Joseph F. McGee Junior was born in Utah, Alabama on 6 March 1924. He was standing in front of his town's post office when he heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor. He had just graduated high school and enrolled at Auburn [Annotator's Note: Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama]. It was mandatory for men in college to be in ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps]. He was learning how to be a part of a field artillery unit but was not happy with the situation. One day, he and his friend Curtis Eitmann [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling] passed Craig Field, an Army Air Force Base [Annotator's Note: now a public airport in Dallas County, Alabama], and decided that it would be a better way to spend the war. They stopped in Montgomery [Annotator's Note: Montgomery, Alabama] on the way back to Auburn to transfer from field artillery reserve to the Army Air Force cadets. McGee was not lazy, but he hated to walk [Annotator's Note: McGee laughs]. He knew most of the people at training. One cadet named Arthur Plan [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling], complained a lot but was very funny. One day after training they were told to put on their Class A uniform [Annotator's Note: more formal dress uniforms], to which Plan replied that he would be glad when the war was over. From there the Army Air Force cadets went to Butler University [Annotator's Note: in Indianapolis, Indiana] as a college training detachment. The stark difference in climate made it difficult to adjust to, going from sunny Miami [Annotator's Note: Miami, Florida] to the cold of Butler University. They waited there to be put into cadet training. They went to San Antonio [Annotator's Note: San Antonio, Texas] for a series of tests that determined their aptitude for duty in the Army Air Force. McGee was the last person put into Class 44-F [Annotator's Note: advanced pilot training], he did not know anyone else assigned there. They went to Pine Bluff, Arkansas for primary training and then to Independence, Kansas for basic training. McGee's first flight was in the PT-19 [Annotator's Note: Fairchild PT-19 primary trainer aircraft], in Independence he flew the BT-14 [Annotator's Note: North American BT-14 Yale trainer aircraft]. Not many pilots failed out of the Army Air Force at this time in 1943. They then went to Eagle Pass, Texas to fly the AT-6 [Annotator's Note: North American AT-6 Texan advanced trainer aircraft]. They received gunnery and navigation training, flew cross country and at night. McGee experienced vertigo at one point, which completely inverted his senses and made him believe he was upside down. He was taught to believe his instruments and waited for it to pass, and luckily it did. Flying had to be very smooth, and during turns pilots had to keep an eye on the ball and needle to ensure that they were making smooth movements. The pilots were also advised to always keep their head on a swivel and be aware of what was within their periphery. At this point in his training McGee already knew he was going to fly a fighter plane. McGee did not want to fly a bomber as he did not want to depend on others. He flew a P-40 [Annotator's Note: Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighter aircraft] for about ten hours and thought that he would never be able to shoot anything down in that plane. He went to Baton Rouge, Louisiana to train with the P-47s [Annotator's Note: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft]. They shot targets pulled behind planes, with their bullets color coded to grade pilots of their accuracy. McGee went with 18 other pilots to California to become replacement pilots, he only knew two of the people there. McGee and his friend were allowed to go to New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana] to watch the Sugar Bowl football game.

On the way out of the United States, Joseph F. McGee Junior reunited with his old high school football coach in Hawaii. They went from there and arrived in New Guinea. He flew a couple of missions there against Rabaul [Annotator's Note: in New Britain, Papua New Guinea], a Japanese stronghold. McGee flew missions before he was assigned to a permanent squad [Annotator's Note: 460th Fighter Squadron, 348th Fighter Group, 5th Air Force]. There was a month gap between him flying planes, and he could tell how rusty he was as a pilot. He ended up flying 97 missions during World War 2. McGee never once considered the notion that he would not make it back from a mission. Some of the missions were dangerous, and McGee could tell which pilots would want to turn back before encountering combat. Staying calm under pressure was extremely important for flying in formation, as teamwork and properly executed maneuvers kept people alive. He dealt with the fear by looking at the people he flew with and by telling himself, "If they can do it, so can I." McGee started out flying a P-47 [Annotator's Note: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft], and eventually moved on to a P-51 [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft]. On the way to pick up a new plane, a C-47 [Annotator's Note: Douglas C-47 Skytrain military transport aircraft] was on standby in case his plane could not make the journey. McGee's plane was not fit to make his planned route, so he had to land with some of the gear not engaging properly. The C-47 took him to his new P-51 instead of flying to it himself. The P-47 famously could take a beating. McGee often did close air-to-ground support in his P-47 because it was a durable vehicle. One time, his P-51's landing gear was not functioning properly, and he managed to land with only two of the three wheels engaged. He refused to bail out because he had told himself that the only time he would jump out of his plane was if it was on fire.

Joseph F. McGee Junior flew 97 missions in World War 2 [Annotator's Note: with the 460th Fighter Squadron, 348th Fighter Group, 5th Air Force], and often received enemy fire during those missions. On a bombing mission McGee attacked where the smoke target had been placed, but some of the Allied forward observers had moved too far forward and got hit by friendly fire from the bombing. McGee had trouble forgiving the Japanese for the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] and the Bataan Death March [Annotator's Note: Bataan Death March, the forcible transfer by the Imperial Japanese Army of 60,000 to 80,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war, 9 April 1942]. He once fired on a troop train to get even with the Japanese. McGee did not care who he was going to fight, German or Japanese, he just wanted to go and prove himself. Those in the Air Force fighting in Europe seemingly had a better quality of living than those fighting in the Pacific. McGee lost 50 pounds during his stay in the Pacific, and there was never mention of going home early to him after completing a certain number of missions. He could not look at a can of SPAM [Annotator's Note: canned cooked pork made by Hormel Foods Corporation] after serving in World War 2 and asked his wife to never bring it into their home. The living conditions were bearable, the soldiers were too preoccupied with their duties to be very concerned about it. They were living in Ie-Shima near Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Ie-Shima, Japan] when the war ended. McGee and a friend of his from Chicago [Annotator's Note: Chicago, Illinois] named Moon Mudders [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling] were among the five people living together in their tent. One night an alarm went off and McGee, exhausted from a long mission, told his friend Mudders that he believed it was a false alarm and he was not getting out of bed. A bomb soon went off close to where they were, and they both scrambled to a foxhole to wait out the attack. They lost 21 planes in the attack that night. McGee flew a P-51 [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] for about half his missions in the Pacific, the other plane being the P-47 [Annotator's Note: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft]. The P-51 was a powerful plane that required a lot of management to keep it flying. The P-47 was an extremely tough and durable plane. McGee never got into a dogfight with Japanese aircraft. He escorted B-24's [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber], a task he did not like as they were much slower than his own aircraft. He much preferred to escort the A-26 [Annotator's Note: Douglas A-26 Invader bomber], which was much faster. The B-24's he escorted left Ie-Shima and attacked mainland Japan. McGee's planes were shot up sometimes, but never suffered any serious damage. The missions from Ie-Shima took about five hours round trip. One of the most important parts of flying those missions was being sure that they were traveling towards the correct signal light. McGee had a Major named Clay Albright [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Major Clay Dan Albright Junior], who is known for being one of the instructors for the famous Tuskegee Airmen [Annotator's Note: African American pilots; 332nd Fighter Group and 477th Bombardment Group, US Army Air Forces; name applies to all associated personnel]. McGee had a few encounters with Albright that made him question his decision making.

Joseph F. McGee Junior flew near Nagasaki [Annotator's Note: Nagasaki, Japan as a member of 460th Fighter Squadron, 348th Fighter Group, 5th Air Force]. They were informed to stay away from Nagasaki, they could only see smoke from a distance but did not know it was from an atomic bomb [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapon dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, 9 August 1945]. They did not know that earlier another atomic bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapon dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, 6 August 1945]. A week after the bomb had been dropped on Nagasaki, McGee flew over the city, and it was like it had been wiped clean. The nuclear bombs ended up saving lives on both sides of the conflict. The Japanese soldiers would have fought to the last man otherwise. Without the atomic bombs he would not have lived through the war. He was in Ie-Shima [Annotator's Note: Ie-Shima, Japan] when he learned that the war ended. He broke out a pint that he was saving for the end of the war when he heard the news. He went to Fukuoka [Annotator's Note: Fukuoka, Japan] when Japan surrendered. Scared because of how rough the shape of the planes were and the inexperience of the mechanics, McGee opted to go to Japan on a ship instead of flying there himself. His CO [Annotator's Note: commanding officer] wanted McGee to stay in Japan, but McGee wanted to go home now that the war was over. He traveled to Tokyo [Annotator's Note: Tokyo, Japan] via a B-25 [Annotator's Note: North American B-25 Mitchell medium bomber]. On the way into Tokyo he could see Mount Fujiyama. In Tokyo he boarded the aircraft carrier Intrepid [Annotator's Note: the USS Intrepid (CV-11)]. Most of the older pilots were sent home when the war ended. 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] did not matter, as some pilots had flown over 200 missions and were still there. McGee was a first lieutenant when he left the Pacific. He returned to Auburn [Annotator's Note: Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama] and got his degree with the help of his GI 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]. McGee graduated, returned home, and started his own cattle farm. McGee got married in 1959. He had managed to save a good deal of money while he was deployed, which helped him start his cattle business.

Joseph F. McGee Junior's most vivid memory of World War 2 is the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] and the Bataan Death March [Annotator's Note: Bataan Death March, the forcible transfer by the Imperial Japanese Army of 60,000 to 80,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war, 9 April 1942]. The Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] were extremely cruel during the war. The country pulled together as a result and fought back against its enemies, such as how the Higgins boats [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft Vehicle, Personnel or LCVP; also known as the Higgins boat] or LSTs [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank] were created by companies to help the United States' war effort. McGee and his fellow soldiers were fighting for their freedom, and it did not come cheaply. He also believes that the patriotic spirit of the country has waned with how the world has changed. He thinks it is important that there is a museum for World War 2 [Annotator's Note: the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana]. He is proud that he was able to serve his country, and he would do it again. He could still takeoff and land a P-51 [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] if he had too. The P-51 was a great airplane due to its flight range. In one instance he was going from Ie-Shima [Annotator's Note: Ie-Shima, Japan as a member of the 460th Fighter Squadron, 348th Fighter Group, 5th Air Force] to China. The group of planes encountered an extremely dark storm cloud and turned around back to their base instead of flying through it.