Henry Heim was born in April 1921 in Trevorton, Pennsylvania. He had three brothers and two sisters. He was the oldest. He was raised by his parents. He grew up in the Lykens area [Annotator’s Note: Lykens, Pennsylvania]. His father worked in the coal mines. His father could not read or write. His father worked a lot. His father was tough. Heim worked with his father in a bootleg mine. [Annotator’s Note: Heim describes what a bootleg mine is]. His father served in World War One [Annotator's Note: World War 1, a global war originating in Europe; 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918]. His father mined too much and he died because of his lungs. His father was a full-blooded German, but he loved this country. It was tough, and they would have potato soup four days out of seven. They were poor. [Annotator's Note: Heim is referring to the Great Depression; a global economic depression that lasted through the 1930s]. His father would make his own mines when he was laid off. It gave some relief to the money problems. When Heim was 15 years old he got a job at a coal breaker. He would shovel the coal for three to five hours a day. He made a dollar a day and would take it home to his mother. He would run to high school, two miles one way, and then run home. Then he would go to work shoveling coal.

Henry Heim was 17 years old when he went to work in the mine with his father. He shoveled coal into a buggy. His father told him to move because it was going to cave. Heim did not move in time and the coal caved in and pinned him in. His father crawled in and dug him out. His father told him to go into the service and get out of the coal mine. A month later, his mother took him down to Harrisburg [Annotator’s Note: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania] and he signed up for the Army Air Corps. He was sent to Fort Dix [Annotator’s Note: Fort Dix in Trenton, New Jersey] for boot camp. He always wanted to fly. He would make airplanes out of wood. Boot camp was tough because he was away from home. He was shipped to the West Coast and then on to Hawaii. They did bayonet drills. The discipline did not bother him.

Henry Heim was a waist gunner for nine months in Hawaii. Then came Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. Heim woke up that Sunday morning, and only two of them were up. They went down to the mess hall and then returned to the barracks. He went to his bunk to write a letter. As he started writing the letter he heard a lot of planes. They thought the Navy was running maneuvers on a Sunday morning. Then they heard the planes dive and they heard booming. Heim ran to the window and saw a plane coming in their direction. He saw the plane was smoking and it had a red symbol on the side. He yelled “Japs!” [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] and they had to get out to their posts. The Japanese shot at everything that moved. The bullets were hitting the floor around him. He ran through the mess hall. As he came out of the door, a bomb was dropped in the middle of the mess hall. He ran into the hangar to get a machine gun. He heard a loud noise and he was thrown off his feet. When he woke up, he was on the ground and bloody. He thought he was going to die. He got the machine gun and ammunition. He got into the bomber and started shooting back. The planes flew low over him. He hit one of the gunners. Then another one came and started shooting at him. When he felt the glass flying he took off running. He took cover in an irrigation ditch. There were about seven others in the ditch. A Jap plane started coming down the irrigation ditch and they all had to run. As he ran across the runway, he saw a B-17 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] with the tail missing. He saw a B-17 land. He got to the hangar just in time. He never viewed a body when he got home because he saw plenty that day. He bit his tongue when a bomb went off and he bled. The officers with trucks picked up any men they could find. They thought the Japs were going to invade. They were told to hold the position. Heim had a rifle and three things of ammunition. They stayed there all night long.

Henry Heim suffered all night long [Annotator's Note: Heim is referring to being injured during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. The next morning they came and picked them up. Heim was taken to the hospital. He almost bit his tongue off when a bomb landed near him. After the hospital visit, he found out there were openings for pilot school. He always wanted to be a pilot. Heim passed the test, which was tough. First, he went to Santa Ana, California for primary training. Then he went to Roswell, New Mexico for advanced training. He wanted to be a fighter pilot, but he became a bomber pilot. When they graduated, only 50 percent of the men who started made it through. If they made one mistake, they were gone. Ten of the men only had a high school education. Heim was one of those men. He would do his homework on the hopper. He was not a commissioned officer because he did not have a college education. He took the same tests as the college boys and passed, but did not get the same perks. He was stuck in a B-17 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber]. He flew their airplane overseas across the North Atlantic. He was the co-pilot. When he got put in his outfit, he found out his pilot did not want to fly in combat. Heim flew three missions as co-pilot and then he was made the first pilot with his own crew. He was in the 2nd Bombardment Group with the 20th Bombardment Squadron. His plane was shot up. The ground sergeant asked if he knew how many holes were in his plane. There were 402 holes. He brought that plane back twice like that. He was sent overseas in 1942. He was sent to North Africa and then moved to Italy.

Henry Heim was sent to North Africa and then to Italy. They bombed on the other side of the Alps out of Italy. His plane was shot up on one mission and they lost an engine. He thought he could not make it back over the Alps. He told the navigator to get them through the pass. He had to skid across some of the mountain passes. When he was stationed in North Africa, they did not have to bomb there. The bombing was happening in Italy and the Balkans. It seemed like they did not have a lot of enemy action, but they did. When he first arrived, they did not have a fighter escort. The German fighters would come and hit them hard. He had 25 missions in before they had fighters that could go all the way in. The fighters had fueling issues and could not make it all the way. On one mission, his plane got shot up in enemy territory and fell out of formation. He thought he would get picked off by a Jerry [Annotator’s Note: Jerry was a nickname given to Germans mostly during the Second World War by soldiers and civilians of the Allied nations] and he would have the Luftwaffe [Annotator’s Note: the German air forces] there. He started calling for the Red Tails [Annotator’s Note: America's first black military pilots and their support personnel]. He knew they were there because the briefing told him they were in the area. After a few calls, he heard a reply. They showed up. Heim served for 50 missions. He made it through, but a lot of his friends did not. He volunteered to fly more because they needed pilots. He was told he could quit anytime and they would be returned to the United States. Thirteen days after he resumed flying, he got word that the other two guys who volunteered were killed in action. He flew an extra 19 missions on top of his 50 missions. He made it, but most of his crew did not.

Henry Heim remembers flying from North Africa into Italy was more difficult. He thinks that might be because he did not have experience then. He flew a couple of missions where the gas light was blinking. Some crews changed a lot. Heim’s crew changed once, and then he wanted the crew. He still had some of his men left as well. The first time out with the crew he had a waist gunner killed. The flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire] was terrible because he could not do anything about it. On one mission, his wing tip was blown off. He was hit in the fuel tank and could see the fumes coming out. He thought the plane would not stay in the air, but it did. He had 420 holes in the plane on one mission. He landed the plane a few times with two engines out. His toughest mission out of North Africa was in Austria. They were hit so much before they got to the target, but they hit the target. There were many times he thought he would not make it home. He told them while they were in the air, if he said an order, they needed to do it. He had to yell a couple of times. It was all about the experience. He tried his best to keep his cool on the green [Annotator’s Note: inexperienced] men. They called some missions milk runs [Annotator's Note: slang term used by American airmen to describe an easy combat mission]. Some missions they thought would be nothing and then the whole Luftwaffe [Annotator’s Note: German air forces] seemed like they were up there waiting. He does not want people to think he was a hero or a big shot. He pitied the people on the ground during the bombing missions. He has often wondered how many innocent people he is responsible for killing. This is the biggest thing that has bothered him. Korea [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953] was a different war from World War Two. They bombed at night in Korea. It was an easier war.

Henry Heim worried about his friends’ lives and the guys who were left over there. When he came home, he was assigned to be an instructor. He killed people. He thinks there were some he should not have killed. For instance, the innocent people in the target areas. He still thinks about how many people he killed. He knows in Korea [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953] they got word from the front that there were 250 Marines trapped in a gorge by the communists. They made runs with fragment bombs. When he left, the entire area was on fire. A few days later, he got word from the commander of the unit. The commander thanked him for putting the bombs down on the enemy soldiers. The worst part of the war was knowing he killed innocent people. He swore to do his job to the best of his ability and he did it. There is no country and flag that is better than his country and his flag. He would go back and do it all over again. He does not consider himself a hero. He was a soldier. He had a job and he swore to do it. He loved flying. He wanted to help because he found out they needed instructors. He was afraid to go back to being a civilian. When he saw an American flag, he felt full of pride to know he gave all he had. He trained pilots until the end of the war. He was full-time for a while, but not long enough. Every weekend they had to go down and fly airplanes.

Henry Heim was not bothered by the transition of the Army Air Corps. He fought in other countries because his country needed him to fight. He was in Korea [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953] for nine months. He flew combat the entire time. He flew B-29s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber]. He volunteered for the missions. They bombed at night. He had a wife and a child. He was afraid to go to school because he did not want to burden his family. He had to get out and get a job. He went to 27 different airline companies to get a job. They all asked if he had a college education, which he did not, so they refused him. He flew a C-47 [Annotator’s Note: Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota] and C-46 [Annotator’s Note: Curtiss C-46 Commando], but the airlines would not talk to him because he did not have college degree. He got a position at the Bell Telephone Company. He became a lineman. He was promoted to construction foreman. He was a major when he left the Air Force.

Henry Heim was glad to accomplish what he did. He is proud that he got to fight for his country. He was worried he would get shot down. His planes were shot up badly. He is grateful for what his country has and what he has. He is grateful for the policies his country has. He fought in countries where they did not have the freedoms he has. He hopes that future generations can learn from the war and prevent another one from happening. He went to Hawaii to see the Pearl Harbor memorial [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. It was an emotional experience. He stood on the Battleship Missouri [Annotator’s Note: USS Missouri (BB-63)] where they signed the peace treaty between the Japanese and Americans. He hopes people will know he did his job to the best of his ability.