Homer Cole was born in September 1925 in Jasper, Missouri. He had three brothers and two sisters. His father moved his family to a farm in Carthage, Missouri. The Coles later moved to Pittsburg, Kansas because of his father's railroad work. The family lived on a farm. That was where Homer graduated from high school and entered college using the Navy V-7 [Annotator’s Note: V-7 US Navy Midshipmen Officer Candidates Program, 1940 to 1945] and V-12 [Annotator’s Note: V-12 US Navy College Training Program, 1943 to 1946] programs. Many of the Hornet's [Annotator's Note: USS Hornet (CV-7)] crew attended the college with him. He was drafted out of school but re-enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces with the hope of being a pilot. They had enough pilots at the time so he was initially sent to navigator training because of his mathematics skill. Because of the greater need, he was transferred to gunnery school in El Paso, Texas. After completing his training, he was assigned to the 387th Bombardment Group with the 8th Air Force as a tail gunner. He was sent to Suffolk, England in a new plane but given a different plane after arrival. He landed in England before the invasion [Annotator's Note: Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944; often simply referred to as D-Day]. His first mission was in March. Each mission had 25 planes at four different levels when they flew in formation to Europe. The top plane was at about 40,000. Between missions, crews were given time off to either train or, on occasion, have leave in nearby London [Annotator's Note: London, England]. London had been bombed extensively so an individual had to take care.

Homer Cole flew 19 missions [Annotator's Note: Cole served in the US Army Air Forces as a tail gunner aboard Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bombers and later Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers with the 487th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force]. His first mission over an oil field in Denmark was anything but a "milk run" [Annotator's Note: slang term used by American airmen to describe an easy combat mission] as alluded to in the mission briefing. Other missions involved targeting airfields, bearing [Annotator's Note: ball bearing] manufacturers, or other key sites. One of the missions was over Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany]. His plane had to refuel in Russia because of the length of the return trip to England. The Russians took great care to isolate the Americans while they were in their care. Conversely, the Americans were very open about their technology with the Soviet airmen when they landed in England. On his eighteenth mission over Brandenburg, Germany, there were 120 planes in the formation. Cole's plane had a trained bombardier in it so it was in the lead of the group. Others following Cole's plane had "toggliers" to release their bombs. As the tail gunner, Cole's ability to fire his weapon was restricted because of the planes behind him. Any jets [Annotator’s Note: by this stage of the war, the Germans had introduced jet fighters such as the Messerschmidt Me-262] attacking the formation were hard to hit. As the mission proceeded, Cole's plane was hit by German flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire]. The pilot was severely injured. The copilot had Cole assist him in flying the damaged plane. Cole was in the pilot's seat keeping his foot on the trim tab. That was the beginning of his nickname, "Big Foot." With Cole's assistance, the copilot was able to land the damaged B-17 in Belgium, even after losing both engines on the left side of the plane. Several of the crewmen were injured, including Cole. No one died in the incident. Cole had a brief hospital stay and subsequently flew one more mission with a different crew. By that time, the middle of May [Annotator's Note: May 1945], the war was over and Cole was sent home.

When the war ended in Europe, Homer Cole was sent to Alexandria, Louisiana to begin training on B-29s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Super Fortress very heavy bomber] for deployment to the Pacific. Before that deployment, the war with Japan ended. Cole worked in a movie theater as a projectionist and was in charge of P.E. [Annotator's Note: physical education] playing basketball. He was discharged on 25 November 1945 in Alexandria. He then returned home to Pittsburg, Kansas and attended Pittsburg State on the G.I. Bill. He obtained three degrees, graduating in mathematics, biology and P.E. All three of his brothers served during the war and returned safely. Cole was involved in a personnel controversy with the school board and had several jobs before becoming a manager of a bowling alley. It became his career afterwards. He moved to Oklahoma and he and his wife ran two bowling alleys. He managed one and she ran the other. When an opportunity opened in his hometown of Pittsburg, Cole took it. He owned a bowling alley with his wife for 20 plus years. He met his wife when he was in the 9th grade and she was in the 7th. They were married on Thanksgiving Day 1946 and were together for 54 years until she passed from cancer.

Homer Cole parlayed his skill at bowling alley management plus his people skills to begin a political career in 1985 as a city commissioner. He served as mayor of Pittsburg, Kansas from 1987 to 1991. The city had a population of 25,000 when it was a major coal producer. Coal mining was once the major industry in the area, shipping out 500 cars of coal per day. The industry eventually dropped off because of the reduction in quality of the coal. As mayor of the city, Cole had to manage his budget very closely. He interacted with school children to show them the role of the mayor on Government Day. Cole and his wife were excellent bowlers. His children are good athletes as well. Because of his leadership role in establishing a local senior center, his name is on it [Annotator's Note: the Homer Cole Community Center in Pittsburg, Kansas]. The local college, Pittsburg State University, has placed him in their Hall of Fame. The technical college has 8,000 students in its huge campus. His children all graduated from the college. Looking back, before deployment, Cole and his crewmates were close enough to each other that their mail was shared between all the families. When Cole's aircraft was hit over Germany, he thought it was the end. He followed the copilot's lead and the plane and crew were saved. The copilot and his family were close to Cole through the years. Cole is the last surviving crewman from that mission.