David Foerster got his wings at Pensacola [Annotator's Note: Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida]. He went to navigation school in Oklahoma. His initial flight training was in South Florida. He then went to Georgia for physical training. He had no problem with military life. He was happy to be where he was. Flying had not really been something he aspired to, but he was intrigued by it. It was exciting. The war was exciting too. He was the youngest in a flight crew of three officers. He became a copilot. He later achieved a first pilot position. He was sent to England for instructions and orders. He flew out of Portsmouth [Annotator's Note: Portsmouth, England] to the Azores for quite a while and then North Africa. His squadron was night flying looking for German submarines that came up to recharge their batteries. Normally, they would ask for the fleet to come pick them up. By this time, the Germans realized the war was over. He flew a PB4Y-2 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer patrol bomber] that was actually a converted B-24 bomber [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber].

David Foerster was born in Jacksonville [Annotator's Note: Jacksonville, Florida] in July 1923. He grew up there. He spent a great deal of his time on the river in his boats. He decided to go to college. He had two brothers. His older brother worked for Grace Lines shipping merchandise to Europe. His younger brother was in the Merchant Marine. His father was in the lumber business. Foerster enrolled in Washington Lee [Annotator's Note: Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia] in 1941. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks where he was when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941.] Foerster had been playing tennis. Students were gathered around listening to radio reports. He later went to his room and around nine o'clock his dorm president asked him if he would like to go to Washington [Annotator's Note: Washington, D.C.] to see and hear the President [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] ask for a declaration of war. Foerster said he would and five of them rode up there. All of Washington was lit up. Everything was active, even at two o'clock in the morning. There were no rooms so a clerk let them sleep on the couches in the lobby. They then went to their representative Senators to get passes but they did not have any left. They stood outside to watch the president come by. He came by and rolled his window down and waved to them. They returned to college and discussed their options. Foerster wanted to fly and be in the Navy. He did not want to be drafted, so he returned to Washington a couple of months later and signed up for the V-5 Naval Aviation training program [Annotator’s Note: V-5 US Navy Aviation Cadet Program, 1939 to 1943].

David Foerster was in England for a short time. He had an uncle who was a colonel in the Army Signal Corps. His uncle asked if he wanted a tour of London [Annotator's Note: London, England], which was still being bombed. They got a jeep and driver. Foerster remembers that from Westminster Abbey to St. Patrick's Cathedral, everything was rubble and smoke was still coming up. From there, his outfit went to the Azores for quite a while. His assignment was checking the Atlantic shipping lanes. They then went to North Africa and did the same thing in the Mediterranean. He went inland. It was totally different. He interacted with the English in a limited way. He did go to an aviation club while there. Aviators from all over the world were there.

David Foerster was in the Azores when the war ended in Europe and Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] had died. After the war in Europe, Foerster was flying hurricane patrol in the Caribbean, a first for the Navy. Once, they were told there was a low pressure area of off the Yucatan peninsula [Annotator's Note: Mexico]. They flew there from Key West, Florida. They came too far and were at 1,000 feet to see the surface. [Annotator's Note: Foerster describes their methodology in detail.] They went into Corpus Christi [Annotator's Note: Corpus Christi, Texas] to have a steak dinner. They were soaking wet from the leaks in the plane from the storm. They were met and told the Admiral wanted to see them right then. It was Admiral Clark and he wanted to know all about the storm. He was the commander of Corpus Christi [Annotator's Note: Naval Air Station Corpus Christi] and told them to be out on the storm again at daylight. They did so and reported to him. He sent them a third time. It was headed directly to Corpus Christi and the Admiral flew most of the planes there out. The storm hit Brownsville, Texas, near the base. They learned a great deal in the process.

[Annotator's Note: After the war ended in Europe, David Foerster was assigned to a hurricane tracking crew out of Key West, Florida.] Foerster was flying at 1,000 feet looking at the surface [Annotator's Note: of the Gulf of Mexico near Texas] and the plane started vibrating. He was flying copilot and the pilot told him to keep his hands on the throttles. They slowly began to climb but it was frightful for a few minutes. He feels his experience at 21 years of age was interesting and exciting, but he was not in the vanguard of the bombers that went over Europe. He takes his hat off to them because they are the ones who took it hard. He was discharged in 1946 and used the G.I. Bill to finish college. He worked for his family lumber business for a year and then went to law school. He practiced law for 65 years in Jacksonville [Annotator's Note: Jacksonville, Florida]. He feels the National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana] is magnificent. He is so impressed with how it came about and was implemented. Foerster feels the older generation understands the war but not the younger generation. It disturbs him that they are not taught about what took place, how it came about, why it came about, and what we did to achieve ultimate victory.