Lewis Thomas Easterling was born in January 1924 in Ellerbe, North Carolina and grew up in Rockingham [Annotator's Notes: Rockingham, North Carolina]. During the Great Depression, his family did the best they could. With six children, his father lost his business at a cotton broker and had to move the family around and eventually found another job. Easterling attended school in Rockingham but did not finish his senior year before entering service. Easterling was visiting his brother's family at Fort Bragg [Annotator's Notes: Fort Bragg, North Carolina] when he heard over the radio about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Notes: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He knew that things would soon change for the country. Easterling did not want to be drafted so, during his senior year of school, he applied for the Air Force cadet program and was sent to Charlotte, North Carolina for more written, mental, and physical exams. After a few months, in October 1942, he received an acceptance letter and was placed in reserves until he was called for service. In April 1943, he received a notice to report to Nashville, Tennessee to start training. After two weeks of examinations, he was assigned as a pilot and began pre-flight training at Maxwell Field, Alabama. Training at Maxwell Field was very intense.

Lewis Thomas Easterling was sent to Maxwell Field [Annotator's Notes: Maxwell Field, Alabama] for pre-flight training for two months. Easterling recalled how the upper classmen treated the lower classes, and how men progressed through training. After completing pre-flight school, he began primary flight training and started flying, while continuing ground school for another two months. He flew a Stearman biplane [Annotator's Note: Boeing-Stearman Model 75 Kaydet primary trainer aircraft] while training, he was sitting in a plane with his instructor and all a sudden another plane crashed on top of them. Easterling had only a moment of time to duck and cover. After primary flight school he began basic training on the BT-13 [Annotator's Notes: Vultee BT-13 Valiant] and BT-15 [Annotator's Notes: Vultee BT-15 Valiant]. Easterling was sent to advanced fighter pilot school in Spence Field, Georgia [Annotator's Notes: Spence Army Airfield, Moultrie, Georgia] to fly AT-6 [Annotator's Notes: North American T-6 Texan advanced trainer aircraft]. He was trained on aerobatics and combat maneuvering, gunnery, and instruments. He received his wings and commission after completing advanced training. He was sent to Eglin Field, Florida for more gunnery training.

After February 1944, Lewis Thomas Easterling trained in ground gunnery and aerial gunnery attempting to score enough points to avoid being "washed out." He was sent to Tifton, Georgia to fly P-40 [Annotator's Notes: Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighter aircraft] fighter planes. He recalled that the plane had hydraulic problems. Sometimes one wheel would come down while the other would not. It became a process of trying to rectify the problem. Easterling crashed landed trying to work the hydraulics. Easterling was sent to Richmond, Virginia and was trained on P-47s [Annotator's Notes: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft]. He practiced flying at high altitudes and hold in formation. He noticed that the controls and instruments worked slower at high altitudes. He was sent to Dover, Delaware for additional high altitude gunnery training. During a training flight, he fired at a tow plane but cut the cable. The cable hit his plane and damaged his rudder, but he was able to make a safe landing. He was sent to New Jersey and shortly after shipped overseas to Europe.

Lewis Thomas Easterling was put on a luxury liner in July 1944 and enjoyed his passage overseas. His ship landed in Liverpool [Annotator's Notes: Liverpool, England]. He then went to another town for a couple of weeks of flight training with veteran combat pilots. He began by flying escort missions, but soon after was assigned as a replacement pilot to the 365th Fighter Squadron, 358th Fighter Group [Annotator’s Notes: 365th Fighter Squadron, 358th Fighter Group, 9th Air Force]. This group was based in the Cherbourg Peninsula in a town called Pontorson, France. Easterling flew P-47s [Annotator's Notes: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft] at high altitudes in the beginning until the P-51s [Annotator's Notes: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] came onboard, then he began flying lower altitude missions. [Annotator's Notes: The interviewer pauses the interview to change tapes at 0:58:00.000.]

Lewis Thomas Easterling was initiated into his group [Annotator's Note: 365th Fighter Squadron, 358th Fighter Group, 9th Air Force] when the commander made him watch planes returning from a mission. The planes were damaged and smoking as they landed. The commander told him that their group takes missions no other group wants to take. His first mission was to attack some pillboxes on the Brest Peninsula [Annotator's Notes: Brest, France] with napalm jelly so allied troops could get across. As he got close to his target, he noticed his partner's plane suddenly burst into flames. Some flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire] had hit where the napalm was in his plane. Easterling had to complete the mission without him. After few days of napalming the pillboxes, the infantry was able to move in. Another mission he was on was to skip bomb submarine pens off the English Channel, and then flew missions in the city of Brest.

Lewis Thomas Easterling remarked that his fighter group [Annotator's Note: 365th Fighter Squadron, 358th Fighter Group, 9th Air Force] was put on any mission to help further the infantry's advance, including attacking troop convoys, bridges, tanks, and other large equipment like cars and trains. He would get hit on every mission from antiaircraft fire. The ground crew would patch up the planes so he could flyout on his next mission.

Lewis Thomas Easterling flew his last mission on 17 December 1944. One of the squadrons found a whole group of trains in a marshalling yard with the intention to go to Bastogne [Annotator's Notes: Bastogne, Belgium]. There were trains, cars, troops, and ammunition, so the allied forces isolated them by cutting off the railroad. Easterling was issued a brand-new Thunderbolt [Annotator's Notes: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft] that had not even been painted yet. He flew into the marshalling yard and dive bombed the area then returned to strafe it. There was heavy flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire] during this mission. He had just enough ammunition for one last pass and as he fired on his target a huge explosion happened. Easterling was caught up in the debris thrown skyward by the blast. Metal and ammunition pierced his aircraft and he was having a hard time controlling the plane. As he tried to gain altitude he was getting hit by flak. Easterling eventually decided to bail out of his plane when he was hit in the engine. However, a cable had wrapped around him keeping him from bailing out. He eventually figured out how to get loose and was able to parachute down. He recalled on his way down, that his leg was broken and he could see the bone, and at the same time he was getting shot at by the enemy.

Lewis Thomas Easterling had broken his legs when his plane was hit and he could not go anywhere when he landed. A group of civilians came upon him and began jerking at his parachute, kicking him, and beating him as well. Some SS troops [Annotator's Note: Schutzstaffel; German paramilitary organization] came over and settled the civilians and put Easterling on an oxcart and brought him into town. The burgermeister [Annotator's Note: similar to a mayor] made a speech in the town center holding a luger at Easterling. He thought that he was going to be shot right there, but after the speech and the civilians walked away, Easterling was transported to a schoolhouse for a night and then brought him to a tunnel where he laid with other wounded German troops. Easterling thought for sure he would not last because the tunnel was full of ice, and he was not clothed. He was freezing to death. As a nun came by and saw him, she covered him with a blanket. He believes that nun saved his life. After traveling on a train for several days, he was taken to a room with bunks that had other wounded prisoners in it. He was in and out of consciousness for a while and developed gangrene during his imprisonment. [Annotator's Notes: The interviewer pauses the interview to change tapes 2:00.25.000.]

[Annotator’s Notes: Lewis Thomas Easterling, a fighter pilot in the 365th Fighter Squadron, 358th Fighter Group, 9th Air Force was shot down and became a prisoner of war. He was wounded very badly when his plane was shot down and developed gangrene.] Lewis Thomas Easterling met a Russian prisoner that gave him some old newspaper to help him clean his wounds until the gangrene was gone. He was able to clothe himself by taking some off other prisoners' bodies after they had died. Easterling was there for about four months and was then taken to Essingen [Annotator's Notes: Essingen, Germany] by train. As soon as they arrived, the British began to bomb the area. The two guards that were carrying him on a stretcher dropped him and ran off for shelter. He dragged himself off the stretcher and found shelter under a cement bench. The train he was on was blown to pieces. The next morning, he was transported to a prison camp for a month. The guards at the prison camp got up and left one day because they could hear the allies advancing. Some French troops came along and opened the gates and told the prisoners they were free, then left. After a few days, an American sergeant found them and got transportation and medical equipment for the wounded prisoners.

Lewis Thomas Easterling and a few other prisoners made their way to Stuttgart [Annotator's Notes: Stuttgart, Germany] where they met up with a group of lost American troops that had a half-track [Annotator's Note: M3 half-track; a vehicle with front wheels and rear tracks] and jeep. When they arrive in Stuttgart, they were met with fire, so they turned around and left and stayed at a house outside of town. After a while, the French took over Stuttgart. Easterling left the house and found a main unit and began to receive medical attention. He flew back to England and was put in a hospital. He was put in a body cast which became tight as he began to gain weight. Easterling borrowed a knife and began cutting part of his cast so he could breathe better. When the war was over, he eventually made his way back to the United States and stayed in a hospital for about two years. He was discharged at Walter Reed Hospital [Annotator's Notes: in Bethesda, Maryland] in November 1947.

The war changed Lewis Thomas Easterling's life tremendously because he had a difficult time finding a job. He got married and had a baby. He went to accounting school using the G.I. Bill. Easterling was permanently damaged due to his experience in the war which has impacted his life. He thinks its very important to have The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana] for the future generations so the history will disappear.