. Buchert attended night school at Tulane for six years and obtained his degree in accounting and commercial law. He ended up working for the Federal Government as a federal agent for the Internal Revenue Service. In retrospect, it is difficult for Buchert to assess exactly how World War 2 changed his life. He was a young man at the time and experienced things that were happening. After discharge, he could not buy things. He kept ice in a little homemade ice box. He knew what he wanted his career to be so he had a direction. He educated himself at night school. He was too young to feel threatened by the Depression. The family was poor but survived. He attended school. The war did not particularly affect him. It is important, though, to maintain the National WWII Museum because of the way it made a difference in people's life and brought people together. Different industries were improved. It is amazing to see what was done during war production on the home front. There were stimuli to do more advanced things. Both Buchert and his wife have stayed phsically active. They are both in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.