Ernest L. Poulson was born in Ephraim, Utah in March 1921. He lived a very rural life growing up. He did a lot of hunting and fishing. His father was a government trapper and Poulson helped him on his runs. During the Great Depression, the government halved his time and load so Poulson's father quit working for the government and became a farmer. He went to school up to junior college [Annotator's Note: The interviewer pauses the interview to check the microphone on the interviewee at 0:03:28:000.] He joined a National Guard band unit as a snare drummer while in college because it paid two dollars per meeting. In March 1941, the government called the National Guard to active duty, which Poulson was not happy with because he wanted to finish school. After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii] on 7 December 1941, Poulson decided to apply for aviation cadet school in the United States Army Air Forces. In 1942, Poulson was accepted and three months later he was sent to Santa Anna, California for pre-flight school and more testing. He was then sent to primary flight school at Thunderbird Field in Phoenix, Arizona where he trained on a Stearman [Annotator's Note: Boeing-Stearman Model 75 Kaydet primary trainer aircraft]. He then went to Bakersfield, California for basic training. The training was vigorous and the weather was bad, so he had to be sent to New Mexico so he could receive an adequate amount of flying time. He was then assigned to Williams Field, Arizona where he flew the AT-9 [Annotator's Note: Curtiss-Wright AT-9 advanced trainer]. He recalled that the Chinese students had a lot of accidents. Poulson graduated from the pilot training program in March 1943 and was made a second lieutenant. He was assigned to Davis-Monthan Field in Tucson, Arizona to train on B-24s [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] and flew several hours. He was then assigned as a copilot to a crew and met them in Denver [Annotator's Note: Denver, Colorado]. They traveled around the United States for a couple of months preparing to go overseas. They were finally given orders to pick up their plane in San Diego [Annotator's Note: San Diego, California] and fly to England. They had a small delay after they crashed the plane in a corn field, but finally arrived in England in June 1943.

When Ernest L. Poulson and his unit [Annotator's Note: 567th Bombardment Squadron, 389th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force] arrived in Northern England, they soon realized that their stay was short and were given orders for a mission in North Africa. They arrived at their base in Benghazi, Libya, pitched their own tents and were told to practice low altitude flying and target training with the B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber]. Poulson's first mission was over the Mediterranean and he received heavy fire, which put his plane out of commission. His group was assigned another plane and given their second mission to attack oil refineries in Romania. In their briefing, his group was told that their target was lightly defended and they should not receive much resistance. However, Poulson soon learned that this was wrong. As they neared their target, they received heavy resistance which damaged their plane and they had to land. They had to kick out a bomb before crash landing in a dry riverbed. Their plane was severely damaged and they lost one of their crew members. The remaining crew exited the plane and took off into a corn field but were captured only an hour later by Romanians. Poulson and the rest of the prisoners were taken to Campina [Annotator's Note: Campina, Romania] and thrown in a cellar. Poulson recalled the atmosphere as very grim. He realized how wounded he was with various broken bones. Finally, the the cellar doors opened and they were met by a woman who was a Princess of Romania [Annotator's Note: Romanian Princess Catherine Cardja]. Poulson discovered that they had crashed on her land. The Princess gave them food and took them to a jail in Ploesti [Annotator’s Note: Ploesti or Ploiești, Romania], but told them she would keep in touch with them. They were met by the rest of their crew and other airmen. Poulson was interrogated by German and Romanian officers for a couple of days.

Ernest L. Poulson and the other prisoners were taken to a prison in Bucharest [Annotator's Note: Bucharest, Romania]. The prison was an old schoolhouse and they stayed there for several weeks. Poulson was concerned about his wounds but received no medical attention because there was no doctor, so he treated his wound himself. About a month later he and the rest of the prisoners were taken to a hotel, turned into a prison, in the Carpathian Alps. He remained at this prison for about a year. They were given soup, bread, and tea for nourishment. He was also given cigarettes in which he took up a smoking habit. They were short of clothing, but for the most part, his time there was adequate and he was not mistreated. Finally, at one point, the Red Cross sent them winter clothes and shoes. People from the city brought them playing cards and books, and the Princess [Annotator's Note: Romanian Princess Catherine Cardja] brought them a volleyball to play with. The allies began bombing the oil refineries again around April 1944 from Italy. They soon began to see allied planes flying over them from time to time. One night, they were transferred from the Timisul de Jos in the Carpathian Alps to Bucharest [Annotator's Note: Bucharest, Romania]. The same day they arrived in town; the Russians invaded. Poulson did not witness the battle but he could hear the artillery.

Ernest L. Poulson was able to escape from Romania when a Romania officer used a German plane to fly him and other prisoners to a dirt airstrip. [Annotator's Note: The interviewee holds up a picture of a plane at 0:43:15.000.] The next day, the Americans flew in on B-17’s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber], loaded the prisoners and flew to Bari, Italy and landed on 1 September 1944. Poulson and the prisoners were deloused, given food and new clothing, and then arranged to be sent back to their original units, which was England for Poulson. He remembered that most of the guys he knew from his unit [Annotator's Note: 567th Bombardment Squadron, 389th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force] had already returned home or were shot down. He was happy to find out that the actor Jimmy Stewart [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces then US Air Force Brigdier General James Stewart], was in his unit. Poulson commented on an American that betrayed the Allies by sharing military intelligence with the Romanians. Poulson was able to send a message to the Allies about this officer who was then court marshalled for his actions. For three months, Poulson had to be present for the trial in England. While there, he made sure to see a lot of attractions and entertainment. Soon after the completion of the trial, he was sent back to the United States and put on leave. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer pauses the interview to change tapes at 0:51:12:000 the adjusts the camera at 0:52:02:000.] Poulson was sent to a rest hotel in Santa Monica Beach, California. He was interviewed and debriefed. He soon married his fiancé and then was assigned to Luke Air Force base in Phoenix [Annotator's Note: Phoenix, Arizona] where he became a flight instructor. [Annotator's Note: The interviewee asks to pause the interview at 0:53:41:000.]

Ernest L. Poulson was sent to Hill Field [Annotator's Note: now Hill Air Force Base, Utah] as the assistant operations officers. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer pauses the interview at 0:54:54:000.] He worked transferring loads of military equipment on C-47s [Annotator's Note: Douglas C-47 Skytrain cargo aircraft]. Poulson applied for regular officer [Annotator's Note: for a regular officer's commission] in the Air Force and was selected. The military also gave him the opportunity to attend the University of Utah [Annotator's Note: Salt Lake City, Utah] to finish his degree in Business. Upon his completion of school, and the war had ended, the Air Force sent him to San Antonio, Arizona to train in a program that focused on logistics and finance. He attended Stanford University [Annotator's Note: Stanford, California], then went to Dayton, Ohio where he was assigned to the budget division of the Foreign Aid Program. He was eventually transferred to the Pentagon [Annotator's Notes: Washington, D.C.] and assigned to the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force as military assistant. After a few years, he was assigned as the Chief of the Foreign Aid Budget of NATO [Annotator's Note: North Atlantic Treaty Organization] in Paris, France for three years. His next assignment was to the Ballistic Missile Center in Inglewood, California and worked on securing missiles for another three years. He retired after serving 20 years in the Air Force. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer pauses the interview at 1:09:31:000.]

[Annotator's Note: The interviewer pauses the interview to ask the interviewee to face him.] After retiring from the military, Ernest L. Poulson settled in Salt Lake City [Annotator's Note: Salt Lake City, Utah] and worked in real estate for a few years and then transferred to working at the University of Utah [Annotator's Note: Salt Lake City, Utah] and worked in various positions, including building a research park. Poulson recalled it being difficult to transfer from military life to civilian life.

Ernest L. Poulson recalled driving around with a friend and a couple of girls when he heard the news on the radio that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. Poulson recalled thinking that the B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] was a big airplane when he first laid eyes on it. Poulson felt "shafted" when he was assigned to replace a crewman in a group that already had been formed. When in Africa, he recalled having too many questions about the purpose of his training leading up to a secret mission to hit a major oil refineries in Romania. On his mission to bomb the oil refineries, he did not experience any resistance prior to bombing his target. It was only after that the enemy came upon them and shot them down. Poulson commented that the bombs he dropped were time delayed. He also stated that when his crew crash landed in Romania, his plane was torn in half. Poulson believes that the raid on the oil refineries was one of the most important raids in World War 2.

Ernest L. Poulson attends a reunion every other year. He believes its important for kids to have World War 2 as part of their education. He also thinks its important to have institutions like The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana] for the public and researchers. Poulson suffers from some post traumatic stress disorder. Poulson values freedom and wars are a bad way to solve problems.