Henry Schaller was born in April 1924 in Chicago, Illinois. He attended school there until he went to college. His father was a janitor that took care of two or three buildings. He had four siblings. His father stayed employed through the Great Depression and got free rent. He was a Union member with a card number of "7". Schaller had a normal childhood and lived only a mile from the beach on Lake Michigan. He went to an all male high school and had a 94.6 average. He got an athletic scholarship and scholastic scholarship to college. His mother would send him five dollars a week that he lived on. He had no idea of what the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] meant at the time. When he saw the pictures it became apparent we were at war. He tried to enlist, but was told to wait awhile. Everybody wanted to go. He got orders on 7 November 1942 and went to Santa Ana, California for basic training. He gained solid muscle there. He then went into pilot training in Oxnard, California in a single-engine Stearman [Annotator's Note: Boeing-Stearman Model 75 Kaydet primary trainer aircraft] and a couple of bombers. He trained with Bob Cummings. He then went to fly the VT-17 called the "Vultee Vibrator" [Annotator's Note: Consolidated Vultee BT-13 Valiant basic trainer aircraft; nicknamed the Vultee Vibrator]. He took advanced training in the A-10 [Annotator's Note: Beechcraft AT-10 Wichita advanced trainer aircraft]. He graduated in Fort Sumner, New Mexico and received his wings in May 1944.

Henry Schaller received his pilot's wings in 1944. After he graduated, he was a second lieutenant. He could not hear well so his choice would be any twin engine plane; the P-38 [Annotator's Note: Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter aircraft], B-25 [Annotator's Note: North American B-25 Mitchell medium bomber], A-26 [Annotator’s Note: Douglas A-26 Invader multi-role combat aircraft]. He got orders to report as a copilot on a B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber]. He had never seen anything so immense in his life. He and his pilot did not get along. Schaller was rushed to the hospital with a ruptured appendix and missed out on his original crew. His next crew was likable and welcomed him aboard. As copilot, he watched the instruments for runaway props [Annotator's Note: propellers]. [Annotator's Note: Schaller describes synchronizing the propellers.] It took an enormous amount of training to get sent overseas. He did not understand it. They went to Grand Forks, North Dakota to go to college and study for six months. They got their orders and went overseas on a Liberty ship [Annotator's Note: a class of quickly produced cargo ship] that was the poorest excuse for a ship. The trip took them 28 days. The quarters were cramped so he slept on deck. He would wake up black from the soot from the smokestack. They transferred to a Greek ship with horrible accommodations. The men were being fed out of a brass tub and the Moroccan soldiers with them ate with their hands. They then went to Italy.

When Henry Schaller arrived at his base in Italy and saw the airplanes, he cried. He could not believe they actually flew. They lived in tents. When it rained, it would torrent onto the mud floor. The stove was burning 100 octane gas. One tent exploded at night. P-51s [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] and P-38s [Annotator's Note: Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter aircraft] would fly over and knock their tents and stoves over. The weather was miserable and they were lucky to get a mission in every three days or so. They flew over Germany and Northern Italy. He was in the 15th Air Force, 484th Bombardment Group [Annotator's Note: 825th Bombardment Squadron, 484th Bombardment Group, 15th Air Force] at Torretto Field, Italy [Annotator's Note: Torretto Airfield, Foggia Airfield Complex, Italy]. Their targets were primarily industrial, bridges, and submarine pens. The toughest ones were in Vienna and Linz, Austria. His crew worked their way up to the second plane in the formation. They were the back-up bombsight. He set up his sight and the bombardier was flying the plane. The lead ship dropped their bombs and every plane but his did too. Schaller told him to drop their bombs, but he said that the lead had missed the target. Schaller could see the wall of flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire] in front of them and told him to drop them. They were the only ones to hit the target. The next day their bombardier was taken to be the lead bombardier for the Group. He would earn the nickname, "Pickle Barrel" he was so good. He ultimately started flying secret night missions.

A typical day for Henry Schaller would start with a briefing at four o'clock in the morning. If the target was to be Vienna or Linz, Austria, they would shake in their boots. Those were tough and long missions with flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire] and possible fighters. They would form up and then Schaller would fly the plane in formation because he was good at it. When they got to the Initial Point [Annotator's Note: the initial point, or IP, was the location at which the bomb run began], he would call to his engineer. The round trip mission was seven to eight hours. On one mission, the nose of the plane was blown off and the gunner was hit by the flak. They called in for the P-51s [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] and got the Tuskegee Airmen yellow tails [Annotator's Note: African-American and Caribbean-born pilots of the 332nd Fighter Group] to escort them in. They came back and landed and they knelt and said a little prayer. Schaller saw blood and asked the gunner to come back. He wanted to know why he did not tell him. He told him that he was so scared that he thought he had wet his pants [Annotator's Note: instead of bleeding]. He received a Purple Heart [Annotator's Note: award bestowed upon a United States service member who has been wounded as a result of combat actions against an armed enemy] and continued to fly. [Annotator's Note: Schaller tells a story of this man passing away after the war.]

Henry Schaller's bomber [Annotator's Note: a Boeing B-17 FLying Fortress heavy bomber] flew at 23,000 feet. It was 33 below zero and the insulated suits did not work. Schaller got hearing aids and some back pay. Schaller was discharged soon after the war ended in May 1945. He did not want to reenlist but stayed in the Reserve. He was called back in June and was transferred to Greensboro, North Carolina, the hottest place in the world. He was copilot on a C-47 [Annotator's Note: Douglas C-47 Skytrain cargo aircraft] even though he had not been checked out on one. He was flying men training to be navigators. He made up his own tests for them. He was then transferred to C-46s [Annotator's Note: Curtiss C-46 Commando cargo aircraft].

Henry Schaller got discharged. He flew home in a new plane that nothing worked in. He flew from Italy to Africa and then to the Azores. There is nothing around them, and if you do not get there you have to ditch. They landed and it was like heaven. They took showers. They then went to Gander, Newfoundland and then to the United States. He got home and wanted to surprise his wife in Chicago, Illinois. She had seen him on television on a newsreel. Some of his buddies came back with Tuskegee Airmen [Annotator's Note: African-American and Caribbean-born pilots of the 332nd Fighter Group] and when they came down the gangplank, the whites went one way and the Airmen another. At one of the reunions, Schaller's outfit [Annotator's Note: 825th Bombardment Squadron, 484th Bombardment Group, 15th Air Force] invited the entire Tuskegee Airmen group and their families to stay in their hotel for three days. They paid for the whole thing. Schaller thanked them personally. They told him they only flew freight after war. Schaller came home after the war and looked for a job. He became a chemist for a wine company in Chicago. He wore his uniform to a New Year's Eve party with another officer friend, but they were the only ones. He felt uncomfortable. His friend had been a Flying Tiger [Annotator's Note: a member of the First American Volunteer Group, or AVG, of the Republic of China Air Force in 1941 and 1942] who was shot down and rescued by the Chinese underground. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer interrupts him to put in a new tape. Schaller says the reason he tells this man's story is because these are things you do not hear about. Then there is an odd cut and Schaller is speaking]. Patriotism is alive and well.