Eugene Vaadi was born 1 July 1921 Watertown, New York. He spent his life there until entering the military. His father immigrated and worked on the railroad until the Great Depression. He then went into dairy farming in upper New York. He has one sister two years younger than him. He says they were just like everyone else, not much money, but because they were farmers, they grew their own food. His father knew wealthier people who would come buy goods from him that helped the family out. Vaadi was 20 years old when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. This changed his entire life. He and his family were having Sunday dinner at the home of relatives. They heard the news on the radio in the car back home. He recalls hearing President Roosevelt [Annotator’s Note: [Annotator’s Note: Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945] say that this is a day of infamy. Vaadi told his parents that he was going to go be a flyer at that moment. He immediately he started researching how to get into the aviation cadets. He found that he needed congressional approval. They were building up Pine Camp (now Fort Drum) in Watertown and he went for there for testing, which lasted three to four days. He completed everything well and he was told he would be called to take the oath and enlist. All of this took him more than a month. He said he wanted to fly bombers. He kept calling the office at Watertown, but it was very difficult and slow at the beginning of the war and they could not tell him when he would start active duty. He was finally sworn in on 12 August 1942 and then sent home. He discovered he was an Aviation Cadet right from the start. This meant that he was making 75 dollars per month instead of the 21 dollars everyone else got. Once the US Army Air Corps had enough recruits to make a crew, they marched through downtown Syracuse, New York and then took a train to Nashville, Tennessee. This all had carried over into 1943. Upon arrival in Nashville, there weren’t any uniforms, so they wore their civilian clothes for a week. Vaadi was in Nashville for a couple of weeks for Basic Training and then sent to the Southeast Training Command in Montgomery, Alabama at Maxwell Field.

Eugene Vaadi enlisted in the US Army Air Forces at age 20 and was sent to Maxwell Field in Montgomery, Alabama for training. There was a caste system based on the West Point system. He was an underclassman for the first month, called Hell Month. He was among the very first cadets to go to Maxwell. The training and requirements were rigid, and their days were from five in the morning until nine at night. The Basic Training lasted over two months. Vaadi and his group were sent to Tuscaloosa to learn to fly PT-17s [Annotator’s Note: Stearman Boeing PT-17 Kaydet]. He was doing very well and one morning he fell over in formation from a burst appendix. The doctor came in and they took him to the hospital and operated on him. He had been in class 43K at first but then went into class 44C, which cost him quite a few weeks of training due to recovery. He went home on leave for a short visit. His farm experience helped him to get through training easily. He completed his flying training ahead of time and spent his time just flying around. He then went into training in a larger aircraft, the BT-13 [Annotator’s Note: Consolidated Vultee BT-13] in Montgomery, Alabama at Gunner Field.

Eugene Vaadi enlisted in the US Army Air Forces at age 20 and was sent to Maxwell Field in Montgomery, Alabama for training. In 1943, about halfway through his course on BT-13s [Annotator’s Note: Consolidated Vultee BT-13] he was put into the AT-10 [Annotator’s Note: Beechcraft AT-10 Wichita] program to try and expedite training for heavy bomber pilots. The trainees could not make a mistake because there was no time – one either learned quickly or one was washed out. Vaadi adapted easily to the AT-10 and after completing his basic training he was sent to Blytheville, Arkansas for advanced flying training. The airfield there had AT-9 [Annotator’s Note: Curtiss-Wright AT-9 Jeep] aircraft that an efficient twin-engine aircraft – after training in the AT-9, one could fly P-38s [Annotator’s Note: Lockheed P-38 Lightning] or bombers. He finished this training early and he did so well that he was tasked with flying with other trainees who were having trouble with their lessons. Vaadi said the AT-9 was a good aircraft but one had to be cautious and not bounce the aircraft or the gear would break. Vaadi said he such a desire to fly that he picked up all of his training quickly and on 12 March 1944 he graduated as a Second Lieutenant. He was then given a choice as to what he wanted to fly and he went to Lockbourne Army Airfield in Columbus, Ohio to learn to fly the B-17 [Annotator’s Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress]. Even though he was an officer, the training was similar to Basic Training. His superiors wanted him to stay and become a Flight Instructor, but he wanted to just go bomb the Germans. Because the US military was short on aircraft at that time, Vaadi and 19 of his fellow trainees were sent to Laredo, Texas to fly tow-target gunnery. They were there for a few weeks and then got sent back to Lockbourne. They did not want to go back and be instructors, so they said they said so. Vaadi then went to Lincoln, Nebraska and picked up his flight training crew to go to El Paso, Texas for combat crew training on B-17s. This is where they learned to fly and work as a crew with actual bombing runs as if they were really in combat, so the training was very exacting. Vaadi and his crew had a very good target success record. He went back to Lincoln, Nebraska to go pick up a B-17 to fly over to Europe but there were still not enough new aircraft. He was sent to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey and then Fort Dix, New Jersey and boarded the Ile de France [Annotator’s Note: SS Ile de France; also known as SS Normandie] and sailed out of New York. They crossed the Atlantic in about five days. The ship carried both American and Canadian troops and made port in Scotland. He then traveled to Stone, England for distribution to their various organizations and he was assigned to the 385th [Annotator’s Note: 385th Bombardment Group].

After graduating from advanced training, Second Lieutenant Eugene Vaadi was assigned to the 385th Bombardment Group upon arrival in Europe in early 1944 after the D-Day invasion. He did not know at the time that during the previous October, the 385th had lost ten crews. He quickly learned to fly the area that the crews would fly in to assemble into mission formations. His first mission was 11 December 1944 with a Lieutenant Wilson. He remembers it well because they went to Giesen, Germany and they only encountered heavy flak and no fighters. The Germans had 88s [Annotator’s Note: 8.8 cm Flak 18/36/37/41, 88 millimeter anti-aircraft artillery] in that area and just plastered the sky. He also took part in the Battle of the Bulge in December and January 1944. The weather was so poor, most aircraft were grounded. Once the weather cleared, anything that could fly did both night and day.

Eugene Vaadi was assigned to the 385th Bombardment Group and flew 19 missions over Europe hitting Berlin, Nurenberg, Munich, Hamm, Frankfurt, and Magdeburg, Germany [Annotator’s Note: Vaadi motions to the camera to cut and then lists the cities when resumed]. All of the targets at the time were heavily defended. On his 19th mission over Dresden, Germany, he was in the lower lead element of the formation, and beginning his bomb run when the German fighters attacked. The Germans hit them head on instead of from the rear like usual. In the first pass, they hit four aircraft hard enough to bring them down. Vaadi’s aircraft [Annotator’s Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, Leading Lady] was burning and shot up at about 28,000 feet. He started dropping down to try and keep up with the formation but at about 16,000 feet the aircraft went out of control. He had his crew to practice their emergency training a lot and he attributes the fact that everyone got out of the disabled craft alive to that training. As the co-pilot, Brownie [Annotator’s Note: unable to locate co-pilot’s name], started to bail out, the B-17 rolled and exploded. The concussion blew the co-pilot and Vaadi out of the hatch. He does not remember being blown out, but due to his training his chute opened, and he made it down. Other aircraft crews were not so lucky. Vaadi says he landed on the airfield that the German fighters had taken off from. As he hit the ground, he had a German soldier pointing a Luger [Annotator’s Note: Pistole Parabellum or Parabellum-Pistole] at his face. He was then taken to see the Commandant. Two young, German pilots came running into where Vaadi was and were arguing about which one of them had shot the B-17 down [Annotator’s Note: Vaadi laughs heartily at this].

On 2 March 1945, Eugene Vaadi and his crew were shot down over Dresden, Germany. Once a prisoner of war, he was subjected to Allied bombing like everyone else. He was interrogated by the Commandant and then put in a truck where he saw his co-pilot for the first time. The co-pilot was happy to see him alive. They marched off to a nearby jail in a small town where they stayed overnight. Heavy artillery could be heard as well as German troops marching and singing. The next day they boarded a train to Frankfurt for interrogation. They moved mostly at night to avoid Allied troops. They gave them ersatz bread and sausage. There were other crews from other bombers with them – eight people in total. The train passed through a bombed-out town that was still smoking. The train had two platform cars with AA guns. As they were going through an open field, the train was attacked by three P-47s [Annotator’s Note: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt]. The P-47s destroyed the engine and the train caught fire. Vaadi and the other prisoners jumped out. Vaadi landed on a German Sergeant. The Sergeant marched him over to some nearby soldiers where he rejoined his co-pilot. The two of them were marched longer and then locked in a boxcar in a railyard. They both tried to escape but could not get out. The British bombed the railyard during the night. The Germans came back and were angry the two men were still alive. They were then marched to Frankfurt which was being bombed as they arrived. The German Luftwaffe Guard took them at that point and kept them out of harm’s way. They were interrogated while there. The interrogator surprised Vaadi by reading aloud what he knew of them, which he had learned from newspapers. After a couple of days, they went to Wetzlar, Germany, where there was an Allied officer who gave them clothes and food. Then they went back to Frankfurt and while at the platform, a British Mosquito [Annotator’s Note: de Havilland DH. 98 Mosquito] strafed the entire platform. When the Germans recovered and saw the prisoners, they started coming after them. The German guard shot over their heads to keep the crowds off of the men. They finally went to Nuremberg where the prison camp was right at the railyard in violation of the Geneva Conventions. At the camp, Vaadi was with both British and American prisoners. During the first part of April 1945, the British bombed near the camp. A target flare had been dropped into the camp itself, but extinguished and moved farther away. The concussions from the blasts knocked Vaadi out of his bed.

On 2 March 1945, Eugene Vaadi and his crew were shot down over Dresden, Germany and taken prisoner. On 4 April 1945, they started a 120-kilometer march to Moosburg, Germany [Annotator’s Note: Stalag VII A (Kriegsgefangenen-Mannschafts-Stammlager VII-A), Moosburg, Germany]. The prisoners were being marched 18 kilometers or more daily, in violation of the Geneva Conventions. They did not know they were marching alongside railroad tracks. P-47s [Annotator’s Note: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt] started strafing the cars, and killed several of the POWs unintentionally. People started waving white flags and the pilot realized the mistake. A P-51 [Annotator’s Note: North American P-51 Mustang] flew over to assess the damage and saw that there were over 10,000 people on that road to Moosburg. Hitler [Annotator’s Note: Hitler, Adolf, 1889-1945] didn’t want the prisoners repatriated and so all of the POW camps were to converge in Moosburg. Later Vaadi discovered that Hitler wanted all of the prisoners shot. There ended up being over 100,000 prisoners. Vaadi and his group arrived about a week or 10 days before the end of the war. Tanks arrived and knocked down the fence. A prisoner saw Patton [Annotator’s Note: Patton, George S. (George Smith), 1885-1945] standing up in his jeep regardless of the bullets flying around him. Patton told them he would help as much as he could letting them know the kitchen was coming but he had to go get “the diehard” Germans. Vaadi said that when the SS [Annotator’s Note: Schutzstaffel; likely the Waffen-SS (Armed SS)] came through, they told the German guards to grab their rifles and join them in fighting the Allies, but the guards refused to do so. The SS killed them.

In early April 1945, Eugene Vaadi and his fellow prisoners of war were liberated in Moosburg, Germany [Annotator’s Note: Stalag VII A (Kriegsgefangenen-Mannschafts-Stammlager VII-A)]. General Patton [Annotator’s Note: Patton, George S. (George Smith), 1885-1945] had told them that he would get them out of there as soon as he could. They had been taken to a dirt airfield where they were being flown out to Rheims, France [Annotator’s Note: also known as Reims, France] to a processing center. There they received clothes, haircuts, and food–then put on a train to Le Havre, France. In Rheims, Vaadi found one of his cadet buddies from his school. The friend convinced Vaadi to go to Paris, France where they had a great time bartering their goods. Couriers were going between Paris and the processing camps. When they returned to the camp, they had missed their boat. They then went back to Paris with more goods. They spent a lot of time in Paris and became acquainted with a US Army Captain who had a hotel room where they could stay. In late July 1945, Vaadi was close to considering staying in Europe but a ship arrived, and he took it. He boarded the US Army Transport General Simon B. Buckner (AP-123) going to New York but got rerouted to Norfolk, Virginia. Once in Norfolk, they were processed out. Some of Vaadi’s crew had arrived before him and were asking his parents where he was.

Eugene Vaadi remained in the military after he was liberated from Moosburg, Germany [Annotator’s Note: Stalag VII A (Kriegsgefangenen-Mannschafts-Stammlager VII-A)] and returned to the United States. He had two weeks in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Afterwards, Vaadi was asked whether he would remain on active duty or request a discharge. He remained on active duty and went to Lincoln, Nebraska to start training on B-29s [Annotator’s Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress]. He wanted to become a B-29 pilot, but they were out of slots and he was sent to Avon Park, Florida to become a training officer. He flew aircraft and personnel around bases that were closing after the war. When the Korean War started, the B-29 was re-evaluated and Vaadi was sent to Texas or more flight training and to get a crew. He picked up a new co-pilot named Brown. Vaadi was told of a new organization that was going to do different things with the B-29 and he volunteered to become a part of the unit, 581st [Annotator’s Note: 581st Air Resupply and Communications Squadron] even though he didn’t know what the mission was. They were given leave and then reported to Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho. 12 B-29s [Annotator’s Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress], 12 C-119s [Annotator’s Note: Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar], and 12 Flying boats [Annotator’s Note: likely Consolidated PBY Catalina], were there. They discovered the B-29s would only have tail guns and that the forward bomb bay would carry a bladder gas tank for a round trip flight to Russia. They were to fly all low-level missions – treetop level with B-29s which weren’t constructed for that. He said it was humorous and ridiculous and that they chased aircraft all over the country west of the Mississippi River. They would fly into canyons with only one way out past the drop zone and fly through Death Valley and chase cars. They would irritate engineers on the trains in the evening waiting to turn their lights on until they were right on the trains, scaring them. They also learned to do pick-ups from flagpoles to extract people from deep behind enemy lines. They were asked to sign a letter that stated that they understood that if they were captured, the United States Government would not acknowledge their existence. They weren’t worried about it at the time, although this would have other ramifications later. They trained like this night and day for most of a year. They were almost shot down by the US air forces once when they were out over the Pacific. They ran into foul weather and when they rose to get above it, interceptors threatened to shoot them down. Nearby military installations had no idea this secret training was occurring.

Eugene Vaadi went to the Philippines as part of the 581st Air Resupply and Communications Squadron, 13th Air Force, which was attached to the CIA, Air Commandos, and more. He says that walking around in the quarters there you might see a person one day as US Captain, the next day as a Russian officer, etc. He did more training in the Philippines on the B-29 [Annotator’s Note: Boeing RB-29A Superfortress]. 91st Strat Recon [Annotator’s Note: 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron, Far East Air Forces, 15th Air Force] in Japan was next. Two US aircraft were there, as well as various aircraft such as jets, passenger planes, and helicopters. Questions were answered with, “no need to know”. They were told to speak nothing of what they saw or heard there with penalties for violations. One group’s crewmember went on leave in New York and was put into detention for talking about his work. This was around 1952-1953 and the start of the Cold War. 12 January 1953, Vaadi and his crew – commander and OPS officer went along on what they described as a milk run. They were dropping propaganda leaflets to the best of their knowledge on this mission. Vaadi thinks the word must have gotten out that the commander of the 581st was aboard and over China, the aircraft was hit by 12 MiGs [Annotator’s Note: MiG 15s; Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, NATO name: Fagot] (he does not know who the pilots were but thinks it was Chinese, Russian or both). The craft was only about 12,000 feet near Antung Bay, China [Annotator’s Note: now Dandong, China] and was on fire (Vaadi says he can still see the silhouette of the Chinese pilot). He could tell the damage to the aircraft was severe when the tail gunner Hart [Annotator’s Note: Airman Second Class Alvin Dale Hart, Jr.; listed as Killed In Action] stopped firing. The radar officers, Weese [Annotator’s Note: Second Lieutenant Henry Douglas Weese] and Van Voorhis [Annotator’s Note: Captain Paul Edward Van Voorhis; listed as Missing In Action] were killed. Everyone up front was hit and then bailed out. The craft disintegrated shortly after. Vaadi was near the Yalu River. He was taken prisoner and moved from center to center before arriving at a Prisoner-of-War camp. Having been a prisoner of Germany in World War Two, Vaadi says that this experience was very different. The food was better but then everything changed when the Chinese took them and used them for everything they could propaganda-wise [Annotator’s Note: Vaadi doesn’t complete this last sentence but nods at the interviewer in a knowing way].

Eugene Vaadi and his crew were shot down by MiG-15s [Annotator's Note: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, NATO name: Fagot] over China on 12 January 1953. His Boeing B-29 Superfortress had a crew of 14 including two important, senior officials, or VIPs. Of the 14, 11 of the crew survived the attack. According to Vaadi, the VIPs were why the aircraft was shot down. The crew was scattered after bailing out. Vaadi was the last out of the aircraft and he tried hard to get to the coast to get to a submarine. He walked southward all night, avoiding snow, before being captured by searchers with dogs. He surrendered when they started shooting over his head. He went to a Chinese prison where he was displayed as an American monster to the locals. He was placed in a barn with soft beds and really good food. He was there for a few days before being put on a train at night. The 98th Bomb Group [Annotator's Note: 98th Bombardment Group] was bombing nearby. Only the guard was paying attention to Vaadi due to the bombing. They finally went to the Pyongyang, North Korea area where 11 prisoners were placed in separate cars. Vaadi said he had two guards with machine guns in the middle, two on each end, for just him. They arrived in Peking, China and he spent time in his cell block being interrogated by three-member Chinese panels. Sometimes there would be a fourth person in a different uniform whom Vaadi always assumed to be a Russian. Vaadi always demanded to see a representative and then would be beaten. The questions he was asked were mostly about the American aircraft and what they were used for. He was accused of lying to them and he would be kicked and hit with padded hands. They would hit the prisoners with canes to keep them awake. This lasted over nine months. During all of this time, the United States was likely unaware of their prisoner status. In January 1956, Hammarskjöld [Annotator's Note: United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld] of the UN came over and the prisoners were put on trial in Peking Square. Once released, there was news of the aircraft being shot down finally in the newspapers. Fecteau and Downey [Annotator's Note: U.S. Central Intelligence Agency officers, Richard G. Fecteau and John T. Downey] had been dropped in China in November 1952. [Annotator's Note: The two had been shot down over Communist China.] Vaadi and his crew were charged with being involved in that. Vaadi was told to plead guilty by his Chinese defender. A month after the trial, Vaadi was found guilty of trying to overthrow the Chinese government and sentenced from ten to 14 years in prison. He and his crew were then put into a cell block together for the first time and Vaadi was cellmates with his copilot Brownie [Annotator's Note: US Air Force First Lieutenant Wallace L. Brown]. Their guard always pretended to be there to help them with any needs.

Eugene Vaadi had been a prisoner in China since January 1953. August 1956 he and his crew members were called in separately to the head of the prison and informed they were being freed. They were then given items from the Red Cross that they had been denied the previous three years. They traveled through China from Peking, to Canton to Hong Kong – throwing all of their Red Cross items out to the locals. Their Chinese guard was begging them not to do this so he wouldn’t get in trouble. When they arrived at the border, the paperwork for the exchange took a few hours. They were handed off to the British who then took them to the Americans who took them to the Hong Kong Country Club to get new clothes and food. They did not go straight home to the United States but instead got on a C-124 [Annotator’s Note: Douglas C-124 Globemaster II] to Clark Field [Annotator’s Note: Clark Air Base, Luzon, Philippines] and then back to Japan and from Japan to Hawaii. They then went to Travis Field in California [Annotator’s Note: Travis Air Force Base, Solano County, California]. Vaadi, John Buck [Annotator’s Note: Captain John W. Buck, USAF] and Bill Baumer [Annotator’s Note: Major William E. Baumer, USAF] were put on a plane back to the east. Vaadi was dropped at Rome, New York where he met his parents. He returned to duty and went to the 1611th [Annotator’s Note: 1611th Air Transport Wing] that later became the Air Force One group flying important US government and military officials. He flew the Atlantic routes and loved that duty. 1959-1961, Vaadi volunteered to go to Tripoli, Libya, where he had 3200 personnel under his command as the secondary Base Commander. He said that was excellent duty. He retired from the Air Force as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1968 after serving 26 years. In conclusion, Vaadi says that he enjoyed his service, including flying C-130s [Annotator’s Note: Lockheed C-130 Hercules] during the War in Vietnam. He does not feel he was given credit for his accomplishments during his service.