[Annotator's Note: The audio for this interview is very low.] Edward Nacey was born in September 1922 in Duluth, Minnesota. He is left handed and when he was going to school, they forced him to change. It was very tough. He still cannot write very well. Other than that, school was wonderful. After graduating, he became a stenographer and typist clerk. Then along came Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. It was Sunday and he was sick with the flu. He heard it on the radio. He did not know where Pearl Harbor was. He had not thought about joining the service before then. What motivated him was that the Arrowhead Platoon [Annotator's Note: unable to verify unit] of the Marine Corps was being formed. Several of his buddies were joining. He was almost ready to do that, when he was told a recruiter for the Army Air Corps was coming to town. He took the test and signed up in August 1942. He was called up four or five months later and went to Santa Ana, California.

[Annotator's Note: Edward Nacey joined the US Army Air Forces and was sent to California in 1943.] He was so excited. He had never been further than 100 miles from home. He was on the train for five days. Arrival in Los Angeles [Annotator's Note: Los Angeles, California] was exciting. They got on trucks at night and they raced out to Santa Ana Army Air Base [Annotator's Note: Santa Ana, California] around midnight. The next day they got into the regimen of training. He was pretty slow in taking to military training. He remembers listening to Hawaii 5-O [Annotator's Note: likely not the title of the show] on the radio and thinking he would like to go there. Never thinking his life would change from Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] forward. He was loving it and recognized he had a lot to learn. He went through processing to determine whether one would become a pilot, navigator, or bombardier. He qualified for all three. He wanted to be a pilot. He went to pilot school at Tulare, California [Annotator's Note: Rankin Field]. He had soloed and everything was going great. One flight, a second lieutenant came along in a Stearman [Annotator's Note: Boeing-Stearman PT-17 Kaydet primary trainer aircraft]. In 20 minutes, his pilot career was over, and he is still bitter to this day about it. He went into navigation training at several bases. He had no problems and graduated in January 1944.

Edward Nacey went to combat crew training with a brand-new crew for the B-24 Liberator [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] at Westover [Annotator's Note: Westover Field in Chicopee, Massachusetts]. They got to function as a team. They went to Mitchell Field, New York to a brand-new B-24 to fly to England to the 8th Air Force. They went over the North Atlantic via Labrador and Iceland. They went to Nutts Corner, Ireland [Annotator's Note: Royal Air Force Nutts Corner, Crumlin]. He did get to see Ireland. They went to their home base at Hardwick Air Base [Annotator's Note: Royal Air Force Hardwick], East Anglia, England to the 93rd Bombardment Group. His squadron was the 328th Bombardment Squadron [Annotator's Note: 328th Bombardment Squadron, 93rd Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force]. They had bad weather going over. Some planes went the southern route that was longer but safer. The B-24 is not good with ice, but they all made it. They got right to work. His first mission was to Newhouse, France [Annotator's Note: Mulhouse, France] next to the Swiss border. The biggest caution was to not bomb Switzerland. They bombed the marshaling yards in late April 1944. They had to wear oxygen masks; it was extremely cold. Coming back from the mission, he passed out from lack of oxygen. Every half hour, the crew was checked, and they found it. He just had a headache. They continued with missions and bombed the Pas-de-Calais [Annotator's Note: Pas-de-Calais, France] They could since something big was coming up. On 5 June [Annotator's Note: 5 June 1944], about ten or 11 o'clock, they were briefed on their mission for D-Day [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944].

[Annotator's Note: On 5 June 1944, Edward Nacey and his crew were briefed about their mission for D-Day, the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944.] The most important thing was there would be 11,000 airplanes over England at night. They normally flew in the daytime. Assembling in formation in weather at night was the most hazardous part of the mission. The timing had to be precise. His target was Omaha Beach [Annotator's Note: Normandy, France]. They took off at two o'clock in the morning. It was hard but they managed it. They flew the prescribed route and as the sun came up, they spotted the bomber stream they were to join. It was led by a pathfinder aircraft with radar. Once they got above the weather, they were okay. They could not see the invasion force. A scary part of the mission was that they had to drop their bombs when the pathfinder did. They dropped their bombs at six-thirty. They did not want to drop short on their own forces. He found out later that the bombs were not as accurate as they could have been and landed a mile or two beyond the beaches. They returned and landed. They did not see any fighters and only a little flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire].

Edward Nacey flew a lot of missions to bomb bridges, railroad yards, and marshaling yards. Most of his missions were strategic bombing. On D-Day [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944], they bombed [Annotator's Note: in Normandy] and then two weeks later they bombed Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany], they called it the Big B. The 8th Air Force wanted to bomb there to force the German fighters up to defend the city. He was not on the mission in March 1944 when the 8th lost 400 airplanes, but it did the job so that the German fighter forces were defeated to the point where they did not make a difference on D-Day. On his mission to Berlin, he could see a formation of B-24s [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] to his left. He saw several splashes in the water beneath them and found out later it was B-24s. He never saw the fighters. It was the 492nd Bombardment Group [Annotator's Note: 8th Air Force]; they lost nine planes. Bombing Berlin on 21 June, he did not think that four years later he would back on the Berlin Airlift [Annotator's Note: around the clock airlift to keep the blockaded city of West Berlin supplied with food, coal, medicines, etc. from 26 June 1948 to 30 September 1949]. One mission to destroy; four years later bringing in coal and food. That was one of the most satisfying things he did. He got a lot of medals for bombing them and then later got the Humanitarian Service Medal for bringing in supplies.

On D-Day [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944], Omaha [Annotator's Note: Omaha Beach] and some of the other beaches developed into a stalemate. Edward Nacey had a mission called Operation Cobra on 25 June [Annotator's Note: 25 July 1944] to carpet bomb and make an area for the American forces to breakout, the Saint-Lo [Annotator's Note: Saint-Lô, France] breakthrough. The mission was poorly planned and executed. The first wave bombed the correct target. The next waves bombed their own troops. The British were unable to break through at Caen [Annotator's Note: Caen, France] and several Germans escaped through the Falaise Gap [Annotator's Note: Falaise Pocket, Battle of the Falaise Pocket, or Falaise-Argentan; Battle of Normandy, 12 to 21 August 1944]. The Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945] might not have happened if it had been more successful. Nacey did several more missions. When they went deep into Germany, they did not have fighter support all the way. They were usually escorted by P-51s [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] and P-47s [Annotator's Note: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft]. His crew stayed together for the first few missions. The copilot was lost on another mission as an observer. Nacey remembers them picking up his stuff. Many missions later, he was bombing a group of bridges in France with only six ships at low altitude. The lead ship was hit by flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire] and had to go home. Nacey was then hit by 88mm guns [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery]. The pilot and copilot were hit. Nacey got the pilot a heading to England. They gave the copilot first aid. Their bombardier had flight training and he took the seat. They got back and landed at an emergency field in England. They were sleeping in Nissen huts [Annotator's Note: prefabricated metal building]. Buzz bombs [Annotator's Note: V-1 pulse jet flying bomb, German name: Vengeance Weapon 1; Allied names: buzz bomb, doodlebug] were coming over from Germany. Some of the antiaircraft flak residue would come down and hit the roof of the hut. They returned to Hardwick [Annotator’s Note: Royal Air Force Hardwick, England] for more missions with a different pilot and copilot.

Edward Nacey and his crew got new pilots and went to bomb Peel [Annotator's Note: Peel, Netherlands]. Having seen what can happen, he was a lot more nervous. They bombed another target and then it was decided that his crew had completed their combat tour with 32 missions. They told him he would go home to his next assignment or the Pacific in September 1944. He went back on the RMS Queen Mary. Winston Churchill [Annotator's Note: Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill; Prime Minister, United Kingdom, 1940 to 1945] was on board. The trip took 13 days. They had a naval escort and air support which made the trip longer. He had 21 days leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] and went home. He then went to Miami Beach, Florida for more training. He then went to California to fly C-54s [Annotator's Note: Douglas C-54 Skymaster cargo aircraft] in the Military Transport Services. The war was coming to an end. His next job was to Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Okinawa, Japan] to take the occupation troops into Japan. He flew into Atsugi Airfield [Annotator's Note: Yamato and Ayase, Japan] about ten days after the war was over [Annotator's Note: Victory Over Japan Day, 15 August 1945]. He remembers the destruction. He took a trip into town. The train was functioning. In the crowd of people rushing to get on was a little kid who got knocked down and his lip was bloody. Nacey gave him a candy bar. He can still see the big smile. They set up a shuttle taking troops in for several weeks. An opportunity came up to volunteer to go into Shanghai, China. Air Transport Command was setting up a shuttle. He did that for four months and it was wonderful. He flew in C-54s with a graves registration team to Formosa, now Taiwan. They landed in Taipei and there was only one American facility. He decided to walk around there at night and got lost. A kid on a bike helped them find their way back. The Japanese were still there. Nacey bought a camera from a Japanese soldier. He ran into a Japanese officer who wanted to give him his sword. Nacey was young and declined the offer.

[Annotator's Note: Edward Nacey was flying for Air Transport Command out of Shanghai, China.] They were involved in a couple of the atomic bomb tests. He was flying support for Operation Crossroads [Annotator's Note: atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands in July 1946], bringing in crews and supplies. Mostly out of Kwajalein, Marshall Islands. He did the military airlift and then the Strategic Air Command wanted all of the navigators in 1949. He went to Rapid City, South Dakota and flew in B-29s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber], B-36s [Annotator's Note: Convair B-36 Peacemaker strategic bomber], and B-52s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-52 Stratofortress strategic bomber] for nine years. He flew B-36s and a crew had a crash coming back from a mission. They were good friends of his and the commander, General Ellsworth [Annotator's Note: US Air Force Brigadier General Richard Elmer Ellsworth], was killed along with them. Nacey took his friend's body to New Hampshire. After the accident, the base was dedicated to General Ellsworth. President Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States] came in to dedicate it as Ellsworth Air Force Base. From there he went to Mather Field in Sacramento [Annotator's Note: Sacramento, California] on B-52s. He quit flying and went to staff work in France, outside of Paris. That was a wonderful assignment with his family for two years. He needed more training at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces [Annotator's Note: now the Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy, National Defense University in Washington, D.C.] to become part of the Operations Staff. He then got assigned to the Pentagon for three years. It was difficult, stressful, and not enjoyable. He had the Korean desk and the Japanese desk. He was there when the USS Pueblo (AGER-2) was captured [Annotator's Note: on 23 January 1968]. Probably his most important assignment, but not his most enjoyable. In 1970, he was sent back to the Industrial College as part of the faculty for four years. The school is the highest school under the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He retired in August 1974 after 32 years of service. He received many awards and medals. It was a wonderful career and he is happy he was able to do it.

[Annotator's Note: Edward Nacey retired from the US Air Force in August 1974.] In the service, all of your decisions are made for you. He had some interesting opportunities. He liked education and training, so he took a job as the Dean of Academic Affairs for the Mine Safety Academy in Beckley, West Virginia. It was a pet project of Senator Byrd [Annotator's Note: Robert Carlyle Byrd; United States Senator from the state of West Virginia]. He did that for eight or nine years then retired. He went back to California and taught for ten years at the National University in Sacramento, California. He is now a docent at the Castle Air Museum [Annotator's Note: in Atwater, California]. They do education, training, and historical remembrance of World War 2 and after. It has been a good life.