John R. Elliott was born in July 1919 in Greeley, Colorado. He lived there until he was 13 years old. He went to a one-room school for seven years. His father died when he was seven years old and his sister was five years old. When it was time for advanced school, they moved to Ault, Colorado where there was a high school. He graduated from high school there. He was a day laborer at the time. When the war broke out, the United States was producing things for Europe. He had the opportunity to be a part of the Consolidated Aircraft Company [Annotator's Note: Consolidated Aircraft Corporation] in San Diego, California. He worked there and that sparked his interest in flying planes. Elliott tried to get in [Annotator's Note: to the United States Army Air Forces Aviation Cadet Program], but he needed at least two years of college education. It was almost impossible to get into pilot training at that point. The war started for the United States when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 7 December 1941]. They changed the qualifications after that, and he qualified after taking an intelligence test. He signed up in February 1942. He did not go to school until March 1942, because there were too many of them to attend pilot school. Elliott flew one time with a cold and almost blew out his eardrums. They took him off flying for ten days and he did not graduate when he was supposed to. He graduated from flying school on 6 February 1943. He was stationed in Deming, New Mexico [Annotator's Note: Deming Army Air Field in Luna County, New Mexico]. His secondary training was in Santa Ana [Annotator's Note: Santa Ana Army Air Base near Santa Ana, California], California. His primary was at Glendale, Arizona [Annotator's Note: Thunderbird Field #1 in Glendale, Arizona]. Basic training was at Marana, Arizona [Annotator's Note: Marana Army Air Field in Marana, Arizona]. Advanced training was at Marfa, Texas [Annotator's Note: Marfa Army Air Field in Marfa, Texas]. After graduation, he and several others went to bombing school in Deming, New Mexico [Annotator's Note: Deming Qin School at Deming Army Air Field in Luna County, New Mexico]. He flew bombardier students for 17 months. A notice came out that anyone interested in flying B-29s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] could sign up. Elliott went to Roswell, New Mexico [Annotator's Note: Roswell Army Air Field, later Walker Air Force Base, in Roswell, New Mexico], and flew B-17 bombers [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] to get engine time prior to flying the B-29s. At this point, they were crewed up. The B-29s were in short supply. They were brand new planes with new engines. The first time he flew in one he watched the engine instruments, and the readings said the engine was hot. He thought they were going to blow up. He got his crew there and they were trained. Then they were sent to Kearney, Nebraska [Annotator's Note: Kearney Army Air Field in Kearney, Nebraska], to pick up a new airplane for a unit they were going to be in. It was kept quiet where they were going. They had to fly the new plane for 100 hours in the United States. The plane had to pass the 100 hour check before it went overseas. They flew from Nebraska to Florida overnight. In Florida, they got their orders. They flew toward South America. Once they were two hours into the trip they could open their orders. The orders were for Chakulia, India. The orders gave them their route across the Atlantic [Annotator's Note: Atlantic Ocean], across Africa, and across Asia to India.

The night John Elliott arrived at the base in India, Tokyo Rose [Annotator's Note: nickname given by Allied servicemen to any English speaking female radio personality broadcasting Japanese propaganda in the Pacific Theater] came on the radio and said greetings to Lieutenant Elliott and crew who just arrived in India. So much for the secrecy. He was with the 58th Wing [Annotator's Note: 40th Bombardment Group, 58th Bombardment Wing, 20th Air Force] which had four groups and each group had its own field. They had a forward base in western China. They flew missions out of India to Singapore [Annotator's Note: Republic of Singapore] and bombed railroads in Burma [Annotator's Note: present day Myanmar] and Thailand. The only way to get to the forward base in China was to fly. All supplies had to go up by air. He flew two missions as a copilot with a different crew. Another crew came up with a load of gasoline and was supposed to replace his crew. His crew was to return to the base in India. They did it at night. They were along the Ganges River [Annotator's Note: major river in India] the moon was out and they were under fire. They bailed out of the plane. Elliott bailed out over the delta of the river, but drifted back over the island. They had an extra man with them and he went into the river and drowned. That man was a navigator. The next day they were picked up. They sent word about where they were. They were picked up by a flying boat on the river and brought back to their base. When they got back to the base they found out they had been shot down by a British night fighter. They had a system on board called the IFF which meant "Identification, Friend or Foe." There were ten channels and they had a channel for the whole area. As far as they could tell it was operating properly. The British fighter did not have a reader on it and his base did not let him know who they were. They bailed out at 10,000 feet. Altitude in the Air Force is always "above sea level." Elliott drifted down and saw everything because of the bright moonlight. Nothing bad happened to him. He slid down the side of a tree but was not injured. The crew that took their place in China did not know they were going to be put on the next mission. The members of that crew were not wearing their life vests. The crew he was on had to give them their life vests. This was a cold night on 20 December 1944. They wore sheepskin jackets and pants with the wool in and the leather out. The man who went in the river had no chance. The next day they were picked up and brought back to the base. That was Elliott's last mission as a copilot. From then on he was always the first pilot. They were shot down as they were returning home from their third mission. They remained in India for another month and a half. Then Tinian [Annotator's Note: Tinian, Mariana Islands] became available. His organization was moved to West Field on Tinian. There were two B-29 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] outfits on Tinian. They were on West Field with the 58th Wing. The 313th Wing [Annotator's Note: 313th Bombardment Wing] was on the field [Annotator's Note: North Field] where the atom bomber took off from. From then on, he flew the next 25 missions out of there going to Japan.

John Elliott felt that the B-29 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] was an excellent airplane. They had air conditioning and power assist. The engines were good. It was a dream to fly. They had power assist on the controls. There was no need to wear oxygen masks. He had flown the B-17[Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] for 200 hours and it was a monster. He copiloted a B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] one time and did not like it. They had a B-24 on the field in India. They had four groups in the Wing [Annotator's Note: 58th Bombardment Wing, 20th Air Force] and each group had a different field. There was a USO [Annotator's Note: United Service Organizations] troop that came in and they were on another field. He happened to be in the right place at the right time and they told him to be a copilot. They had one man who was unable to learn the B-29s, but knew the B-24. They picked up the USO troop and brought them up. They had a load, and it was bulky. He disliked flying the B-24. He worked at the factory where they built them, but he never flew one until then. The B-29s were controlled by the commanding officers of the Air Force which was part of the Army at the time. They used them absolutely nowhere except to go to Japan. There were commanders in the south Pacific that wanted the B-29s sent in to bomb for them, but they refused and used them only on Japan. John Aher [Annotator’s Note: unsure of spelling] bombed Sendai [Annotator's Note: Sendai, Japan] one time. That was pretty far up North. They had many different targets because they were told the Japanese had sent out to all these small places to make parts for war machines and air planes. It was impossible to hit these targets with high explosives because they were pinpoint targets. The Japanese cities were largely made of wood and they went in with fire bombs and knocked out all capabilities. Of the trips Elliott made [Annotator's Note: to bomb targets in Japan], he made one over Nagoya, two over Tokyo, one over Kobe, and two over Osaka, Japan, all the big cities. From India, he bombed Honshu Island. He was a part of the fire bomb raid on Tokyo. They carried ten tons of bombs. They carried 40 - 500 pound fire bombs. They had two bomb bays. Each bomb bay had four racks. From each rack hung five of the 500 pound bombs. They made a high altitude day mission over Osaka and they carried three 4,200 pound bombs. They climbed to 25,000 feet and carried less than a full load. Most of the fire bomb raids were at 8,500 to 10,000 feet. They came in and hit the targets easily. They sent leaflets ahead of time to tell people to leave because they were going to hit the targets. They tried to warn them. Round trips to Japan varied between 14 and a half to 16 and a half hours. If they took off from Tinian [Annotator's Note: Tinian, Mariana Islands] in the daytime, it was a night raid. The Japanese had little left on the ground when the atomic bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945] came over. They knew little about the atomic bombs. The other field at Tinian [Annotator's Note: North Field; Elliott was based at West Field] was where the atomic bombers took off from. Elliott and a friend made a trip over to the 313th Wing to check out their planes. They were B-29s but they did not have guns and they had paddle bay props [Annotator's Note: propellers]. Paddle bay props used electricity to change the position of the prop, and it could be reversed so they could use it as a break. They knew something was different about them because they had different props and they did not have any guns. They were harassed by Japanese Zeros [Annotator's Note: Japanese Mitsubishi A6M fighter aircraft, referred to as the Zeke or Zero] on day missions, but not at night. Elliott's right gunner shot down a Zero one time.

John Elliott and his crew knew nothing about the atomic bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945]. They heard that they were dealing with the emperor of Japan. All the missions to Japan took place over the water. If something happened it was over the water. Elliot had a classmate who was in a different squadron go out on a mission one night and disappear. They picked up his copilot in a one man life raft 14 days later. The waters of the Pacific are vast and it was amazing they found anyone because they did not know what had happened. They gave no information that indicated they were in trouble. They just disappeared. Elliott was going out one night and they always kept the running lights on at night off the coast of Japan. They were working on going up in altitude when his right gunner yelled through the intercoms to take her down and he did. At that time another B-29 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] went right over them, over the right rear. Elliott feels that "That other guy must have been sleeping not to see them because they had their running lights on." He had another classmate who was in the 73rd Wing [Annotator's Note: 73rd Bombardment Wing, 20th Air Force] on Saipan [Annotator's Note: Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands]. They said that man took off and, all of a sudden, his plane just dropped out of the air and nobody knew why. Another classmate came to the same outfit as Elliott [Annotator's Note: 40th Bombardment Group, 58th Bombardment Wing, 20th Air Force], just in a different squadron. That guy went on his first mission as an observer, and when they got over their target in Bangkok, Thailand, the whole thing blew up. That man became a Japanese POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] for seven months. That man flew half a mission as an observer and that was it. He survived and got out and moved to Colorado where he got married and reconnected with Elliott after the war. Elliott never worried about the Japanese because they were in the wrong. They came into Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] unexpectedly, and took down all those ships with all the sailors and soldiers who went down on them and lost their lives.

John Elliott made one more mission after the atomic bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945] were dropped. They had a points system [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home] on who could return home. He had one man on his crew who had two daughters and he went home a day before the rest did. His tail gunner and left gunner had less time so they did not get to go home. The rest of the crew went home together. They flew with some passengers. They flew through Honolulu [Annotator's Note: Honolulu, Hawaii] and on to Sacramento [Annotator's Note: Sacramento, California]. This was in October 1945. They flew their plane back. Of the original crew, eight of them were aboard. They landed in Sacramento, and the first thing they got asked was do you want to stay in or get out. He decided to get out and try to go to college. He was so poor he did not get to go to college and pilots were a dime a dozen. The first thing he had to do was sit down and fill out all the paperwork. They asked where his home was and at that time it was Fort Collins, Colorado. They told him they would put him on a plane to Denver [Annotator's Note: Denver, Colorado], and he could separate there. The next morning he was told he would be separated at a base near Sacramento. They discharged the fleet in San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California]. The train was loaded with people. If they had sent him to Colorado, they would have had to arrange his transportation. Because he was separated in California, they gave him some money and told him to find his own way home. When they were in the Pacific they did not have a lot of winter clothes. He had a flight jacket, and somebody stole that when they went through Honolulu. They did his copilot the same and he was from Minnesota. They got on a train and sat in the aisle for the whole first night in a car that had no heat. They had no coats and it was cold. He was separated, not discharged, because he stayed in the reserve. They were given the money to go home because they were not needed anymore.

John Elliott adjusted back to civilian life easily. He made up his mind that he would use the G.I. Bill to go back to school. He got his degree from Colorado A&M, now Colorado State University, in Fort Collins, Colorado. He received a Bachelor's degree in forestry and range management. The summer before he graduated, they had to have one summer of work experience. He went to work as a trainee for the Colorado Conservation Department in central Colorado. When he graduated they had a job for him. He was sent to Gunnison, Colorado, where he worked and met his wife and married her. His wife was finishing her masters when they married. He had a friend who had a job with the foreign aid service. Elliot and his wife thought that would be a great job, however, they would not talk to you unless you had a masters degree. They decided Elliot had to get his masters. He went to the University of California at Davis [Annotator's Note: University of California, Davis near Davis, California] and went through the school of agriculture and got his masters. His wife taught school and made the living while he worked on his masters. California had a program that if you were a California veteran, they gave you 100 dollars per month. Elliott joined [Annotator's Note: the United States Army Air Forces] in San Diego, California, and was separated in Sacramento, California, so he counted as a California veteran, and was lucky enough to receive the 100 dollars per month. He received his masters in Agronomy. He was working in the foreign aid program with the far east. They worked with tropical rice. The first time, he was in Saint Lucia working on an irrigation project. Then he was in the Philippines and worked there for two tours. Then they went to Saigon [Annotator's Note: now Ho Chi Minh City], Vietnam, but they did not finish the tour because they were there when everything fell apart. They were there, and lived downtown in an apartment in Saigon. Their office was downtown, as well. At that time, the South Vietnamese generals had set up camp in the city. They had a lot of South Vietnamese soldiers in the streets with rifles on their shoulders. He went to the office and wanted to know what they were going to do if things really got bad. His boss said he could have a helicopter land on the building to get him out. He asked about his wife, and the boss said not to worry about it. PanAm [Annotator's Note: PanAmerican Airlines] came from Manila, Philippines, then went on to Saigon. The day his wife was supposed to leave, there was a big blow up in town and everything got shut down. The flight from PanAm stopped in the Philippines and turned their crew loose. His wife was supposed to be on that plane at 11 in the morning, and she was finally able to board at 10:30 that night. He was there alone. Two days later, they told him he was leaving. He got out on the last commercial flight, which was PanAmerican out of Saigon. This was 1974. He worked with the Fillipinos and he worked with the Vietnamese and he liked both of them. He respected them. They were hardworking people. He enjoyed his time working with the people. His last post was in Egypt in 1975 and 1976. The United States Congress passed a law that you could not fire someone based on age. The government did not follow that rule. They kicked him off the job before he finished his tour in Egypt. He had bad feelings about the State Department. He said he would not trust the government. Elliott and his wife enjoyed their travels. They befriended a young couple from Auburn University [Annaotator's Note: Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama]. They told Elliott and his wife when they retire they should check out Fairhope, Alabama. They came home on leave and checked out Fairhope. They bought a place a few miles down the road.