Jack Keller was born in June 1924 in Cincinnati [Annotator's Note: Cincinnati, Ohio]. His parents and brother were there. His brother was in the Navy and at Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. Keller tried to sneak out and enlist in the Army Air Force. He told them he was 18, but he was 17. He got caught and then he was made to wait. He did join later and flew B-17s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber]. Keller went to Dayton, Ohio to enlist when he turned 18. He then went to Biloxi, Mississippi. He became a member of a flying crew and went to gunnery school in Las Vegas, Nevada. He flew as a gunner and made buck sergeant [Annotator's Note: the lowest rank of sergeant in the military; E-5] as that was automatic. He left there and went to aircraft mechanics school in Amarillo, Texas. [Annotator's Note: Keller says he feels bad because he had a stroke and cannot quite get everything back together.] From there, he went to Salt Lake City [Annotator's Note: Salt Lake City, Utah] and formed his crew of ten. They went to Pyote, Texas as the crew. They flew B-17s, the greatest airplane in World War 2. They went to Grand Island, Nebraska and picked up a brand-new B-17. They flew to Goose Bay, Labrador, Iceland, and then Ireland. Keller was the tail gunner. Lieutenant Stevenson [Annotator's Note: Lieutenant Robert C. Stevenson] was the command pilot and was 28 years old. Keller was almost 19. They flew to the 447th Bomb Group [Annotator's Note: 711th Bombardment Squadron, 447th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force] in England. His first mission was as the tail gunner. They were not still flying as a crew, and he went with another crew. Two days later, Lieutenant Stevenson flew his first mission and was killed [Annotator's Note: 19 April 1944]. That messed his crew up. Keller flew his second [Annotator's Note: 2 May 1944] through fifth mission [Annotator's Note: 9 May 1944] with his new crew.

[Annotator's Note: Jack Keller's wife assists him throughout this clip as he had a stroke and has trouble remembering details.] Keller's chest got clogged up due to the English weather. He could not speak and was taken off flying [Annotator's Note: with the 711th Bombardment Squadron, 447th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force]. Another tail gunner took his place named Joe Klaput [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Staff Sergeant Joseph H. Klaput]. They thought he was killed when he was shot down [Annotator's Note: 12 May 1944]. George Klaput [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Sergeant George E. Klaput] was his twin brother and best friend. George Klaput came after Keller with his .45 [Annotator's Note: .45 caliber M1911 semi-automatic pistol] to kill Keller. Colonel McRay [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Lieutenant Colonel Edward J. McRay Junior] and Keller were threatened. For 50 years, he never knew Joe was alive. He was in France at the Eiffel Tower in a group [Annotator's Note: after the war], and he was talking to a gentleman who mentioned the name. He was told then he was alive. Keller called and wrote Joe Klaput a letter. Keller and his wife went to Pittsburgh [Annotator's Note: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania] to meet him. He asked him to see his brother George. He went to see him in Michigan and asked if he was going to shoot him. He said he would have killed Keller in a heartbeat. Joe was a POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] in Poland for a year and a half. Joe told Keller that he did not take his place, it was that the Lord thought he could handle the mission better because he was Polish and would be able to help the men in the prison camp.

[Annotator's Note: Jack Keller's wife assists him throughout this clip as he had a stroke and has trouble remembering details.] Keller ended up flying 26 missions [Annotator's Note: with the 711th Bombardment Squadron, 447th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force]. On his 25th mission, he got hit in the head. The doctor said he could fly one more mission. After his 26th mission [Annotator's Note: 6 November 1944], he was sent home. Keller was stationed in Rattlesden, England. There were wheat fields all round them. There would be 21 B-17s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber]. It would be dark, and they would all fly one at a time. At light, they would form. The 8th Air Force flew as many as 1,000 B-17s. They would have 60 some planes in a group. A lot were shot down. His pilot was killed on his first mission. They always got flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire]. He thinks he got fighters. Keller was not flying that day. His pilot was being trained how to fly as a crew and getting experience. He was a great guy. They would fly as high as 30,000 feet where it was 50 degrees below zero. In the tail gun, he had his regular clothes, flight clothes, and electric, heated suits. It was tough. There were two gunners at each waist. That air was going to the tail. He was kneeling on a bicycle seat while flying. The worst thing was getting scared. There were guys who relieved themselves and were freezing and a lot of guys did not make it. Keller was lucky. The tail gunner would just relieve themselves in the tail. That area got pretty raunchy after a few missions. He would never want to fly another mission again. They flew for eight to nine hours on a mission. At 15,000 feet, it is cold there too. Some guys shorted their electric suits out. It was sad.

[Annotator's Note: Jack Keller's wife assists him throughout this clip as he had a stroke and has trouble remembering details.] Keller had two .50 calibers [Annotator's Note: Browning ANM2 .50 caliber machine gun]. They [Annotator's Note: 711th Bombardment Squadron, 447th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force] probably shot their own planes too. He hates to say that, but when you have 60 planes in three different groups, there is bound to be a lot of shots fired. New recruits they would be flown in what was called Purple Heart Corner [Annotator's Note: nickname for low bombers in the rear formations] of the formation, where guys were shot down. There were three groups to a wing and 21 planes in a group. There was a lead group, a high group, and a low group, up to 1,000 planes. He hates to think about all the Germans that were killed. They were still people. Keller flew two missions on D-Day [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. The first was to Cannes which was only about 30 miles from England. They formed and went to 18,000 to 20,000 feet, dropped the bombs on Cannes [Annotator's Note: Cannes, France], and due to how many planes were in the air, they had to go down south and come back. His missions were six hours each. His second mission he flew to Lisieux, France. Just before D-Day it was all dark and they were all going to go fly. They saw the planes had been painted with stripes for D-Day. He does not think the paint was dry. They were flying in support of General Dempsey [Annotator's Note: British General Sir Miles Christopher Dempsey, commander Second Army]. When he flew over the English Channel, it was unbelievable. The whole English Channel was full of boats firing. No enemy showed up while they were flying. The poor boys were going in and thousands and thousands were lost on the coast of France. [Annotator's Note: Keller gets up and looks through some books and papers and gets his flight records.] His plane was nicknamed "Ol' Scrapiron" [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress heavy bomber, aircraft number 42-31582]. His original pilot who had gotten killed on his first mission had that nickname. On Keller's 18th mission [Annotator's Note: 18 July 1944], they named the plane that after Lieutenant Stevenson [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Lieutenant Robert C. Stevenson]. It was hard. On D-Day [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944] it was dark, and they were headed back to England. The Germans were shooting at them in the dark. They landed at another base that night and went back the next morning. He got up in the morning and it was dark, he flew three six-hour missions, and came home in the dark.

[Annotator's Note: Jack Keller's wife assists him throughout the interview as he had a stroke and has trouble remembering details.] Keller's hardest mission was his first one to Belgium [Annotator's Note: with the 711th Bombardment Squadron, 447th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force, 27 April 1944]. He was a tail gunner but was always volunteering. They asked for a togglier [Annotator's Note: crew member responsible for arming and dropping bombs in lieu of a bombardier], and he volunteered to do it. He flew with another crew as that. They needed bombardiers. Keller had never drunk alcohol before and after every mission, everybody got a shot. He drank it. After that first mission, he never ate food until afterwards. It was scary. His third [Annotator's Note: 7 May 1944] and fourth missions [Annotator's Note: 8 May 1944] were to Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany]. They were the hardest. His original pilot was killed in Berlin on his first mission. They were terrible missions. On his 25th mission [Annotator's Note: 26 October 1944], the plexiglass in the window got shot up and hit him in the head. That was normal. It was probably Me-110s [Annotator's Note: Messerschmitt Bf 110 (Me 110) Zerstörer (Destroyer) heavy fighter-bomber] or FW-190s [Annotator's Note: Focke-Wulf Fw 190 Wurger; English: Shrike]. They did not have fighters every mission, but when they were there, it was scary and tough. You have 62 planes in three groups, and you are all shooting. They probably shot up a lot of their own people. Al Acuna [Annotator's Note: Staff Sergeant Albert A. Acuna] got his face blown up. He lived in California and he and his wife were going to visit him. He told his wife not to stare at him when she saw him. Keller was shocked when he saw him, because Al had had 22 surgeries to fix his face and only had a glass eye. He and Keller are the last of their crew alive [Annotator's Note: at the time of this interview]. The bomber crews did not have 51s [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] early. They had 47s [Annotator's Note: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft] that would fly back and forth and then have to go back. From there it was a problem. The P-51 could fly further, faster, and longer. It made all the difference in the world. Guys did not get killed like they normally would have. The P-51 made a big difference in the war.

[Annotator's Note: Jack Keller's wife assists him throughout the interview as he had a stroke and has trouble remembering details.] Growing up, Keller was born in a small area. He had an older brother who joined the Navy and retired after 36 years. Keller and his dad would go hunting. They went once to hunt quail and Keller got shot. Keller could see his brother coming with his gun and headed for a tree. Keller had buckshot all through him. His brother was in California. They did not write that often. Keller was the baby of the family. After he came home, he went to fly to Washington, D.C. He flew on a C-54 [Annotator's Note: Douglas C-54 Skymaster cargo aircraft] with all the big shots. He ended up in New York City [Annotator's Note: New York, New York] instead on New Year's Eve 1945. His clothes were in Washington, D.C. He was then flown to Santa Ana, California for about a month of rehabilitation. He went to Chanute Field, Illinois [Annotator's Note: now Chanute Air Force Base in Champaign County, Illinois]. All he did there was work on AT-6 [Annotator's Note: North American AT-6 Texan advanced trainer aircraft] propellors. He did that for the rest of the war. One day a guy came up and said if he had 46 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], he could get out. He was one of the first out the gate. He was maybe going to stay but he met his wife. They have been married 66 years. After he was discharged, he went to Cincinnati [Annotator's Note: Cincinnati, Ohio]. He went to work at a department store. He worked there for seven years. He then went to Furnell, atomic energy plant [Annotator's Note: unable to identify] and worked for two years. He retired at 62. His son was going to retire, and he could not let his son retire before him. Their son had been on a nuclear submarine for 24 years when he retired. Now their son rebuilds race cars and engines and has a lot of guys working for him. Retirement is the best thing Keller has ever done. He and his wife have traveled all over the world. They went on a trip to England and to Cannes [Annotator's Note: Cannes, France]. Keller was getting awards from different places. People started asking him questions and he let them know Cannes was devastated and that he was on a mission that bombed the town [Annotator's Note: as part of the 711th Bombardment Squadron, 447th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force]. They started congratulating him and thanking him. Keller had never been out of Ohio before he got into the service. He did not get a leave for three years.

[Annotator's Note: Jack Keller's wife assists him throughout this clip as he had a stroke and has trouble remembering details.] When Pearl Harbor was bombed [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941], Keller's brother was on a submarine. His partners told him he could not go in. He tried to go in early but was caught lying. He did go in at 18 [Annotator's Note: in November 1943]. He went to an aviation high school and that sparked his interest. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Keller to talk about his restoration work on "My Gal Sal", a Boeing B-17E Flying Fortress heavy bomber, aircraft number 41-9032.] Mister Ready [Annotator's Note: Robert Ready] had the plane and bought parts and took them to the airport. He was helping rebuild B-17s for five years. Nobody got paid for it. He enjoyed it. It is really a shame they had to lose it there where they did the work, but he thinks New Orleans [Annotator's Note: the airplane is on static display at The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana] is where it should be. Ready found out about Keller and called him about it. Keller spent many hours on it. Once going to work on it, Keller got a traffic ticket for passing a truck. All of the wire was replaced in that B-17, but it had to be taken out because everything had to be original. He did not know the man he worked with during the war. They met working on the B-17. [Annotator's Note: Keller's wife goes back to his training.] Keller got sick of marching. There were so many people they did not know what to do with them. He had gone to gunnery school before he went to mechanics' school. He automatically became a buck sergeant [Annotator's Note: the lowest rank of sergeant in the military; E-5] when he finished gunnery school. From there he went to Pyote, Texas, formed a crew and were gone [Annotator's Note: to join the 711th Bombardment Squadron, 447th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force in England].