Kenneth R. Williams was born in Alton, Illinois in March 1922. He was an only child. He grew up in Illinois and Ohio. His father was an executive manager in an automotive parts company by the time he was 30 years of age. His career continued to be successful after that. His passion was flying. He flew with Lincoln Beachey, a renowned early pilot. Beachey subsequently perished in an airplane crash. Williams had an early start in flying when he stood on his father’s lap as his parent piloted his open-cockpit plane. Williams’ father later bought a five-place WACO custom cabin airplane. His father went on to resign his job to travel everywhere with Williams’ mother. As for Williams, he was placed in a military school for the year. His father had enough self-confidence to leave his good job and close out the family home. He wanted to enjoy things while he and his wife were young enough to do so. Williams’ father managed to secure another position after the adventure. He was a remarkable individual. He never seemed to show anger. He never displayed being upset. Williams and his parents did many things together. Williams grew up with aviation and received his private license at the age of 16. After high school graduation, Williams’ father wanted him to attend engineering schools at Lehigh, Purdue or MIT [Annotator’s Note: all highly recognized engineering universities. MIT is Massachusetts Institute of Technology.]. Williams followed his father’s recommendation and opted for Purdue. He was in his second year at Purdue on 7 December 1941 [Annotator's Note: the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was 7 December 1941]. He was on Christmas vacation having not yet completed semester finals which were due after the vacation period. Williams helped subsidize his time at Purdue by offering flights for pay in a Piper J-3 Cub aircraft. In doing so, Williams managed to illegally obtain his flying time over the school. Williams, like everyone else, was outraged by the war and wanted to do something about it. Recruiters were on campus and Williams signed up rather than beginning the next semester. He went home to get his parents’ acceptance, but they rejected his enlistment. It took two attempts for Williams to secure his father’s agreement for him to join the Air Corps. Williams was not inducted in January, so he went to work as a junior draftsman until March [Annotator’s Note: 1942], when he was called up.

Kenneth R. Williams was classified as an aviation cadet and reported to San Antonio, Texas in March [Annotator’s Note: 1942]. Along with 1,500 other cadets, he was put into a labor battalion to build the reception center for what came to be known as Kelly Field. There were no uniforms for the inductees. Williams only had two flight suits and a “go to hell” cap [Annotator’s Note: he motions as if creasing a garrison or flight cap]. He had only saddle oxford shoes, not military footwear. He was issued a shovel and a tent. He labored through the heat of June to build the reception center at Kelly Field. Despite the disappointment of not learning to fly, the cadets still earned the 75 dollar monthly pay issued to aviation cadets. Regular recruits were only paid 21 dollars per month, so Williams felt wealthy. He attended preflight school in July followed by flight school. Completing a seven-month accelerated plan, he was commissioned as a lieutenant. It was intensive training for those without prior experience. [Annotator’s Note: Williams had obtained his civilian license at the age of 16]. Williams was advised by his father to learn to fly the military way even though he was already a good pilot. He was told not to tell anyone about his prior flight experience, but his actions likely let others know of his skills. Nevertheless, Williams completed each stage of training in the absolute minimum amount of time. He was one of 125 trainees who graduated from a brand-new field at Eagle Pass, Texas. The training was in new AT-6s [Annotator's Note: North American AT-6 Texan advanced trainer aircraft]. After enjoying one particular flight, Williams discovered that his landing gear did not deploy in preparation for bringing the plane down. Despite much technical advice and assistance, he had to land without the gear. It was a noisy first for Eagle Pass. The base commander had observed Williams taking off his headphones in frustration with all the advice being provided to him. After the landing, the commander complimented Williams for discarding his headset. [Annotator’s Note: Williams chuckles.] Williams was pleased to be one of the eight new pilots selected to fly fighter aircraft. It was February 1943 and the Air Corps was expanding rapidly. Many graduates were being assigned as instructors, so Williams felt himself lucky to be going to Richmond, Virginia with the other seven selected future fighter pilots. Williams had yet to fly a fighter plane, only the AT-6s. He started out flying P-40s [Annotator's Note: Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighter aircraft]. He enjoyed racing his plane up the river at Richmond. He pushed the aircraft as hard as it would take. After a week, he was assigned a Republic P-47 [Annotator’s Note: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter] with its 2,000 horsepower engine. For his first flight in a P-47, he could not figure how to close the canopy. There was no closure crank like he had had on the P-40. He was shown the canopy closing method with its overhead bar and a trigger to release the canopy for shutting. That revealed how little exposure he had to his new p-47 and yet, off he went. It was surprising how he survived with his limited knowledge. Shortly thereafter, Williams and another pilot were selected to join the 355th Fighter Group in Philadelphia [Annotator’s Note: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]. There, he was assigned to the 354th Fighter Squadron within that group. They flew P-47s and practiced intercept patrols, air to air gunnery, and air to ground gunnery. One pilot was nicknamed “Submarine Dean” [Annotator’s Note: no further name details given] because he ditched his aircraft while stunt flying between piers at Atlantic City [Annotator’s Note: Atlantic City, New Jersey]. He left his Jug [Annotator’s Note: a nickname for a P-47] and inflated his Mae West [Annotator’s Note: a nickname for a flyer’s inflatable lifejacket]. When a boat came to his aid, others nearly drowned trying to assist him when their boat overturned. The flight leader, Vinnie Vincent [Annotator’s Note: no further name details provided], led a flight of four under a bridge. Williams flew under the arm of the Statue of Liberty. They were hot shots. In June 1943, the new pilots sailed on the Queen Elizabeth which had not yet been converted to a troopship. It was a comfortable and somewhat elegant voyage with table cloths and waiters in the dining room. The squadron’s poor ground maintenance crews were not afforded such luxuries during their passage. The ship docked at the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. The squadron subsequently transited to Steeple Morden [Annotator’s Note: Steeple Morden, England]. It was a picturesque location north of London and near Cambridge [Annotator’s Note: both in England].

Kenneth R. Williams [Annotator’s Note: a Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter pilot in the 355th Fighter Group, 354th Fighter Squadron] flew combat missions out of Steeple Morden [Annotator’s Note: Steeple Morden, England] in the village of Litlington [Annotator’s Note: Litlington, England]. The airstrip had been put in on the Jarvis farm. Williams and the pilots enjoyed treating young Ken Jarvis and his friend, David Crow [Annotator’s Note: surname spelling uncertain], to candy and seats in the cockpit. The two boys grew up to be advocates for the 355th Fighter Group. The group has the best memorial in England as a result of their two English advocates and the 355th Fighter Group Association. Through wise investments by the Association, books have been provided to elementary schools for the village and further support given to the Boy and Girl Scouts there. The British have good feelings about the Americans and provide a great reception for the veterans when they gather for reunions there. The RAF [Annotator’s Note: Royal Air Force] even put on airshows for them. The Association reciprocates when their British friends visit the United States. Arriving in Steeple Morden in July [Annotator’s Note: 1943], the squadron went operational the following September. Early missions involved dive bombing and bomber escorts with their P-47s in the fall of 1943. Those missions served as early training starting with 200 bombers or so, but growing to escort a thousand bombers. In October, Williams participated in an exchange program with the RAF flying out of Kalearn [Annotator’s Note: Kalearn, England] near Bath, England. Around Christmas, the P-47s were replaced by older model P-51s [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft]. Their P-51Bs had previously been transferred to the British. The swift planes were not in good shape. They had only four guns mounted in their thin wings in a canted fashion. The guns [Annotator's Note: Browning ANM2 .50 caliber machine guns] were prone to jam in tight turns as a result. Williams missed his P-47 with its eight-guns that always worked. Morale was bad considering the four guns that rarely worked. Williams had two-day leaves [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] in London after being on combat alerts for ten days. His friend Jeter [Annotator’s Note: no given name provided, surname spelling uncertain] and Williams had just returned from a couple days in London when they had a dog fight with 109s [Annotator's Note: German Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter aircraft]. During the course of that action, Jeter and his plane were lost. That upset Williams more than the loss of any other squadron mate. Colonel Glen Duncan was the commanding officer of the 353rd Fighter Group. He went to Major General William Kepner [Annotator’s Note: General William Kepner, commanding general of the 8th Air Force’s 2nd Bomb Division] and proposed a volunteer squadron to attack the Luftwaffe [Annotator’s Note: the German air force] on the ground since the enemy avoided coming up to meet the American planes. Williams violated the military rule of never volunteering because he did not like his P-51 and had just lost his buddy. It was at that point that his squadron received new P-51D models with six guns that all worked. The P-51D was a fabulous airplane. As a result of volunteering, Williams was attached to Colonel Duncan’s group which was an independent squadron of 16. Colonel Duncan trained his new squadron for flying close to the ground and attacking enemy airfields. The squadron became known as “Bill’s Buzz Boys” for General Kepner. The pilots flew specially designed P-47s on their missions deep into Europe. They flew horseshoe patterns at 12,000 feet across as many German airfields as possible. The visibility to the ground below was good while the planes were out of small arms fire range. If activity was spotted below, the P-47s would fly by and then roll over and return for an attack run on the target. The practice in flying close to the ground paid off in those maneuvers. The intent was to catch the objective by surprise and, if not, make an additional run after the first pass.

By March of 1944, Kenneth R. Williams [Annotator’s Note: a Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter pilot in the 355th Fighter Group based in Steeple Morden, England] was flying his 64th combat mission. Colonel Duncan [Annotator’s Note: Colonel Glen Duncan, the commanding officer of the 353rd Fighter Group to which Williams had been attached as a volunteer] had put him in for a promotion to captain and was appointed as a flight leader. On Sunday 26 March, Williams woke from a night of partying and took off at daylight. He had slept with his clothes on and chose to don a flight suit over them. That was a bit of a handicap to start with. [Annotator’s Note: Williams smiles.] Flying into south-central France, he flew to a Spitfire [Annotator’s Note: British Supermarine Spitfire fighter aircraft] base to refuel. He carried a British made 108-gallon fuel tank on his P-47. His plane had wide landing gears with a tail wheel at the end of the fuselage. There was minimal clearance from the ground on the external fuel tank with its glass tube for the fuel intake into the plane. The British field was a rough sod field with knolls resulting in several planes having broken glass tubes preventing suction from the tank. There were no replacements for the tubes at the field. Consequently, Williams sent his plane back with another flyer. He took an unaffected aircraft as his own for the mission. As the flight leader, Williams directed a flight of four aircraft. He had a wingman and an element leader who also had a wingman. The damage to the glass tubes resulted in the mission only having Williams with a wingman instead of four in his formation. As they approached an enemy airfield, the Colonel sent him down with his wingman, Studs Starr [Annotator’s Note: name spelling uncertain]. Starr was a character. He even had a mustache. The two hit a German Heinkel 111 twin-engine bomber base. The pilots saw incoming ground fire. Williams pulled back, but with only two planes attacking instead of the planned formation of four, the fire became intense on Starr as he bore down. Williams saw that happening and proceeded to return to the attack. He hit a German bomber with a refueling truck. Williams and his P-47 were the victims of shrapnel and oil resulting from the explosion. Williams pulled straight up attracting more fire. Realizing that he was in a place he should not be, Williams pulled over and dove to the ground. He hugged the ground when the left wing detached for one reason or another. The plane rolled 270 degrees and hit the ground. The P-47 was built like a tank and withstood the punishment without injury to Williams. He crawled out of the cockpit and ran for cover near the airdrome. He shed his bright orange Mae West [Annotator’s Note: a nickname for a flyer’s inflatable lifejacket]. He made his way through a stream to a forest nearby. The Buzz Boys [Annotator’s Note: General William Kepner was commanding general of the 8th Air Force’s 2nd Bomb Division. The volunteer group of pilots he formed as part of the 353rd Fighter Group were intended to fly close ground missions to destroy German aircraft and fields. They nicknamed themselves “Bill’s Buzz Boys”.] flew over to check him out. They thought Williams could not have survived the crash. That report went to his parents because no one could say otherwise. Meanwhile, Williams had been trained to destroy his plane’s friend or foe transmitter [Annotator’s Note: IFF-identification friend or foe transmitter] rather than allow the Germans to have access to it. The internal destructive mechanism did not appear to work so Williams used a thermite bomb to destroy it. Shortly afterward the thermite bombs were no longer installed because of possible ignition by flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire]. Williams felt a total feeling of helplessness and being alone. It was unsettling. The German search parties grew near so Williams entered marshes and woods to evade them. When the enemy began to shoot into bushes and clumps of foliage, Williams finally ran out of adrenaline.

Kenneth R. Williams [Annotator’s Note: a Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter pilot in the 355th Fighter Group, 354th Fighter Squadron before being been shot down over France] did not initially realize he was hurt. He took a malt tablet from his hard plastic escape kit for energy, but soon tired. He then took a pep pill but immediately fell asleep. He was in the small percentage of pilots who reacted in that unpredictable fashion. It was 26 March [Annotator’s Note: 1944] and the weather was bad. He considered hijacking a German aircraft since he had received some training on flying them. He opted not to attempt that. German search parties were approaching him. He hurt badly [Annotator’s Note: he sustained head, leg and shoulder injuries in his crash landing]. In 1999, Williams took a high-performance driving course and was injured. During the CAT scan, his shoulders were discovered to have been broken during his crash landing. [Annotator’s Note: recording tape change briefly interrupts interview.] It was a tough day and Williams was hungry and ending his second day in a swamp on an elevated spot near a path. Three older women approached him. In evasion and escape lessons, he had learned not to approach groups of people because some might have been enemy sympathizers or collaborators. The French did not trust their own people and could not publicly give aid to downed airmen as a result. It was safer to approach a single person. Williams was desperate so he did not worry about that concern. He looked dirty and bloody from the crash. He used a French phrase card that was in the escape kit. He was scolded by the youngest woman who read on the card a warning not to show it in public because it might alert the Germans. The youngest woman was Suzanne Latour [Annotator’s Note: spelling uncertain] who had come to the area for her uncle’s funeral. The older ladies were assumed to be the widow and another relative. They wanted nothing to do with Williams. Suzanne convinced Williams to walk far behind and follow them. A young mother and her baby joined the three women so Williams stood back from them but managed to catch up later. He entered their two-story house and the older women then helped him and gave him clothes and called a doctor for his leg wound. Williams had to leave as quickly as possible. He wore the deceased man’s clothes over his uniform and a beret to cover his head wound that resulted from the crash. He was fed and managed a little sleep. At daylight, the young woman and Williams headed to Paris [Annotator’s Note: Paris, France] about 125 miles by train [Annotator’s Note: the two-story home was in Mirabeau, France]. Williams was to avoid conversations and act as if he did not know Suzanne. He had discarded his sheepskin leg warmers thus exposing his shoes. His half-sole shoes had US Army stamped on it. A fellow passenger motioned to him to put his feet down when she observed that. Williams realized what she meant and his feet stayed on the floor for the remainder of the journey.

Kenneth R. Williams [Annotator’s Note: a Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter pilot in the 355th Fighter Group, 354th Fighter Squadron who was shot down over France in March 1944] arrived in Paris [Annotator’s Note: Paris, France] without any ID [Annotator’s Note: identification papers]. He had been briefed by Suzanne [Annotator’s Note: Suzanne Latour, name spelling uncertain] to come off the train with a group and meet her in the packed station. Germans were everywhere. Williams could not see Suzanne to rendezvous with her. He had a moment of panic, but then observed Suzanne and followed her. A German female soldier sat next to him on the metro train. Williams had to crawl across her to disembark and then walk to Suzanne’s apartment. It was an affluent building where German staff officers and their families were billeted. Having reached Suzanne’s apartment, she had food brought from Mirabeau [Annotator’s Note: Mirabeau, France is about 125 miles from Paris. Mirabeau was near Williams’ crash-landing site] for them to eat. When she left the building, Williams went to sleep. She shared her meager food rations with Williams. She even made a miniature birthday cake for him a few days after their arrival. It was a good way to wait out the war. It was April in Paris with a beautiful young girl. However, Williams had to leave the residence while Suzanne negotiated his escort for escape. He visited Madame Leon [Annotator’s Note: surname spelling uncertain] and her son Guy who had been in the French military medical corps. After the collapse of the French Army, Guy went to work as a pharmacist. They were good to Williams for a few days until Suzanne returned and took him to a park. He was told to discretely follow a woman who would approach him and provide a signal. Her name was Odette and she was very much in control. She brought Williams home and a few days later transferred him to another individual at a park. They walked quite a distance in Paris until he was brought to a restaurant that was closed in the early afternoon. Williams was alone and worried in his new surroundings. Two men came in later. Neither of them could speak English. Shortly afterward, a man and a woman came into the restaurant. The man spoke very good English and proceeded to interrogate Williams. It was a test to make sure of his identity. Williams showed the man passport pictures that had been in his escape kit [Annotator’s Note: in his P-47, the pilot had a hard plastic escape kit with multiple items to aid in his evasion of the enemy should he be shot down]. The man was happy to see those photographs. He inquired about Williams’ physical condition and was informed that Williams had been hurt in the crash landing. Removing his civilian pants, Williams was still wearing his military uniform along with other insignia and his class ring. The man was concerned to see all that, but Williams made a fuss over it. A doctor came and looked at Williams’ condition. It precluded an escape over the Pyrenees [Annotator’s Note: the Pyrenees Mountains border France with Spain. Spain represented an escape since that government had not joined the Axis Powers against the Allies]. Instead, a deal was offered to Williams. He could find his way out by assisting a British agent. If apprehended helping the agent, his treatment could be much tougher than if he would be captured as a downed pilot and sent to a prison camp. Not knowing what treatment awaited him if he did not take the offer, Williams agreed to help the agent. False identity papers were provided to Williams stating that he was a 17-year-old farm boy from Brittany. Germans had problems with the dialect spoken in Brittany so that could aid the pilot’s escape.

Kenneth R. Williams [Annotator’s Note: a Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter pilot in the 355th Fighter Group, 354th Fighter Squadron had been shot down over France in March 1944] left Paris [Annotator’s Note: Paris, France] via the same train station that he used to enter the city. He was accompanied by an attractive young lady during the journey. She was referred to as a conductress. They had to change trains at Reims [Annotator’s Note: Reims, France]. There were officials checking identification papers. Williams had to be careful not to let his hands shake while he held his papers. They reached the town of Morlaix [Annotator’s Note: Morlaix, France] while en route to the Brest Peninsula. He had not eaten for a day and a half and was hungry. Having left the train, he had to walk behind and away from his conductress. He was transferred to another individual, a man. While in Paris, Williams had been separated from anything that would indicate that he was an American pilot evading the Germans. The man brought Williams to a loft in a small sawmill for shelter. Meanwhile, the escort had a laughing conversation with two German soldiers. After the soldiers departed, the Frenchman brought food for Williams. The next morning, Williams had breakfast in the escort’s home with the man’s wife and son. The coffee had a strange appearance. Shortly thereafter, a new conductress took Williams away. They each rode a bicycle away from their meeting point. Her bike tire went soft during the journey. She used a hand pump to inflate her tire. When Williams tried to assist her, the woman became aggravated. Men normally did not help women in the area, and it was likely to draw attention to them. Williams legs acted up so he could not keep up with his escort [Annotator’s Note: his legs had been injured during his crash landing]. The conductress was leaving him so he rang his bell. She returned angry. When Williams showed her his legs, she allowed him to set the pace of their travel. They passed through a German field exercise area where troops were training. That scared him, but they were only interested in the girl. [Annotator’s Note: He smiles.] Arriving at a village square, the conductress left Williams with another female and departed. Williams met two British agents there. One of the agents had previously experienced a breakdown and was constantly drugged. If the rational agent could not get the shattered agent out, he was to do away with him so he could not be captured and interrogated. The woman in charge of the facility was unpleasant and nasty. She had three daughters who jumped when she gave them orders. The British agent said the women were Bolsheviks. The two British agents and Williams were taken away individually by separate means. Williams tried to thank the woman who had sheltered him. Previously, the two women who had sheltered him in Mirabeau [Annotator’s Note: Mirabeau, France was his first location to be hidden from German pursuit after his crash landing] did not accept any of the francs [Annotator’s Note: the French currency of the time] which Williams had taken from his P-47 escape kit. The three Allied men were reunited at a couple’s home. The man could speak English and taxed Williams to learn bits of French. The British officer was intent on listening to the BBC [Annotator’s Note: British Broadcasting Company radio broadcasts] which provided coded messages. It was dangerous because the Germans prohibited listening to those broadcasts. At last, the British officer announced that night was to be the night [Annotator’s Note: for their departure from occupied France].

Kenneth R. Williams [Annotator’s Note: a Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter pilot in the 355th Fighter Group, 354th Fighter Squadron who had been shot down over France in March 1944] was still in the greater Morlaix area [Annotator’s Note: he was attempting to escape France through Morlaix]. Morlaix was a town on the coast of the Brest Peninsula. There was a sundown curfew. A small truck took one of the Brits [Annotator’s Note: two British agents were attempting to escape France at the same time as Williams] away, and two separate conductresses took the other Brit and then Williams away. They were all reunited in a shadowy location. They were joined by others including a Frenchman and a B-17 gunner [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber]. The gunner was a sergeant who had just arrived in Europe and been downed on his first mission. He knew nothing about things a veteran would know. The French were operating a highly classified escape route and were reluctant to accept the gunner because he could not answer the typical questions posed to airmen. The French thought the man might be a plant. They were going to get rid of him. They asked Williams to interrogate him and confirm that he was real. After hearing the gunner’s unusual story, Williams accepted him as a real American airman. The British officer agreed, so they had a new companion. They left and went to the beach down a steep bluff. There were potential minefields so they sat on rocks and waited. They got nervous as time elapsed. After a wait, two black rubber boats approached and picked up the four men. Williams never saw the British agents again. They were picked up by boats similar to PT boats [Annotator's Note: American patrol torpedo boats]. The boat idled quietly until Germans observed them. The three diesels on the boat were fired up, but one failed. Six German E-Boats pursued them, but the British boats were faster. There was a running gun battle. Williams’ boat was hit. There were two-gun positions on the boat. When a sailor was killed on the heavier gun, Williams volunteered to go topside and service the gun. The crew selected the sergeant who was a B-17 gunner instead. Williams was furious because he wanted to come above on the boat. At first light, Spitfires [Annotator’s Note: British Supermarine Spitfire fighter aircraft] came over and provided cover. Before reaching port, the gunner and Williams donned British uniforms to look like part of the crew. That was to circumvent any suspicion as to what the mission had been. Williams left his personal things behind. After landing, that was the last Williams saw of the sergeant. The British took good care of Williams, but kept him from communicating with others. It was two weeks before D-Day [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944].

Kenneth R. Williams [Annotator’s Note: a Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter pilot in the 355th Fighter Group, 354th Fighter Squadron who had been shot down over France in March 1944 and escaped to England in May 1944] was being observed by his English rescuers to assure themselves that he was not a plant. Until then, they would not let him talk to anyone because he had been involved in a highly classified rescue routine. Williams was moved to a ward with others. The group intelligence officer, Nick [Annotator’s Note: no surname given], came in and said he did not recognize anyone in the room. Williams was not impressed with Nick’s humor. Williams was then allowed to send a telegram to his parents indicating he was all right. He was also allowed to contact his squadron. He was taken to London [Annotator’s Note: London, England] and to Eisenhower’s headquarters [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States] to reveal his observations in France prior to the invasion [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. Interrogations were always by colonels or generals. Williams was kept in a suite and provided great food. He had a roommate who played a role in an informal interrogation of Williams through leading questions and descriptions of his escape through the Pyrenees [Annotator’s Note: the Pyrenees Mountains border neutral Spain and occupied France]. After two days of that, he was told he could rejoin his squadron at Steeple Morden [Annotator’s Note: the base in England for the 355th Fighter Group, 354th Fighter Squadron]. Wearing an enlisted man’s uniform with officer’s insignias, he was picked up by MPs [Annotator’s Note: military police] for his non-regulation uniform. He was finally cleared. [Annotator’s Note: Recording tape change briefly interrupts interview.] Reaching his buddies, he gave his story of his escape. His personal effects that were going to be shipped back home were returned to him. His promotion to captain was approved. He flew home on an air evacuation flight flown by an American Airlines crew. He was the only military pilot onboard. He was invited to the flight deck. The older civilian pilots teased him about being a small fighter pilot who would have difficulty with larger transport aircraft. Williams took the yoke on the right seat and struggled with the airplane. It was tough to fly. The flight took multiple stops before landing at Mitchell Field in New York. He had befriended a flight nurse and they went to the city and caught a show and had great food. He was later chastised for not following his schedule for transportation to Washington [Annotator’s Note: Washington, D.C.]. There were no further repercussions for being AWOL [Annotator’s Note: absent without leave]. He was interviewed by a single person in the Pentagon. It had been two years since he had been home. He was close to his parents. His father worked in Washington, D.C. His father was calm and cool while Williams’ mother was high strung. When Williams was missing, the two parents reversed their roles. Their friends could not believe it.

Kenneth R. Williams’ [Annotator’s Note: a Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter pilot in the 355th Fighter Group, 354th Fighter Squadron had been shot down over France in March 1944 but escaped in May 1944] mother collapsed when she heard her son was okay. She had to call back to confirm she had not just imagined it. Williams had left his personal effects on the rescue boat upon his return to England in 1944. It was all returned to him at his parents’ address, which was his permanent military address, in 1947 despite nothing of real value being in the package. Williams still has the letters he wrote to his mother during the war. He also has the local Cleveland newspaper clippings involving Williams’ missions over Europe. In 1998, Charles Faulkner, the sergeant Williams was involved with on the boat [Annotator’s Note: Sergeant Charles Faulkner was also shot down over France as a gunner on a bomber. He accompanied Williams during their escape from France on a boat in May 1944.], contacted Williams. Faulkner lives 40 miles from Williams. He tracked Williams down through government wartime records. Faulkner introduced Williams to his wife as the man who saved his life. Because Faulkner had left the country, been shot down, and then returned to the United States in a matter of a few weeks, no one believed he had been in combat. Williams confirmed their time together during the escape and where they had been. Returning to his squadron was really nice. The other pilots commented on how much weight he had lost. There were many casualties in his squadron. After liberation, some of those who had aided Williams in his escape contacted his parents. His parents sent some of the scarce commodities missing in Europe to those who had helped. Suzanne [Annotator’s Note: Latour surname not confirmed] had a nice chateau near Paris [Annotator’s Note: Paris, France]. She was obviously well-educated. She became a communist as many French did after the war. Williams lost contact with her. Being in the military, Williams and his wife Jackie never made it back to France until after retirement. Williams regrets he never reunited with his rescuers. It was a disappointment that Suzanne became such a rabid communist. Williams never talked about his escape for years, but it does not bother him. He did sleepwalk, but got through that period. Losing buddies was tough, but he made it through the emotion. Williams’ parents never knew the whole story of their son’s rescue. Staying in the Air Force as a fighter pilot, he made it to jet school in 1951 and flew F-86s [Annotator’s Note: North American F-86 Sabre fighter aircraft] and F-100s [Annotator’s Note: North American F-100 Super Sabre fighter aircraft]. Williams retired from the Air Force at age 40. He had obtained his undergraduate and master’s degrees so he was qualified for the civilian world. He retired from Xerox at age 62. He was busy from age 19 to 62, but now just enjoys life.