Hersey Goodwin was born in January 1925 in Morehouse Parish, Louisiana in the town of Jones. He lived on a farm. He graduated from high school in 1942. The draft was on. He got his notice when he turned 18. He did not volunteer before then. He read the papers enough to know he would be drafted. He was sent to Camp Beauregard [Annotator's Note: in Pineville, Louisiana] in Alexandria, Louisiana. He chose the Air Force and was sent to Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas for basic training. The European war was going in a pretty big way. The Air Force needed volunteers to fly. He took a test that lasted three or four hours. About 95 percent of them washed out, including Goodwin, and it was upsetting. He was then assigned to gunnery school. He went to Harlingen Field [Annotator's Note: now Valley International Airport, Harlingen, Texas] and got gunnery training. He left there for California where he was assigned to a B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] crew of ten men. He met his crew mates that he flew with until the war ended [Annotator's Note: in the 11th Bombardment Group, 7th Air Force]. They trained there and went to Hickam Air Force Base [Annotator's Note: then Hickam Field, now Hickham Air Force Base, in Honolulu, Hawaii] in Hawaii. He had been drafted in 1943 and went to Hawaii in 1944. He trained there and then they went to Harmon Air Force Base on Guam, Mariana Islands. There was very little to do there. He flew 40 combat missions from there totaling 400 combat hours. Most missions were bombing the islands around Guam. The major target of his group was Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima, Japan]. It was fairly small and had an airstrip. B-29s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] were stationed on Saipan [Annotator's Note: Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands] and Tinian [Annotator's Note: Tinian, Mariana Islands]. The military was concerned about the Japanese bombing the B-29s from Iwo. So it was the B-24s job to fly several missions a day to drop 500 pound penetrating bombs on the runways. Goodwin flew 25 of his 40 missions over Iwo Jima. The missions averaged about 10 hours. He had not realized how big the Pacific was until he started flying over it. His last mission over Iwo was when the Marines had landed and fought their way in [Annotator's Note: Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February to 26 March 1945]. The Japanese had dug tunnels and the Marines were having trouble. Iwo was volcanic and that made digging foxholes hard. The Marines had a lot of casualties in the invasion. They called for air support and Goodwin's plane went as a single aircraft. Goodwin was a nose gunner. They were going to fly over at 5,000 feet instead of 20,000 feet. As they approached Iwo, he could see Iwo was encircled by 50 to 100 Naval ships. The battleships were firing onto the Japanese end of the island. Goodwin could not detect a single vehicle or person moving around below. They were not fired at. They dropped their bombs and returned to their base. Naval dive bombers were circling above them, so the Japanese did not take a chance. The Marines took Iwo in one of the bloodiest battles in the Pacific. The Marines had to use flamethrowers to get the Japanese out of the tunnels.

Hersey Goodwin flew one mission over Iwo [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima, Japan] where they [Annotator's Note: 11th Bombardment Group, 7th Air Force] and was recommended for the Distinguished Flying Cross [Annotator's Note: US Armed Forces award for heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in an aerial flight]. They lined up to drop their bombs and the Japanese artillery was getting lined up on them. They could hear the ack-ack [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire]. When you can hear it, it means it is accurate. Shrapnel hit the plane in the bomb bay area and went through the bomb bay tank. Luckily, they had siphoned all of the gas out and into the wing tanks beforehand. No critical damage had been done and they made it back. This was within a couple of months of the war's end by dropping the atomic bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on 6 August 1945 and Nagasaki, Japan on 9 August 1945]. Goodwin was home after the war when he got news that they had received the medals. They got Air Medals [Annotator's Note: US Armed Forces medal for single acts of heroism or meritorious achievement while in aerial flight] and an oak leaf cluster [Annotator's Note: ribbon device to denote subsequent decorations and awards; bronze indicates one additional award; sliver equals five bronze clusters] for each five missions. He was home on leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] when he got news of Japan's unconditional surrender. As a result of flying 40 missions, he had earned enough points [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home] to be discharged quickly. He applied to be discharged. He went to the University of Arkansas [Annotator's Note: in Fayetteville, Arkansas] 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]. He took advanced ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps] and a private pilot course. He learned to fly Piper Cubs [Annotator's Note: Piper J-3 Cub light observation aircraft]. He taught for one year and decided he would go back into the Air Force. This was during the Korean War [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953]. He was approved for pilot training and was sent to Spence Air Force Base [Annotator's Note: now Spence Airport] in Moultrie, Georgia. He took basic flying there in AT-6s [Annotator's Note: North American AT-6 Texan advanced trainer aircraft]. He then went to Reese Air Force Base [Annotator's Note: now Reese Technology Center] in Lubbock, Texas for advanced flying in instruments and formation. He got his license in 1952 there. He was given the option of applying for fighter training or multi-engine flying. Since he had been on B-24s [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber], he volunteered for multi-engine school. Like everything in the military, he was sent to Moody Air Force Base in Valdosta, Georgie for jet transition school. He flew F-80s [Annotator's Note: Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star jet fighter aircraft] and T-33 [Annotator's Note: Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star jet trainer aircraft] jets for two years. He got married and had a daughter. The Korean War had ended, and he decided to get out. The Piper Cub lands at about 25 or 30 miles an hour. The AT-6 touches down at about 60 miles an hour. At the jet school, a pilot took him up in his first flight in a jet to shoot three or four landings. The F-80 was the first jet fighter used in combat. He flew the T-33 as a trainer. The instructor demonstrated some landings and then turned it over to Goodwin. It was his second or third day there. The jet touches down at 120 miles per hour. Goodwin took off and came around to land. He was told to go around again as it did not look like his landing gear was locked down. Two or three days later, he went to do night landings solo. Goodwin was behind a guy he knew. The F-80s had wingtip tanks which does not give much margin for error. The guy on take-off dipped a wing and touched the runway. The plane flipped and blew up. They stopped flying. The pilot did not have a chance. That was a traumatic experience for Goodwin. After a couple of years, he decided to get out.

After leaving the Air Force, Hersey Goodwin went back to get his master's degree. He returned to his hometown [Annotator's Note: Jones, Louisiana] and became a teacher and coach. He became a principal for an elementary school for about 12 years. He retired from that. He has a pecan orchard, three daughters, and some cows. He took a trip a couple of years ago on Honor Air [Annotator's Note: Honor Flight, conducted by nonprofit organizations dedicated to transporting military veterans to visit Washington, D.C. at no cost to the veterans]. There were 80 to 100 veterans and others who went along to assist with the trip. They went to Washington, D.C. and toured the different museums and military sights and monuments. They flew back that evening. That was a highlight for him.

The B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] was a four engine bomber. Hersey Goodwin has read there were more B-24s built than any other plane in combat in World War 2. A lot of people called it "The Four Fan Flying SPAM Can" [Annotator's Note: SPAM is canned cooked pork made by Hormel Foods Corporation] because it looks cumbersome and clumsy. The four engines were very dependable. It flew better than you think. It could fly with one engine. They had ten crew members. Goodwin was the nose gunner. Each turret gunner had two .50 caliber machine guns [Annotator's Note: Browning ANM2 .50 caliber machine gun]. Over Iwo [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima, Japan], there were kamikazes that tried to fly into the bombers. Goodwin saw one hit and both planes just seemed to melt in midair. Generally, the Japanese fighter planes that came up radioed their altitude to the gunners on the ground. They were not interested in attacking the bombers due to the guns. Goodwin was shooting at three to five Japanese fighters that were shooting at them and shot them down. Each gunner had a camera that went in motion when they pulled the triggers. Sometimes five or six gunners were shooting at one plane. No one got individual credit for shooting them down. They did not fear the Japanese Zeros [Annotator's Note: Japanese Mitsubishi A6M fighter aircraft, referred to as the Zeke or Zero], but they respected the antiaircraft fire. During the day, the ack-ack [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire] looks like a puff of smoke. At night, it is a ball of fire and looks a lot more dangerous. He has heard about what the B-17s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] and B-24s faced in Europe. He did not face the amount of fire that they did. The Germans protected their facilities and ringed them with antiaircraft fire. His crew stayed together the full time, and nobody missed a mission. They were close knit. The officers did not expect them to show extra respect in their direction because they were all up there for one mission on a team effort. They called each other by their first names. Goodwin was in the 11th Bomb Group, 7th Air Force [Annotator's Note: 11th Bombardment Group, 7th Air Force]. After the war, some officers got reunions together. There were four squadrons of B-24s. When Goodwin first went over, they had to fly 30 missions to return to the United States for leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time]. When he got to about 25, they upped the number of missions to 35. At 33 or so, they moved it up to 40. When you get in a plane and fly five hours with all you can see is the ocean, you just see the white caps as far as you can see. They would be told a B-29 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] or two had ditched and to be on the lookout for a life raft. That was like looking for a needle in a haystack. They had annual meetings. He went to one in Cape Cod, Massachusetts when his crew was still living. There are only a couple still alive, so he quit going to the meetings. The pilot kept them together. He would send out memorandums to each of them. When he passed away, it sort of broke up. The World War 2 veterans are becoming fewer and fewer.

Hersey Goodwin does not remember his first mission [Annotator's Note: with the 11th Bombardment Group, 7th Air Force]. He was on Guam [Annotator's Note: Guam, Mariana Islands] after it was recaptured from the Japanese [Annotator's Note: Second Battle of Guam, 21 July to 10 August 1944]. Some of the Japanese soldiers moved into the forested area of the island and hid out. They would come down at night and try to get on the planes to get food. Every once in a while, one would get caught. Goodwin would go to the PX [Annotator's Note: post exchange] and look at them. He could just tell the Japanese hated them. They fought to the last breath. Years later, there were some there that did not know the war was over. Goodwin and the gunners stayed in a tent with bunkbeds. They had an outdoor latrine and a mess hall. They would be briefed on their targets. He thinks his first mission was hitting Japanese Naval facilities. He does know it was unique. He is not superstitious. When they got back safely after that first mission, some of the things the guys had on them for it, were considered a good luck charm. They would try to take them on each mission. They flew 40 missions and went home. Then the war ended. The aircraft he flew on most of the time was named "Unapproachable" with a picture of lady in a bathing suit laying on a blanket. It was just there on the base, and others might fly it too. He does not recall ever having any fighter escort. Their missions were so long a fighter plane would have to be on a carrier near the target. Japan had to conserve their fighting arsenal. If they had a chance to fly a plane into a ship, they would do it. The kamikazes flew into a lead plane of their formation once. It seemed like it melted in midair. Most of their missions were single plane and at night. You could see the whitecaps washing up on the island at night.

Hersey Goodwin and the gunners spent a lot of time with flight recognition. When the plane flew into the one in front, he figured it was a kamikaze [Annotator's Note: on a mission with the 11th Bombardment Group, 7th Air Force near Iwo Jima, Japan]. He was about 18 years old and at that age, you do not look on that stuff in as quite a serious mood as you get older. He did have a sinking feeling knowing those people did not have chance. They went up in flames. He always thought if they had to ditch the ocean, the B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] would hold together. They had a lifeboat that could hold ten people. They wore life vests over the target. It was easier to see a lifeboat on the water. There was a system on it that would siphon salt water to be drinkable. They thought they would have casualties. At basic training, they learned to disassemble guns. The instructor would tell them that if they were going to get captured, they would have to render their guns unusable. Some of the instructors figured they were not taking the instructions as seriously as they should. Some were combat veterans and would say that half of them would not be there a year from now. That did not ring a bell at that age. You think are going to live forever. It is good to have that confidence in young soldiers.

When Hersey Goodwin was discharged, it was after the atomic bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on 6 August 1945 and Nagasaki, Japan on 9 August 1945] were dropped on Japan. It was such a relief. So many people had participated in uniform and in factories. World War 2 covered so much territory. Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] was wiped out and Japan surrendered unconditionally. The Japanese hated the Americans and did not want to give up. Goodwin was glad it was over. He knew he was going to university. The war started in Europe in the 1930s and ended in 1945. We did not declare war on Japan until they bombed Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] and then we defeated them. Nobody liked to think about invading Japan because it would have been bloody like it was on Iwo [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima, Japan]. The country was so relieved at getting the war over with, when Goodwin got home, he does not remember sitting down and talking with anybody about what had happened. He did not talk about it when he was a teacher and coach. His students did not even know he had flown jet until years later when he was in an article in the paper. In the last few years, he took an Honor Air flight [Annotator's Note: Honor Flight, conducted by nonprofit organizations dedicated to transporting military veterans to visit Washington D.C. at no cost to the veterans] and enjoyed it. He has gone to several luncheons for veterans. He goes to a museum in Monroe [Annotator's Note: Monroe, Louisiana] and gives talks. It has been more of that in the last four or five years than in the years after the war was over. He had a lot of tourists on the Honor Air trip shaking his hand and thanking him for his service. It makes him feel good to be a part of it. So many people had a role in the war. So many killed. It was big and costly. It is not a perfect world. He thinks veterans appreciate the recognition. He does not consider himself a hero. He just did his part of the job. People back home to make sacrifices. The whole country came together to defeat Hitler and Japan. That mission was accomplished, and Hitler committed suicide [Annotator's Note: on 30 April 1945 in Führerbunker, Berlin, Germany].

Hersey Goodwin was in high school, and they talked current events in the mornings. They knew about it [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. There were people killed from the high school and they put their pictures up. When he got to Honolulu [Annotator's Note: Honolulu, Hawaii], he went down to Waikiki Beach. It was a cloudy, windy day. The next day they had a lot of people on sick call with sunburn. They were told they could be court-martialed. He stayed in the barracks on Hickam Field [Annotator's Note: now Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu, Hawaii]. Joe Gordon [Annotator's Note: Joseph Lowell "Flash" Gordon; American Major League Baseball player], the Yankees baseball player was there, and Joe DiMaggio [Annotator's Note: Joseph Paul "Joltin' Joe" or "The Yankee Clipper" DiMaggio; American Major League Baseball player] came through. This was the latter part of 1943, and he could still see the ships wreckage protruding from the water [Annotator's Note: at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii]. The barracks had pockmarks from the Japanese planes [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He thought Japan was on our [Annotator's Note: America's] side. The Japanese pulled a fast one and caught us sleeping at the switch. The country recovered swiftly. Goodwin was tickled when he learned the atomic bomb [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on 6 August 1945 and Nagasaki, Japan on 9 August 1945] was dropped. He had anticipated how it would be to invade Japan house-to-house. The Japanese did not surrender after the first one. After another one was dropped, it wiped the city out. It was horrible, but it would have been a lot of worse in an invasion. Japan was restricted from building up again. Germany too. Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] had secretly built a fighting machine that almost conquered the world. They started discharging everybody and there was a lot of joy. Goodwin was already at home. He hears stories now about the ones who came back from Vietnam [Annotator's Note: Vietnam War, or Second Indochina War, 1 November 1955 to 30 April 1975]. It was a different situation because so many people were against that war. The soldiers were not responsible for it but were not treated well when they came home.

Hersey Goodwin is glad his daughter called [Annotator's Note: for this interview]. He does not mind discussing it at all. In the Air Force, when he came off a mission, he would go eat and sleep on bunks without fear of enemy attacks. The next day they could go to a movie or a USO [Annotator's Note: United Service Organizations, Inc.] show. In the airplane, they flew at 20,000 feet and dropped bombs. They did not know if they killed anybody or what damage was done. They did not see the casualties, so being in the Air Force was different than being on the Normandy beach invasion [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944] and seeing people killed and injured. There are things that can happen in the sky. They flew at 10,000 feet and would not encounter fighters. When they started climbing to 20,000 feet, and went over and dropped their bombs, they took evasive action. In the nose turret he had to release doors to get out and walk far to get out. The nose part was the heaviest and would head towards the drink first. He could not bail out in the turret. It would have been a chore to get out. The jet airplanes he flew should not be crash landed. If it touches the ground at 120 miles per hour, there will not be much left of it. They have a system so the pilot can eject and parachute down. The air is thin and cold up there. A lot of people have been saved by ejecting.