Linwood S. Inscoe was born in Nashville, North Carolina in January 1924. During the Great Depression [Annotator's Note: the Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States], his father worked as the superintendent of the schools, so he did not suffer as others he knew in his community. Inscoe had a paper route to make extra money when he was a kid and all the way through high school. For fun, he played a variety of sports and went fishing and hunting. He graduated from high school in 1941 and attended North Carolina State College [Annotator's Note: now North Carolina State University] in Raleigh, North Carolina. When he was leaving a concert one Sunday afternoon, he noticed people were very upset. He soon learned that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. Inscoe had no idea where Pearl Harbor was located, but he soon learned, and knew that he was going to have to enter the service. Inscoe joined the Army Air Force Reserves in early 1942. In February 1943, he received orders to report to Miami Beach [Annotator's Note: Miami Beach, Florida] for basic training. He chose to enlist in the Air Force because he was fascinated by airplanes and wanted to be in one. He wanted to pursue aircraft engineering. After his basic training, he was sent to Bowling Green, Kentucky for college training detachment. He lived in the girl's dormitory while he took classes in physics, math, and trigonometry for two months. He was then sent to classification center in Nashville, Tennessee. He was qualified to be a pilot, bombardier, or navigator. He was then sent to primary instruction for pilots in Union City, Tennessee where he trained on an open cockpit PT-23 [Annotator's Note: Fairchild PT-23 flight trainer aircraft]. He was then sent to Newport, Arkansas for more instruction, but on a PT-13s [Annotator's Note: Boeing-Stearman Model 75 Kaydet or PT-13 primary trainer aircraft]. He was then sent to Spence Field [Annotator's Note: Spence Air Force Base] in Moultrie, Georgia for advanced training. He received his commissions and wings [Annotator's Note: aviator badge that designates being a pilot] in June 1944. He was able to take a leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] and visit his family. He then reported to gunnery school. He flew P-40s [Annotator's Note: Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighter aircraft], which he did not like. After another short leave, he was sent to Richmond, Virginia where he flew P-47s [Annotator's Note: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft]. It was very easy to fly. He was then sent to Dover, Delaware and trained in aerial bombing, diving bombing, and formation flying. He was sent to Camp Kilmer in New Jersey to go overseas. Because he was with a rowdy group, the Army Air Force restricted them and Inscoe was not allowed liberty in New York City [Annotator's Note: New York, New York]. On Christmas Eve [Annotator's Note: 24 December 1944], he boarded a ship and sailed in a convoy to England. The convoy zig-zagged [Annotator's Note: a naval anti-submarine maneuver] and had submarine alerts through the whole trip. Inscoe disembarked at Southampton, England and went to a replacement depot in Stone, England where he heard the news that the weather conditions were very bad and snowy. He befriended a guy, named Heland [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling], whose mother was a German who had immigrated to America after the World War 1 [Annotator's Note: World War 1, global war originating in Europe; 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918]. Heland could not drive a car but could fly a plane.

Now an Army Air Corps Pilot, Linwood S. Inscoe was shipped overseas to England and waited at an Army replacement depot for three weeks until he was sent to Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France], where stayed in the servants' quarters of the Rothschild Estates [Annotator's Note: Jakob Mayer Rothschild] for two weeks as he waited for assignment. The beam [Annotator's Note: low frequency radio range] was a radio tower that sent out a signal in four directions to help with navigation. In Europe they used another device to help with their navigation, where ground traffic control would pinpoint the location of planes and reroute them home. On the ship over to England, Inscoe stayed in a state room and had wonderful accommodations. The officers had their own mess hall, and the food was very good. If Inscoe felt seasick he laid flat on his back, and it seemed to help. [Annotator's Note: Video break at 0:28:23.000.] When he and his friend, Heland [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling], disembarked in Southampton, England they went to town to find some food at a pub. Inscoe was then sent to Stone, England and then boarded a C-47 [Annotator's Note: Douglas C-47 Skytrain transport aircraft] that took him to Paris. He boarded a train during a thunderstorm and rode it until he reached the end of the line. He did not know what to do next because he was by himself. An American sergeant found him and stayed with him for one night in a caboose, then the next morning a jeep picked him up and took him to Liège, Belgium where the 9th Air Force Headquarters was located. While he was in Paris, he went to opera shows, ballet shows, and other entertainment shows and explored the city.

In the beginning of 1945, Linwood S. Inscoe, a replacement pilot, made his way to the 9th Air Force Headquarters located in Liège [Annotator's Note: Liège, Belgium]. He then joined the 22nd Fighter Squadron, 36th Fighter Group, 9th Air Force in Leuven, Belgium. The quarters were in an old German barracks with no hot running water. He met his commanding officer and assistant, Major Wilton Earle [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Major Wilton H. Earle], and Captain Buffett [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling]. He liked Major Earle because he was very easy going. The next morning, he did practice runs because he had not done any flying since he was sent overseas. Inscoe flew a P-47 [Annotator's Note: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft]. He liked the P-47, even though it was the biggest and heaviest of all the fighter planes. He liked the turbo-supercharged engine. It was easy to fly and land. It had eight 50-caliber machine guns [Annotator's Note: Browning ANM2 .50 caliber machine gun] and could carry at least 1,000 pounds of bombs. The main weakness was it had a slow rate of climb. The plane was well protected with armor. Most of Inscoe's missions were to find targets of opportunity. He mostly found marshalling yards, airfields, trucks, and tanks. They avoided bombing cities. One time he was flying in formation on a mission, and he had the urge to urinate. He took his gloves off and put them on the stick and tried to situate himself to urinate in a funnel, he noticed that the plane began to veer into another, so he grabbed for the stick, but with the gloves on it, he hit the trigger and eight machine guns went off. [Annotator's Note: Video break 0:53:43.000.] His most memorable mission was when he flew with Major Earle as a wingman. They spotted some German trucks and Major Earle gave orders to some of the planes in formation to hit them, which they did. Major Earle and Inscoe then dove through a hole in the overcast clouds and were met by anti-aircraft fire. Inscoe saw all these shells flying past him. They both immediately pulled back up and returned to base. They did not find any hits on their planes.

On 19 March 1945, Linwood S. Inscoe was on a mission [Annotator's Note: with 22nd Fighter Squadron, 36th Fighter Group, 9th Air Force] looking for targets of opportunity and flying second in the formation. He heard something hit the plane, but it did not bother him. He then received word that his plane was trailing smoke. He did not worry his because his instruments were still working fine. Soon, his engine froze and had to bail out of the P-47 [Annotator's Note: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft]. After some trouble with the canopy, he was able to get out. He immediately pulled the rip cord to release his parachute and fell 200 feet to the ground. He was met by German farmers and soldiers, and one American soldier. Inscoe did not know why the American was there, but he was used as an interpreter. He was taken to a barn and sat all day watching farmers cut potatoes. Later, he was interrogated by an intelligence officer and then was put in an outbuilding with three other American POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war]. Inscoe was not treated poorly and was given enough to eat. During his interrogation, the Germans took a little book that Inscoe had on him. After two days, Inscoe and 15 other POWs that were caught began walking down a road, heading to Frankfurt [Annotator's Note: Frankfurt, Germany]. Every time they stopped; they would fill their canteens with water. One time, one of the German guards took all their canteens and returned them with beer. On another occasion, a German guard let one of the POWs shoot his pistol that had wooden bullets. On 29 March [Annotator's Note: 29 March 1945], they could hear an American armored division in the distance, so one of the POWs convinced the German guards to let the POWs stay in a barn and wait for the Americans. The guard agreed. Everyone shook hands and the German left. Inscoe and the POWs were finally picked up by a jeep and given K-rations [Annotator's Note: individual daily combat food ration consisting of three boxed meals]. Inscoe was a prisoner for 10 days. He was sent back to his squadron and then sent back to the United States in May 1945. After the war, he made a career out of flying P-47s. He thought it was the best job in the whole world. He thought the Germans treated him well and did not feel like a POW. He was on the ship returning home when he heard Germany had surrendered.

Linwood S. Inscoe was in Memphis, Tennessee on VJ-Day [Annotator's Note: Victory Over Japan Day, 15 August 1945]. He did not want to separate from service right away, but he decided to leave the military for the sake of his mother. He also wanted to return to college. He was discharged in November 1945 as a First Lieutenant in Goldsboro, North Carolina. He graduated from college in 1948 using the G.I. Bill benefits [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]. Inscoe pursued mechanical engineering and worked at a furniture company. He eventually became a vice president of a manufacturing company. He flew a little bit after the war, but it was too expensive to fly all the time. There should be institutions like the National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana], and they should continue to teach World War 2 to future generations.