George E. Budlong was born in 1927 in Providence, Rhode Island. Budlong calls himself a child of the Depression [Annotator's Note: The Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States]. His parents lost their jobs and had to split up for a while. When the Depression began to wane, they got back together and bought an apartment for the family. As a kid, Budlong and friends from his neighborhood played outside all day until dark. They played sports with the seasons, baseball in the summer, football in the fall, and hockey in the winter. Budlong attended Central High School in Rhode Island where he studied higher mathematics in hopes of one day becoming an aeronautical engineer. By this time, the war was on and he had an uncle who flew P-51s [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] over Germany. He always wanted to do the same. Budlong gives an overview of his time in the service. After basic training, he was sent to Greensboro, North Carolina to receive further training. There was a delay of a few weeks en route and he was able to go home to see his family. While home, Budlong contracted pneumonia and was unable to report to Greensboro in time. When he finally arrived, he was listed as AWOL [Annotator's Note: absent without leave]. The telegram his doctor had sent had never arrived, and Budlong feared he would be kicked out of the service before he went overseas. Once in France, men in his unit [Annotator’s Note: 9th Air Force] complained about the cold. He became upset by this when thinking of all the men who died on D-Day [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. Budlong was placed on sick call and transferred to Belgium where he spent time in a hospital and contracted the German measles. He was then assigned to Erlangen, Germany where he was a statistician in charge of keeping track of troop numbers across the division. After six months at this job, he was transferred to Bad Wiessee in southern Bavaria [Annotator’s Note: Bad Wiessee, Germany]. In Bad Wiessee, Budlong worked in the orderly room as a company clerk preparing morning reports and doing payroll. After six months there, he was sent home and was discharged in March 1947. On 7 December 1941, Budlong was at a friend’s house listening to the radio when the announcement of the attack [Annotator's Note: The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] came on. He recalls listening to Roosevelt’s speech [Annotator's Note: Day of Infamy Speech; President Franklin D. Roosevelt to a Joint Session of the United States Congress, 8 December 1941] the next day as well. As a 14-year-old, Budlong knew there was not much he could do to fight the war. He and his family pitched in to aid in the war effort, collecting tin cans and other scrap materials. While in high school, Budlong enlisted in the Army Air Corps in hopes of following in the footsteps of his uncle, a P-51 pilot. This was his dream. When he was not paying attention in class, he was drawing airplanes. He had another uncle who was a medic who went ashore with the first wave in North Africa [Annotator's Note: the Allied invasion of North Africa, codenamed Operation Torch; 8 to 16 November 1942] and at Anzio [Annotator’s Note: Anzio, Italy].

George E. Budlong reported for induction at Fort Devens, Massachusetts and was assigned to a unit consisting of guys from around New England for basic training at Keesler Field, Mississippi. This was the first group he bonded with, but he lost track of them when he contracted pneumonia en route to Greensboro [Annotator’s Note: Greensboro, North Carolina]. He would again lose track of friends when he was shipped to a hospital in Belgium. He felt left behind. Budlong recalls two stories from his time at Keesler Field. Once, when called for inspection, Budlong had just returned from the barber with a new haircut. When the master sergeant began his inspection of Budlong, he told him he needed a haircut. Budlong tried to explain he had just come from the barbershop, but to no avail, and he was taken down to the barbershop again and given his first buzz cut. Another time, someone had loaded too much soap into the dishwasher. A day later, while learning to fire their carbines, everyone from the unit had to run to the open latrines with upset stomachs because of the soap they had eaten. While in training, the war ended in Germany and in Japan, and Budlong’s hopes of flying in combat were over. After reporting to Greensboro, North Carolina following his experience with pneumonia, everyone there was a stranger to Budlong. Greensboro was nothing more than a stopover and he soon boarded a train for Camp Shanks [Annotator’s Note: Camp Shanks, New York] for transport to Europe. Budlong boarded the converted cruise ship George Washington for transport. The journey was worry free with the threat of U-boats [Annotator's Note: German submarine] no longer an issue. The ship landed in Le Havre [Annotator’s Note: Le Havre, France] in early January 1946. Budlong was assigned to an HQ [Annotator’s Note: headquarters] company in the 9th Air Force, but he does not remember which one. On a particularly cold night, Budlong and the other men in the tent were assigned shifts to keep the wood stove burning. When Budlong’s shift was over, he tried to wake the next man, but could not. Budlong climbed back in his cot and went to sleep. When all the men complained of the cold in the morning, Budlong got angry and told them to think of the men who died during the invasion of Normandy [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. “Ladies of the night” set up a tent not far from theirs and many guys visited it to be serviced, though he never did.

Still dealing with pneumonia, George E. Budlong and his unit boarded forty and eights [Annotator's Note: 40 and eight refers European railroad boxcars which could accommodate 40 standing men or eight standing horses] for transport to Namur, Belgium. He was hospitalized for a few months and lost track of his new friends once again. While in Bad Wiessee in southern Bavaria [Annotator’s Note: Bad Wiessee, Germany], Budlong saw a hospital that had supposedly been a maternity hospital where German soldiers were encouraged to fraternize with nurses to breed a pure Aryan race. Once, while kayaking, Budlong found a swastika and an SS [Annotator's Note: Schutzstaffel; German paramilitary organization] pennant. In February 1947, Budlong boarded a ship out of Hamburg [Annotator’s Note: Hamburg, Germany] bound for the United States. Everyone on board was seasick except for him. He said he never missed a meal on that trip. Budlong was discharged from Fort Dix [Annotator's Note: now Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in Trenton, New Jersey] in February 1947 with the rank of corporal. He stayed in the Reserves but was not called up during the Korean War [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953]. He hoped to attend Brown University [Annotator’s Note: in Providence, Rhode Island] on the G.I. Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment] to study aeronautics, but other G.I.s [Annotator's Note: government issue; also a slang term for an American soldier] had filled up all the classes. Instead, Budlong attended Bryant University [Annotator’s Note: in Smithfield, Rhode Island] and studied accounting. He made a career in banking.

[Annotator’s Note: A cell phone dings throughout the segment.] George E. Budlong’s most memorable experience of World War 2 was reading about the different exploits of the servicemen fighting in various combats and invasions. He remembered watching a lot of war movies too. He talked about his experience on an Honor Flight [Annotator's Note: a national network of independent Hubs working together to honor our nation's veterans with an all-expenses paid trip to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. to visit the war memorials]. He served in World War 2 because he wanted to do his part and he was patriotic. He wanted to be a P-51 [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] pilot because his uncle was one. He thinks that his services made him more mature and gave him more discipline. It also helped further his education through the G.I. Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment]. He stresses that he is very patriotic and loves his country. He joined a civil air patrol when he was a kid. He is sad to say that Americans are not taught about World War 2 or American history in general. Budlong 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. Everyone should learn from history.