[Annotator’s Note: Birds chirping in the background is audible throughout this segment.] Edwin B. Cottrell was in Oklahoma City [Annotator’s Note: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma] in January 1922. In 1923, his father, a physical education teacher and coach, took a job at Slippery Rock College in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania and moved the family there. Cottrell’s mother was a housewife and raised him and his older sister. Cottrell has many fond memories of his hometown of Slippery Rock. It was a very safe place to grow up and he spent most of his time at school or playing sports. 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 was paid just once per month. The Cottrells’ neighbor owned a grocery store in town and allowed the family to buy on credit until his father could pay him at the end of the month. Cottrell picked cherries and berries and sold them to the grocery store for five cents per pint. He also worked as a paperboy and received fifty cent tips during Christmas time. Cottrell was made aware of the rise of Nazism in school, but was mostly unconcerned by it as Europe seemed to be so far away. It was not until his senior year in high school in 1939 that he began to take the Nazi threat seriously and understood the threat it posed to the rest of the world. Because of the intense focus on Nazi Germany, the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] came as a complete shock to Cottrell. After the attack, he immediately knew his life would change. The talk of war was ever-present in his freshman and sophomore years at Slippery Rock College. During his junior year at age 19, Cottrell registered for the draft. He knew many of the people on the local draft board who advised him to join his preferred branch of service before being drafted. In college, Cottrell had the opportunity to attend a Civilian Pilot Training [Annotator's Note: Civilian Pilot Training Program or CPTP was a federal program to increase the number of pilots in the country] course where he attained his pilot’s license after 30 hours flying a Piper Cub [Annotator’s Note: Piper J-3 Cub light aircraft]. Because of his background in flying, he and a friend went to Pittsburgh [Annotator’s Note: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania] in August 1942 to take the Army and Navy flight tests. He passed the Navy’s test and was told they could ship him out the next day. Wanting to finish his college career at Slipper Rock, he chose the Army when they offered him the option to go back to school. In February 1943, he received notice to report to Pittsburgh for a train to Miami Beach [Annotator’s Note: Miami Beach, Florida] where he would begin his training.

[Annotator’s Note: Birds chirping in the background is audible throughout this segment.] In February 1943, Edwin B. Cottrell received notice to report to Pittsburgh [Annotator’s Note: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania] for a train to Miami Beach [Annotator’s Note: Miami Beach, Florida] where he would begin his training. This was Cottrell’s first time away from home and he was “all eyes” on the journey south. From the train window, Florida looked like a utopia to Cottrell, with its palm trees and bright white buildings. This illusion was shattered when he stepped off the train into the oppressive south Florida heat. He was stationed in a converted hotel room with three other men. Each day began with calisthenics and physical training before they were sent to the classroom for radio and Morse code classes. On the first day in Florida, Cottrell volunteered for duty as a barber to avoid standing out in the sun all day. After giving a single haircut, Cottrell was put back into formation once his ruse was discovered. He met many lifelong friends while in Miami Beach and remembers the time fondly. From Miami, he was sent to Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin for additional college training. He was interviewed by a sergeant who put him in charge of the physical training department once it was discovered he had studied physical education in college before joining the Air Corps. He oversaw training the 60 cadets twice daily. His training program was not very strict in comparison to other military courses. This lenient training style proved non-beneficial when the cadets were sent to Santa Anna, California for advanced training. The marching there was very rigid, and men often washed out from the program for lagging. The cadet squadrons each had a basketball team and on game days, Cottrell’s sergeant excused his team from drill and physical training. In October 1943, Cottrell and the other cadets were sent to Visalia, California to begin the first stage of flight training. He and the flight instructor grew close once it was known that Cottrell had learned to fly in college. He flew solo after just six hours in the PT-19 [Annotator's Note: Fairchild PT-19 primary trainer aircraft] and the instructor allowed him to practice aerobatics and stalls. A strict officer at Visalia gave demerits for all infractions committed by the cadets. Cottrell knew he would continue to get demerits for being unable to make his bed properly each morning, so he took to sleeping on the ground each night next to his perfectly made bed. He was quickly learning to beat the system. In Visalia, Cottrell began to fly in BT-13s, known as the “Vibrator” [Annotator's Note: Vultee BT-13 Valiant basic trainer aircraft; also known as the Vultee Vibrator] to many cadets.

[Annotator’s Note: Birds chirping in the background is audible throughout this segment.] By October 1943, Edwin B. Cottrell was training in Visalia, California to be a pilot. In Visalia, Cottrell began to fly in BT-13s [Annotator's Note: Vultee BT-13 Valiant basic trainer aircraft; also known as the Vultee Vibrator], known as the “Vibrator” to many of the cadets. In December 1943, Cottrell’s mother died, and he was unable to return home for her funeral as to do so would have resulted in him being held back from advanced flight training. Not long after, he was asked to state his preference for flying a bomber or a fighter. He chose to be a fighter pilot because he did not want to be responsible for the lives of a bomber crew. From Visalia, Cottrell was shipped to Luke Field in Phoenix, Arizona where the training intensified greatly. He flew an AT-6 [Annotator's Note: North American AT-6 Texan advanced trainer aircraft] on many night missions where they practiced instrument flying and solo missions. After two cross country flights in the last three weeks of training, he was introduced to the P-40 [Annotator's Note: Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighter aircraft], an aircraft that was very unresponsive and not fun to fly. He hoped he would not be assigned one in combat. He graduated as a second lieutenant in April 1944 with his pilot’s wings and returned home to Pennsylvania where he married his fiancée on 21 April. Following the marriage, he was sent to Wendover Field, Utah where he was assigned the plane that he would take into combat. Hoping for a P-38 [Annotator's Note: Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter aircraft], he became even more excited when he arrived and saw the brand-new P-47s [Annotator's Note: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft] lined up. Cottrell took part in aerial gunnery training, instrument flying, radio school, and aerobatics. On one training course, Cottrell and three other pilots flew in formation under a bridge over the Great Salt Lake. Upon their return to Wendover, the base commander was livid, but never pushed too hard to find out who was responsible for the stunt. Cottrell believes this was because fighters were so badly needed on the frontlines that they could not afford to lose anyone over such a mistake. On an aerobatics exercise, Cottrell and a second pilot were told to take the planes up to 35,000 feet to see how they performed. Once they reached altitude, they performed a maneuver called “Split S’s”. As they began to dive, the P-47 quickly broke the speed of sound and Cottrell lost all control of the plane as it plummeted to the ground. The plane finally leveled out and Cottrell passed out due to the G force. When he came to, the plane was heading straight up. He finally managed to get the plane back to the ground where his crew chief chewed him out for such a stupid stunt. The plane’s canopy had cracked and could have ripped off, killing him. His wife eventually joined him in Utah and the two lived at the State Line Motel, a dingy motel on the state line between Utah and Nevada with a dangerous casino on the Nevada side. After leaving Wendover, Cottrell reported to Lafayette, Louisiana for a week of flying before going to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey [Annotator's Note: Camp Kilmer in Piscataway Township, New Jersey and Edison Township, New Jersey] to await deployment to Europe. He boarded the SS Ile de France for the five-day journey to England with no escort. The food was terrible. All the servicemen played poker.

[Annotator’s Note: Birds chirping in the background is audible throughout this segment.] Upon arriving in England in September 1944, Edwin B. Cottrell was assigned to the 493rd Fighter Squadron, 48th Fighter Group [Annotator’s Note: of the 9th Air Force] in Vélizy-Villacoublay, France. After an indoctrination flight on which he learned to spot the bomb line and view enemy tanks from the sky, he began flying as wing man to the more experienced pilots on dive bombing and strafing missions in support of the 9th Army. The 48th flew very few, if any, escort missions. He flew many uneventful missions in October and November before the 48th Fighter Group moved to Saint-Trond [Annotator’s Note: Saint-Truiden, Belgium] on 5 December. They were billeted in a former school just 15 miles from Bastogne [Annotator’s Note: Bastogne, Belgium]. One morning Cottrell was alerted to a mission in terrible weather with only a 200 foot ceiling in the sky. The men were briefed on what was to be an instrument flight to Julich [Annotator’s Note: Julich, Germany] to free an American unit that was pinned down by German forces. Cottrell flew blind in the wing position of the second formation all the way to Julich. They armed their bombs and made two passes over the Germans, pushing them back and allowing the Americans to take the field and advance. The 493rd was awarded a unit citation for their work that day. On 17 December, Cottrell flew a mission to destroy a group of Tiger tanks [Annotator's Note: German Mark VI main battle tank; known as the Tiger] in the forests around Cologne, Germany. He flew wing to Major Latiolais [Annotator’s Note: Major Stanley P. Latiolais]. After dropping their bombs on the tanks, they pulled up for altitude and met a squadron of German ME-109s [Annotator’s Note: German Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter aircraft]. Cottrell’s plane was hit with a 20 mm shell between the wing and the fuselage. Black oil coated his windshield and he thought he was going to crash. He radioed Latiolais who told him to head back to the base. Leaving his squad in a dog fight, he flew slowly back toward the west, losing speed and altitude the entire way. Suddenly, two ME-109s appeared behind him and crisscrossed each other. Cottrell thought he would certainly be shot down, but was surprised when both enemy planes flew beside him until reaching the bomb line when they peeled off and headed back east. Unsure of where he was, Cottrell radioed to the nearest base and was guided back to Saint-Trond. His engine froze as he went in for a landing and he rolled to a stop on the edge of the runway. He prayed the whole way back to base and thought of his expecting wife back home in the United States.

[Annotator’s Note: Birds chirping in the background is audible throughout this segment.] Edwin B. Cottrell and his unit [Annotator’s Note:493rd Fighter Squadron, 48th Fighter Group, 9th Air Force] were grounded for nearly two weeks following this mission. On 29 December, the weather cleared, and he flew a mission in support of troops in Bastogne [Annotator’s Note: Bastogne, Belgium]. While at base, the pilots and ground crews were told that if the Germans managed to breakthrough at Bastogne, they would all likely become prisoners of war and should be prepared to burn all of their belongings except for their identification. At four in the morning on 2 January [Annotator’s Note: of 1945], Cottrell was called onto immediate runway alert after the base radar picked up some approaching enemy aircraft. He sat in his plane until eight o’clock without any incident when all of a sudden, eight FW-190s [Annotator’s Note: German Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter aircraft] came in at the end of the runway, passed over the waiting fighters and dropped their bombs on two burned out bombers, a B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] and a B-17 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber]. The pilots leapt from their planes and sought cover in a nearby ditch as they anticipated a second pass from the enemy. One of the German planes was shot down and crashed at the opposite end of the field, its pilot thrown from the cockpit. When Cottrell and the other pilots on duty approached the dead pilot, they noticed that he had been shot through the forehead by anti-aircraft fire. He later learned that the Luftwaffe launched last effort attacks on all American air bases that day. After this, the Luftwaffe was no longer a threat on Cottrell’s missions. Flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire] and ground fire were the only obstacles he encountered. However, they were not much of a threat to the P-47s [Annotator's Note: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft]. As the war came to an end, Cottrell flew his 65th and final mission over Nuremberg [Annotator’s Note: Nuremberg, Germany] just days before the German surrender. When he landed, he was informed that the 48th Fighter Group was being transferred to Japan. However, as he had achieved his 65th mission, Cottrell was given, and gladly accepted, the choice to go home. In late May, he was sent to Antwerp [Annotator’s Note: Antwerp, Belgium] and boarded a ship to England to await transport back to the States. He boarded an LST [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank] in June for the journey home. [Annotator’s Note: Phone rings at 1:10:28.000.] Upon his arrival, he was granted a 30-day furlough [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] after which he was to report to San Antonio, Texas for discharge. He was discharged in August 1945 as a first lieutenant. Cottrell went to school for his graduate degree in Physical Education and taught and coached at the high school and collegiate level for many years. [Annotator’s Note: video freezes up at 1:13:15.000.] He joined the Air Force Reserves and served for 25 years as a liaison officer for the Air Force Academy. He was retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel.

[Annotator’s Note: Birds chirping in the background is audible throughout this segment.] Edwin B. Cottrell’s most memorable experience was flying with the German fighters. He fought in World War 2 because the country was united to fight against the enemy. People worked together and respected each other. Today it is different. The war taught him to respect people, and that if one works hard enough, success will come. Cottrell is happy to be known as part of the Greatest Generation [Annotator's Note: the term The Greatest Generation refers to the generation in the United States that came of age during the Great Depression and later fought in World War 2 and is derived from the book The Greatest Generation by American network television journalist and author Tom Brokaw] and is proud of his service. He has no regrets. He believes there needs to be more people that have respect for the country and the freedom it provides. [Annotator’s Note: Video froze at 1:26:05.000.] Edwin B. Cottrell believes there should be institutions like the National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana], and that we should continue to teach World War 2 to future generations. He is very upset that schools do not teach more about the war. He made a vow to go to school and talk about his war experiences.