Irvin Kennedy was born and raised in Algiers [Annotator's Note: Algiers neighborhood in New Orleans, Louisiana] and moved to New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana] during the Depression [Annotator's Note: the Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States]. The preflight school was the equivalent of two years of college. They taught aerial navigation. He went to school in California. He wanted to fly. He beat the draft by about nine months and enlisted at 20 years old. He wanted to be a fighter pilot. He was sent to Las Vegas [Annotator's Note: Las Vegas, Nevada] for gunnery school. He was in an airplane with an open cockpit and shot at the plane pulling the target. The crew that graduated from the gunnery school was given a choice. Kennedy chose the ball turret gun. He flew 21 missions [Annotator's Note: with the 401st Bombardment Squadron, 91st Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force] and did not get a scratch. They had an intercom to talk to everyone. His first time in the ball turret he was satisfied with it. To him, the waist gunners were subject to being killed. The pilot got shrapnel in his arm [Annotator's Note: on a combat mission].

Irvin Kennedy flew 21 missions [Annotator's Note: with the 401st Bombardment Squadron, 91st Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force]. His first mission was an easy run. They flew over to Bremen, Germany, and dropped bombs on submarines. It was a short trip. Nobody was hurt. The fighters [Annotator's Note: enemy fighter aircraft] would come from the rear and fly under the wing of the B-17 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] then take a dive. Kennedy would shoot at them the whole time. Schweinfurt [Annotator's Note: Schweinfurt, Germany] was the toughest mission. They lost a lot of people. Their B-17s had an A on the tail [Annotator's Note: the A was their insignia]. They were the first group over there. They dropped their bombs in Poland and the Germans chased them into Sweden. When they bailed out, the pilot's parachute opened up on him in the cockpit. Kennedy landed on a farm. The family there fed him lunch. One man called Kennedy a murderer because he was killing Germans. A local policeman arrested him after he ate lunch. He gave the family his parachute. The policeman had the tail gunner in tow. He took them to his office. They knew they were in Sweden because they made it across the Baltic Sea. The pilot had crash-landed their plane and survived [Annotator's Note: in Vollsjö, Sweden]. The policeman gave them to the Army. They stayed there for a couple of months. The captain called and told him he had to go back to England. He did not want to go back to England yet. They were treating him well. They were being paid by the Swedish government. One crewman drowned while they were there. They were treated well.

A tech sergeant [Annotator's Note: stationed with Irvin Kennedy in the 401st Bombardment Squadron, 91st Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force] heard about D-Day [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944] and got in trouble. Kennedy was sent to Monroe, Louisiana [Annotator's Note: after being released from Sweden where he had landed after his plane was disabled] where he heard the war was over. He left Sweden on 24 October 1944. They sent a B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] to go get them. They were told they would all be repatriated when they got to England. This was his first time in a B-24, and he did not like it. He was in England for about a week and then he was put on a plane to go back to the United States. He stayed in for 10 months after the war. He was told he would be discharged after he bought an automobile. He went to Shreveport [Annotator's Note: Shreveport, Louisiana] and then went home.

Irvin Kennedy was not affected by the war. He did not have a career when he got back. He went to work on a mail train for 15 years. The United States had to be involved in the war. He has not been to The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana]. Kennedy enlisted in the Air Force [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces]. People that do not go to the museum do not realize what the war was.