Joseph McGuire was born in 1919 and the first few years of his life were lived in abject poverty. He used a local creek as his water supply, had an outhouse, and had no electricity or running water in his house. When he was eight years old, his family moved to his grandparent's house in McLean, Illinois. He worked on his family's farm. His father was a day worker and was a bit of an alcoholic. His grandfather gave them a house, which had been a shed for the farm equipment. The house had electric lights and a telephone. While in the fifth grade, his mother became a mail carrier. In high school, McGuire had a desire to get into aviation. He enjoyed looking at planes that flew over his house. A friend of his used to fly mail over his house. McGuire had two brothers. He wanted to get into the Air Corps. One of his brothers ended up in the Canadian Air Corps [Annotator's Note: Royal Canadian Air Force], then joined the American Air Corps [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Corps]. In 1940, McGuire decided to enlist into the Air Corps. He had enough college credits to be qualified for the service and did not have to take the entrance exam. For the hearing test, he was put into a closet with a fan in it and the examiner stood outside and whispered towards McGuire. He attended the Spartan School for Aeronautics [Annotator's Note: now the Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology] in Tulsa [Annotator's Note: Tulsa, Oklahoma] for ten weeks. He was then sent to Randolph Field [Annotator's Note: now Randolph Air Force Base in Universal City, Texas] in the spring of 1941. He spent another ten weeks at the field. He ate his meals with seven other people. He always did what he was told when he was told to do it. Once a week, he was a gunner, which meant he did not get to eat. Once the meal was over, the commandant of cadets would inspect the table to make sure everyone ate. The underclassmen had to bark at him because he was known as "The Big Dog." Lieutenant Colonel Arnold [Annotator's Note: later General of the Army and General of the Air Force Henry Harley "Hap" Arnold] came by one day and told them to stop barking at the officer. After graduating, McGuire was sent to Barksdale Field [Annotator's Note: now Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City, Louisiana] for twin-engine school. He did not mind because he just wanted to fly. McGuire was not allowed to pick the plane he flew. He flew a BT-14 [Annotator's Note: North American BT-14 Yale basic trainer aircraft], but other people trained on the BT-9 [Annotator's Note: North American BT-9 primary trainer aircraft], which was a tougher plane. An instructor warned him that had he been flying in a different plane he would be dead because of how he was flying. Various planes were going to Great Britain, but he was allowed to train on them first. When he took his initial physical exam, McGuire, knew one of the sergeants. He failed his first test because of high blood pressure. He passed the exam, then barely passed his eye exam. He was told it was because the United States was building up for war. When he finished at Barksdale Field, he started flying back and forth to Canada.

Since he was a twin-engine pilot, Joseph McGuire had been told he would be a training pilot but was then reassigned to the 12th Bombardment Group in McChord Field [Annotator's Note: now McChord Air Force Base, part of Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Pierce County, Washington], then reassigned again to Long Beach, California to an Air Corps Ferry Command outfit. He would fly new planes to their designated commands. His first trip was to Montreal [Annotator's Note: Montreal, Canada]. There were 125 officers in the unit and some enlisted men. Some of them had been in the Air Corps for some time. He brought various planes across the country and into Canada. On 4 December 1941, he had a bad take off and ruined the plane. On 7 December, he flew a plane to Barksdale [Annotator's Note: Barksdale Field; now Barksdale Air Force Base, Bossier City, Louisiana]. McGuire was engaged to a girl there. When he landed at Shreveport [Annotator's Note: Shreveport, Louisiana], he was told about the attack at Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. The following day, he flew to Nashville [Annotator's Note: Nashville, Tennessee] and heard President Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] give his speech. When he arrived in Nashville, there was nowhere to sleep, so his crew made crude beds. The next day they flew to Detroit [Annotator's Note: Detroit, Michigan], where his orders were changed to bring the plane to Massachusetts. On the way over, he flew into a snowstorm near Buffalo [Annotator's Note: Buffalo, New York]. There was no navigation equipment. McGuire was the last person to land in his formation. His plane slid off the runway and was destroyed. At Floyd Bennett Field [Annotator's Note: Brooklyn, New York], he was supposed to fly previously crated planes across the country. He did that for a month, then returned to Long Beach. He then started shipping P-38 [Annotator's Note: Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter aircraft]. He did his cockpit check and took it for a test flight. There was a possibility of a raid on the West Coast [Annotator's Note: the West Coast of the United States]. McGuire was supposed to jump into a dive bomber he had never seen before and bring it to another field. It was more organized later in the war. While at Hamilton Field [Annotator's Note: in Novato, California], he had to transport a plane with a new pressurized system for the cabin. In late 1942, he was sent to four-engine flight school. He was taught how to fly a B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber]. After school, he returned to Long Beach and was promoted to captain. He was able to fly several types of planes from single engine to four engines. McGuire could get into any airplane and fly it, even if he had not seen it before.

In June 1943, Joseph McGuire was sent to India. The day before he left, his colonel admitted he had been trying to keep McGuire on the base. The night before he left, McGuire went out dancing with his superior officer and his wife. McGuire met his wife because she had been the stewardess on one of his flights. She was later transferred to Burbank [Annotator's Note: Burbank, California], so he would visit her. He started dating her when they were both in Austin [Annotator's Note: Austin, Texas]. In spring of 1945, the ferrying division was going to be trained to fly jets. McGuire was sent to Edwards Air Base [Annotator's Note: then Muroc Army Air Base; now Edwards Air Force Base in Edwards, California] where he learned to fly jets. His superior officer had been the commander of the base McGuire was at when he crashed his first plane. He was taught how jet engines work and other mechanical and technical aspects of the plane. Every time he flew the plane, the other pilots would critique his flight and he would give his report to them in return. He brought the new jet all around, but mostly to Dallas [Annotator's Note: Dallas, Texas]. The pilots were not supposed to talk about the planes outside of their circle. When McGuire was flying the jets, they always had to be towed on and off the runway because they did not understand the fuel consumption yet. When he took off, he had to buzz [Annotator's Note: fly close over an object] the towers to make sure everything was working correctly. McGuire learned that when taking off in a jet, he needed to use his flaps. He almost hit an elevated railroad track because he did not have his flaps activated. Another pilot made the same mistake but was killed. McGuire did not normally listen to the radio while flying, but one day he turned on the radio when he heard an American ace was killed in a flight accident.

Joseph McGuire was sent to India in 1943. The British controlled everything in India, so he had to get permission from the British to do anything there. He landed in Karachi [Annotator's Note: then Karachi, India; now Karachi, Pakistan] and saw a massive zeppelin hanger. He was in India for the Fourth of July [Annotator's Note: Independence Day in the United States] but could not understand why no one was shooting fireworks. After leaving Karachi, he stayed in Agra [Annotator's Note: Agra, India], where he saw the Taj Mahal [Annotator's Note: marble mausoleum that is a World Heritage Site now]. He lost his taxi and had to walk back to the city. He remembered Agra as the saddest place he had ever seen. The MPs [Annotator's Note: military police] yelled at them for going into such a bad place. The following day, he flew to Jorhat [Annotator's Note: Jorhat Assam India Air Base, Jorhat, India], where there was a C-47 [Annotator's Note: Douglas C-47 Skytrain cargo aircraft] base. The base was crudely made, and planes would not be able to land if cows got onto the runway. In the mess hall, he found raisin bread and SPAM [Annotator's Note: canned cooked pork made by Hormel Foods Corporation] to eat. The next day, McGuire found out the bread had bugs in it, not raisins. There was no refrigeration and the showers only had cold water. Houses were made out of bamboo with thatch roofs. Flying conditions were primitive. There were 23 airplanes at the base, but they could only have two planes out at a time. The planes could be weighed down quickly. There were not many flight towers, so he had to rely on his instruments for navigation. He did know there was a jet stream in India until he got there. He was able to use it to his advantage, especially when flying in the mountains. It could get icy in the area. Maintenance was not very good. The navigators did their best to navigate but were not very successful. One day, he got into an argument with his navigator, who wanted him to fly in a different direction. Had McGuire flown in that direction, he would have flown into a mountain. Shortly after, navigators were taken out of the planes.

What Joseph McGuire took to India was all he had for the duration of his duty. Many of the crews had no cold weather clothes. McGuire's group [Annotator's Note: India-China Wing, Air Transport Command] received cold weather clothes that did not fit. If people did not want to fly, they were allowed to stay in the barracks. Once while flying in bad conditions, he was forced to fly low into Japanese territory so he could get to his base. After that, they started flying around the clock. McGuire flew into China very often. He returned to the United States in 1944. During critical times, he was forced to land, unload, and turn around in 30 minutes. Sometimes they took the fuel out of his plane to give to the troops. Crew chiefs started wearing pistols to deter people for stealing gas from the planes. One time, the workers went on strike, so McGuire had to unload his own plane. He primarily ferried gasoline, bombs, and any other critical war goods, but not many people. He would bring hogs bristles back from China to be used in bombsights as well as tungsten. There was a Chinese training base where laborers were brought to train. Some laborers died in the flights because of lack of oxygen. One night, McGuire's instruments were starting to ice up. McGuire was in radio contact with another plane that was flying the same path as him. McGuire pulled up so he could fly by moonlight, but the other pilot decided to stay below. They later found his plane crashed because of the ice. His death weighed on McGuire's mind for 60 years. On another flight, McGuire experienced the worst instrument flight ever. During the flight, he almost hit another plane. Years late in Tucson [Annotator's Note: Tucson, Arizona], he met an officer who had been in Shanghai [Annotator's Note: Shanghai, China] and mentioned that flight. The officer told him his cargo was bandages, but for years, McGuire thought he was bringing something to China for Madam Chiang [Annotator's Note: Soong Mei-Ling also known as Madam Chiang Kai-shek]. He flew in India and China for 13 months. When he first arrived, he was told after 25 missions, he would be sent home. Some days were clear, but most the time there was weather. They always tried to have altitude in weather.

The food started getting better during Joseph McGuire's time in India. People would get packages from their families. One wife sent her husband a pair of shoes with a bottle of booze in each shoe. McGuire received mail from his wife. One time, he received letters that were all wet because the plane went down in a river. McGuire did not like censoring people's letters. One night, there was a shakedown at the base. Some of the laborers had single shot pistols. The officers had to search the airmen's quarters to find contraband. Everything and everyone that was contraband found in the barracks was thrown out. Close to the end of the tour, all the airmen received liquor and beer. McGuire traded his liquor for beer. Occasionally, he would give his beer to some of the airmen. Sometimes the crews would bring vegetables and eggs back from China to eat in the mess hall. He saw good sights and also sad sights. If local people dropped rice, they would pick up every grain. In China, McGuire learned from the locals that no matter how big or small of a task you have, as long as you keep doing it over and over again, no task is too big to do by hand. McGuire would land on runways the Chinese were still building. Near one runway, McGuire saw laborers working in a large mud pit while other laborers laid rocks and filled in the gaps with the mud. In Kunming [Annotator's Note: Kunming, China], McGuire saw the Chinese making roads with a giant roller which leveled the road. It took 75,000 people to build the runway. Sometimes, a laborer would be killed if they did not leave the runway when a plane was landing. In 1944, McGuire was in Qingdao [Annotator's Note: Tsingtao or Qingdao, China] and saw a 1942 Buick [Annotator's Note: American automobile]. He did not know how that car got there. People would run in front of the car but would not get hit. The Chinese people thought they were killing an evil spirit. McGuire thought it was strange. He also saw a woman with bound feet. McGuire was supposed to inspect an opium [Annotator's Note: addictive drug] den [Annotator's Note: place where opium is smoked] to make sure G.I.s [Annotator's Note: government issue; also, a slang term for an American soldier] were not in there. However, he was called away on an emergency call. McGuire would have liked to have seen it. He always did what he was told to do, which kept him from getting hurt. One captain wanted to do exotic things while in India. The captain was supposed to go to Calcutta [Annotator's Note: Calcutta or Kolkata, India], but the military could not find him. McGuire was interviewed about the captain's whereabouts, but he did not know what happened to him.

Joseph McGuire went on leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] to Bombay [Annotator's Note: Bombay, India; now Mumbai, India], a British holiday getaway, and Bangalore [Annotator's Note: Bangalore, India]. He did not get to see much of the culture. Sometime later, McGuire was watching a documentary about the area and saw a palace that had been a hotel when he was in India. He did not get to go to some of the other places the other men went to. He was put on leave after crashing a plane. After some time, they built an officer's club on base. One day, McGuire came off a mission and went to the officer's club, where he ate a meal prepared by a Chinese cook. Eventually the cook was fired because he had contagious syphilis [Annotator's Note: a sexually transmitted disease].

Joseph McGuire returned to the United States in 1944 and reported to Nashville [Annotator's Note: Nashville, Tennessee] for reassignment. He was sent to Long Beach [Annotator's Note: Long Beach, California] for leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time]. While on leave, he was told to go to Florida to train for the military airlines. McGuire did not realize he would be trained for a future job. He got himself transferred back to Long Beach, which he realized later was a mistake. McGuire wanted to make the military a career. After his base was closed, he ended up at Edwards Air Base [Annotator's Note: then Muroc Army Airfield; now Edwards Air Force Base in Edwards, California], where he worked on a high speed bail-out project. He was sent to Dayton [Annotator's Note: Dayton, Ohio], but did not want to return to his base that night because of bad weather. His plane would not work, so the next day he returned and was kicked out of the service. He tried to get his name off of the discharge list but failed. After he left the service, he went to work in Dallas [Annotator's Note: Dallas, Texas]. He worked for NCR [Annotator's Note: National Cash Register Company, now NCR Corporation] for the next 20 years while also serving in the Reserves. He regretted not getting a regular commission. He later worked in Houston [Annotator's Note: Houston, Texas], where he would install cash registers for retail businesses.