Frank Golemi was sent to the San Antonio Aviation Cadet Center [Annotator's Note: Now Lackland Air Force Base, a part of Joint Base San Antonio, Texas] for training. From there he went to Fort Worth, Texas to Hicks Field where he learned to fly. Right before he soloed, he made a hard landing and he thought he washed out. The instructor told him to take the plane back up without him. He did so and that was his solo flight. He then went to Waco, Texas for basic and then Foster Field, Victoria, Texas to learn to be a pursuit pilot. They had gunnery practice there. He was sent then to Austin, Texas to Troop Carrier Command where he learned to fly the C-47 [Annotator's Note: Douglas C-47 Skytrain cargo aircraft]. He received a plane and a crew along with orders to Florida and Puerto Rico. He then took a route to South America and ultimately across the ocean from Natal, Brazil. The journey across took over a week. He landed on Ascension Island without radio beams. His navigator, Barnes [Annotator's Note: no given name provided], was great. They ended up in Marrakesh, Morocco. He wanted to go around and see what it was like. A man came and asked them if they wanted to see dancing girls. They went into a courtyard where there was an old woman cooking over a pot who looked like a witch to them. They decided to get out of there and Military Police caught them. They had to do some fast talking to get out of trouble.

Frank Golemi flew a C-47 [Annotator's Note: Douglas C-47 Skytrain cargo aircraft] from Texas to Marrakesh, Morocco. From Morocco he went to Nottingham, England. He did not do much there. He was permanently assigned to Newbury, England around 1942. They mostly practiced for D-Day [Annotator's Note: Allied invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944]. The base was closed off. No one could go in or out. General Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: US Army General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe; 34th President of the United States] came to see his group off. They were a good group and got choice operations. On D-Day, Golemi flew across the channel with Major Tommy Nunn [Annotator's Note: likely then US Army Captain, later Major, James Nunn of Company A, 1st Battalion, 507th Paratrooper Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division] as part of the lead squadron going to Sainte-Mère-Église, France. He flew back to England afterwards. There was a lot of flak on the way in. It was night-time and they could not see anything but the tracers. Golemi saw the drop zone and turned on his red light. Green light tells them to bail out. The only offensive weapon on the plane was Golemi's .45 caliber pistol [Annotator's Note: M1911 .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol]. His was basically an airline plane with no armor plating or anything. After the first drop of troops, he started dropping in supplies, mostly gasoline in five gallon cans. They later added a flight nurse. They would then pick up the wounded after dropping off the supplies. One day was so cold that the engines would not turn over. Golemi was on the front line and heard gunfire. He told his flight crew to build a fire in an oil drum and place it under the engine. It was stupid but it was the only way to get started. He started the take off run and his copilot accidentally turned off the gasoline and the engines started dying right as they left the ground. If not for quick action they would have gone down with wounded on board.

Frank Golemi was sent to Civitavecchia, Italy where he trained to fly into Southern France. He was sent down to Sicily to get wine. He landed near Mount Aetna and an old guy came out waving his hands, telling him he used to be a cab driver in New York. His commanding officer had sent him down there to get the wine. The Italian got a mule and took them to a winery where they did a tasting. He took a lot of wine back to the air field and unloaded. Golemi and his tentmate had dug a trench for taking cover from German bombs. The colonel came out and said nobody was supposed to have wine so Golemi hid it in the trench.

Frank Golemi was born in November 1921 in New Orleans, Louisiana. His father was a butcher and had his own shop. They lived next door and at times Golemi would deliver orders for his father. Golemi also used to sell snacks at a ballpark. He went to grammar school near his house. He left there in 1935 to go to high school, where he played baseball for two years. He then attended Mayburn Business School and went to work as a bookkeeper. He collected money, emptied tank cars and kept inventory for a man who owned about 20 Texaco stations in town. Golemi had been out fishing with some friends on 7 December 1941. When they came in from their trip, a lady at the fish camp said the United States had been bombed. They were all draft age. He and his girlfriend went to the movies that night and they made an announcement for all military personnel to return to their base immediately. The movie was stopped. He decided he wanted to join the Army Air Corps. He had to brush up on some subjects like math and physics so he took a crash course and then passed the exam in January 1942. He went to Camp Shelby [Annotator's Note: Camp Shelby, Hattiesburg, Mississippi] for a few days but then was sent home. He was earning cadet pay while at home. He reported back to Camp Shelby and then back home again. He went to work making smokestacks for Army barracks. The Army contacted him again once room was available and sent him to the San Antonio Aviation Cadet Center [Annotator's Note: Now Lackland Air Force Base, a part of Joint Base San Antonio, Texas].

Frank Golemi was in Civitavecchia, Italy training to fly into Southern France [Annotator's Note: Golemi was a pilot in the Army Air Forces and flew Douglas C-47 Skytrain cargo aircraft with the 76th Troop Carrier Squadron, 435th Troop Carrier Group]. On the day of the invasion [Annotator's Note: 15 August 1944], he had a glider attached to his C-47. He was running out of airstrip and the engines were as hot as they could be. They had no opposition there. Not even a shot fired. He dropped the glider. It was a British glider [Annotator's Note: Airspeed AS.51 Horsa glider] which carried more men than the American gliders [Annotator's Note: Waco CG-4 glider]. He flew back to France. The next mission was Market Garden [Annotator's Note: Operation Market Garden, Netherlands, 17 to 25 September 1944], of A Bridge Too Far fame [Annotator's Note: A Bridge Too Far is a 1977 film by Richard Attenborough based on Operation Market Garden]. He had two American gliders on the back of his plane. Before that, glider pilots were needed. They were given a rifle because when they landed the glider, they became infantry. There was a "helluva battle" going on at Market Garden. Golemi flew back to France. The next big mission was the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. The weather was so bad, they could not fly. They were ready to go at any moment. They were flying supply drops. He does not know who got the supplies. It could have been Americans, Russians or Germans. The supplies were boxed so he never knew what he was delivering.

Frank Golemi was flying supplies into Bastogne, Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. He watched his buddy's plane get shot down in flames. The next thing he heard was that his plane was on fire. He looked out to see his wing on fire. It went out and he believes his mother going to church is what put the fire out. The ailerons would not work for a time, but he made it back to England. The plane was really shot up, but nobody was wounded. A lot of planes had been shot down over Bastogne. After the war, he was walking down the street, and a person from one of the planes that had been shot down approached. The Germans were killing most of the crews of downed aircraft. He had not seen this man since Bastogne, Belgium. His name was Parsons [Annotator's Note: no given name provided]. The plane went down from 500 feet. You could not parachute out that low. Parsons broke his shoulder and was thrown into a truck by the Germans. He went to a prison camp.

Frank Golemi was in France when the war ended. He flew an aircraft back to the United States. He thought he was going to the Pacific next and was getting ready to do so. He had stuffed a lot of perfumes in his aircraft but due to the altitude, the perfume ran out of the bottles. He had a close call at Bastogne, Belgium when his copilot accidentally cut the gas to the engines during take off. D-Day [Annotator's Note: Allied invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944] was pretty bad with all of the German flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire]. He came back to Fort Wayne, Indiana planning to reactivate and go to Japan. He was discharged and his squadron's [Annotator's Note: 76th Troop Carrier Squadron, 435th Troop Carrier Group] commanding officer asked a few of them to try out for the airlines, as he had flown for American Airlines. Golemi got the job and was discharged at Fort Dix, New Jersey. He went to New York and leaned to fly by instruments. He went to work as a copilot based out of Memphis, Tennessee. When he first started flying, he would fly troops back from the West Coast. After about a year and a half, he was terminated along with the younger war veteran pilots. He decided to go back to school on the G.I. Bill. An accountant he knew offered him a job while he was in school at Loyola University, New Orleans, Louisiana. He finished there with an accounting degree and continued to work for the same company for 68 years. He never flew as a pilot again. He recalls stopping in Africa and hearing drums at night. He also met some Russians and traded Scotch for Vodka. They both thought they were wonderful. It is not the Russian people, it is the Russian leaders who are the problem.