[Annotator's Note: There is a background noise in the video.] In March 1923, Marvin Raymond Graham was born in New York, New York. His family was not affected by the Great Depression because his father had feather factory for women's hats. Graham was listening to a professional football game when a broadcast interrupted to announce that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. Graham felt very patriotic and in mid-1942 he enlisted in the Army Air Corps. He failed the physical because the examiner said his heartbeat was irregular. Graham went to a specialist who found nothing wrong. His specialist wrote a letter to the recruiting office. Graham was accepted immediately. He chose the Army Air Corps because he did not want to live in the mud. His father had been in the Navy, and Graham wanted something different. After being inducted, Graham was sent to Atlantic City [Annotator's Note: Atlantic City, New Jersey]. He was there for about three days learning to march when the call went out for volunteers for flight duty. Graham volunteered and that put an end to his basic training. Graham spent six months at Lowry Field [Annotator's Note: Denver, Colorado] in armament school and was classified an armorer and gunner. He recalls that his schooling was from midnight to six in the morning. From Lowry Field he went to Las Vegas [Annotator's Note: Las Vegas, Nevada] for six weeks of gunnery school which was followed by many more weeks of aerial gunnery training. Graham enjoyed gunnery training and it was his first time ever shooting a gun. He liked shooting and enjoyed learning the proper way to lead targets. Graham's only complaint was that the pilots who flew the planes they trained in were not very happy with the fact that they were not overseas flying pursuit or fighter aircraft. The pilots took their anger out on the gunnery students, flying very erratically and making it very difficult for the gunners to practice. After graduating, Graham was promoted to Staff Sergeant. As soon as he received his stripes, he ran back to his barracks and sewed them on his uniform. As a treat, the whole class to Las Vegas. Graham and three of his buddies bought a bottle of liquor to share. They drank the whole bottle and got so intoxicated they went back to the bus and threw up. They missed the outing because they were so sick. The next day they shipped out.

[Annotator's Note: Audio is not good throughout this clip.] Marvin Raymond Graham shipped off to Boise, Idaho where he became part of a crew. He became good friends with his crew members and remembers that that they all worked well together. He recalls that his pilot was very tall and large. After some training, they moved on to Pocatello, Idaho where they began serious training with the B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber], learning formation flying. From Pocatello they went to Topeka, Kansas. They were scheduled to fly out to England from Topeka but, there were more aircrews than planes, so the officers flew. The enlisted crewmen were put on a train to New York to ship out by sea. He recalled the train ride was hot and the train was dirty. Several of the men broke the windows of the train so they could get some air. While he was in New York waiting to be shipped out, he brought some of his friends over to Long Island [Annotator's Note: Long Island, New York] to visit his parents. When they arrived at his parents' apartment, his friends were amazed to find several bottles of liquor on a bridge table, and they could help themselves to whatever they wanted. On their return to base, they met four girls on the subway and took them to a club. In October 1943 Graham boarded a converted French ocean liner, the SS Ile de France. The voyage across the Atlantic was a good one and Graham soon landed in Firth of Forth, Scotland. From Firth of Forth the airmen went by train to Norwich, England where they boarded trucks that would take them to their assigned airfields. Graham was taken to Wendling, England where he was assigned to the 579th Bomb Squadron, 392 Bomb Squadron [Annotator's Note: 579th Bombardment Squadron, 392 Bombardment Squadron, 8th Air Force]. His squadron was assigned to a Quonset hut [Annotator's Note: prefabricated metal building] with a stove in the middle. He recalls the weather was freezing at the time he arrived. Although he was not specifically trained as such, Graham found himself assigned as a ball turret gunner. He and his radio operator, Bill Sullivan [Annotator's Note: William Sullivan Jr.], were close friends. The tail gunner, Paul Gaudreau [Annotator's Note: Staff Sergeant Henry P. Gaudreau], were to help Graham get out of the turret in case of an emergency. They continued to do a lot of training and became comfortable with each other and their assigned positions. When he first got into the ball turret, he was scared but then he eventually got used to it. On his first mission, he was so preoccupied with learning to operate the turret that the mission was over before he knew it.

[Annotator's Note: Audio is not good throughout this clip.] When he was not on a mission, Marvin Raymond Graham would regularly leave base [Annotator's Note: Wendling, England] and go to the nearby towns to drink beer and socialize. He enjoyed getting to know the English people, and he would often pay women to wash his clothes. He was able to buy fresh food from the townspeople, like eggs and strawberries. He would bring his fresh food back to his Quonset hut [Annotator's Note: prefabricated metal building] and cook it over the stove. Graham thought he was living a good life in the air force because he had good food, liquor, and a nice place to sleep at night. The combat crewmen had a special mess hall for them and were given foods that would not get them gassy when they were at high altitudes. On his first mission, he was so preoccupied with learning to operate the turret in a B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] that the mission was over before he knew it. He felt like he did not know what he was doing. By the second mission, he felt more confident. He had a crew of ten men in the B-24. He was in the ball turret position in all his missions but the last one. Graham received mail from home often, but he did not write regularly to his family. His father, who had some special connections, was able to send Graham packages of cigarettes. Graham would pass out packs of cigarettes and his mother's cookies to the ground crew because they worked nonstop making sure the planes were up to speed. Graham only heard major news about what was going on in the Pacific, otherwise he did not pay much attention to it.

[Annotator's Note: Audio is not good throughout this clip.] Marvin Raymond Graham had no expectations of what flight combat would be like. Every mission had flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire], and most had enemy fighter pilots. Initially, he was only required to do 25 missions, but the Army Air Corps soon raised it to 30 because of the heavy casualties. Graham remembers feeling pissed off when he found out, but there was nothing he could do about it. When he was about halfway through his missions, his squadron [Annotator's Note: 579th Bombardment Squadron, 392nd Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force] started to receive fighter plane protection which made the missions more successful. He was protected by the 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] in P-51s [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft]. He remarked how they were great fighter pilots. To get into the ball turret of a B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber], Graham had to open a hatch and get in while in the groups were flying into formation. He would hook up his oxygen and radio. His guns were put in for him. He tested his guns while they flew over the English Channel. The turret moved 180 degrees azimuth and 360 degrees around. It was electrically and hydraulically powered. He often worried that he would get stuck in the turret but got used to it as the war went on. He remembers he was consistently moving during his missions. He does not recall his guns jamming often because his pilot wanted him to only shoot short bursts. His pilot was very good at his job. The B-24 was durable and could withstand a large amount of flak. On his second mission they lost two engines, both on the same side of the plane making it extremely difficult to fly. As the plane fell further behind the others, they decided to try to make it to Sweden but as they headed in that direction, they could see German fighters attacking other straggling bombers heading that way. They changed course and headed for England. They threw everything out of their plane to make it lighter. They were over an hour half late when they finally arrived back on base. A lot of the airmen thought they did not make it and took their things. Graham says that everything was eventually returned to him.

[Annotator's Note: Audio is not good throughout this segment.] Marvin Raymond Graham says the German fighter pilots were pretty damn good. One mission to Germany, he saw German jets flying around for the first time. [Annotator's Note: Video Break. From 0:58:08.000 to 0:58:42.000, Graham speaks off topic.] He also mentioned on one mission there were these brightly colored balls on various parts of their planes. The pilot moved the plane up and down to try to shake them off, but it did not work. Graham said that it was never explained to them why there were these balls on the outside of their plane. Graham never saw much of the other airmen on the different crews. He mostly stayed with his crew. They went to the pub together, ate together, and hung out in each other's barracks. The base he was stationed at [Annotator's Note: Wendling, England] was a RAF Base [Annotator's Note: Royal Air Force] that the Americans took over, so it was a different set up. They had four men to a Quonset [Annotator's Note: prefabricated metal building]. Graham was very close three of his crew members. His last mission was the worst mission. On Graham's final mission, he woke up in the morning with a terrible pain in his stomach. The pain was such that he should have been hospitalized but he decided to go through the mission briefing to see where the day's target would be. He decided that if it were going to be an easy mission, he would go then report to the hospital later. If it were going to be a difficult mission, he would report to the hospital and let someone fly in his place. It appeared to be an easy one, so he boarded the plane. The weather was awful, and the group spent the better part of three hours just forming up. Graham spent that entire time lying on the floor of the plane writhing in agony. When the word was passed that the mission was scrubbed Graham's pilot notified the tower that he had a very sick man aboard. When the plane touched down an ambulance was waiting to rush him to the hospital where he had an emergency appendectomy performed. This was the first of three surgeries Graham went through, the third of which was performed right around 6 June 1944 [Annotator's Note: Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944] and many wounded were coming into the hospitals. The physicians left the wound opened for unknown reasons and Graham had to pour boric acid over the wound every several minutes.

[Annotator's Note: Audio is not good throughout this clip.] Marvin Raymond Graham was released from a hospital a few months after a surgery and was ordered to fly one more mission. His last mission was flown with a crew that he was unfamiliar with. His former crew had completed their required missions and had returned to the United States, except for Graham's best friend Bill [Annotator's Note: William Sullivan Jr.]. When Graham took off on his last mission, the target was German vehicle and troop concentrations in Normandy [Annotator's Note: Normandy, France] in preparation for the breakout from Saint-Lo [Annotator's Note: Saint-Lo (Saint-Lô), France]. Graham's job was easy, he was to stand at one of the waist gun stations from which the gun had been removed and drop handfuls of chaff [Annotator's Note: strips of foil cut into various lengths and having varying frequency responses, that are used to reflect electromagnetic energy as a radar counter measures] out of the window to disrupt the enemy's radar. As the B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber], flying at just a few hundred feet, passed over the American lines, Graham enjoyed the view he had. As soon as they crossed over the German lines all hell broke loose. The Germans were firing everything from anti-aircraft guns to pistols at the bombers passing overhead. Not wanting to be hanging out of the window more that he had to, Graham dumped the entire box of chaff out. He then sat down at his position and prayed that none of the hundreds of projectiles penetrating the fuselage penetrated him. The bomber was so severely damaged that on their return to England, Graham considered bailing out over the channel. He had seen the armada of ships out there on the trip in and knew that he would be picked up fairly quickly. When one of the other crewmen saw him fidgeting around and asked him what he was doing, Graham told him what he was thinking. He knew nothing about the pilot of this plane or how competent he was. The other crewman managed to calm him down and he remained on the plane. When they finally reached the airfield, they were forced to make a belly landing [Annotator's Note: landing without using the wheels]. The pilot brought the plane in perfectly and it skidded to a stop just off the runway. When Graham exited the crashed plane, he saw a jeep approaching with his best friend Bill. As they talked to each other Bill counted the holes in the plane. When he got to about 300, he stopped, looked at Graham, and started crying [Annotator's Note: Graham asks to pause the interview]. When Graham asked why he was crying, Bill said that he was crying for him. Graham was done flying.

During his service in England, Marvin Raymond Graham dated a young lady named Pat who he had met while on furlough [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] some time before. He was staying at a fancy hotel that offered high tea. Pat was in the bar when Graham noticed her for the first time. He asked her out on a date, and his friend, H.P. Gaudreau [Annotator's Note: Staff Sergeant Henry P. Gaudreau], asked her friend on the date. After several months, Graham married Pat and they were together for 57 years until her death. They had a good life in Denver [Annotator's Note: Denver, Colorado]. They raised two kids and he worked in sales. He never did use the benefits of the G.I. Bill because he had migraines and he did not want to put any more stress on himself. After their kids left home, they got a dog, which they loved. After his wife died, he moved to Amarillo [Annotator's Note: Amarillo, Texas] to be near his daughter. He then moved to Shreveport [Annotator's Note: Shreveport, Louisiana] when his daughter's family moved there. He stayed in a rest home and played penny poker. One day a woman, named Sarah, walked by and Graham asked her if she would like to learn to play. They began a relationship and eventually married [Annotator's Note: Graham asks to pause interview at 1:27:49.000]. Graham talks about his children and how they grew up. His daughter went to college and was a cheerleader. She married and had a family, but her husband crashed in an airplane and died. His son went into the Air Force and retired as a Colonel.

After Marvin Raymond Graham was released from the hospital [Annotator's Note: in Wendling, England], he was sent to a rest home. His girlfriend, Pat, came to visit him. They decided that after he flew his last mission, they would get married. They married in October 1944. Graham recalled that Pat was not a great cook when they first got married. He returned to the United States, arriving in Boston Harbor [Annotator's Note: Boston, Massachusetts] on Christmas Eve 1944. After a brief leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] at home in New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York] he was sent to Atlantic City [Annotator's Note: Atlantic City, New Jersey] for two weeks then to Tyndall Field [Annotator's Note: in Panama City, Florida]. [Annotator's Note: Graham's microphone falls off at 1:44:20.000] It took several days to get to the base. While in Florida, Graham was notified by his parents that his bride had arrived from England. She was at a visitor's center and had called his parent's residence. Graham's parents went to get her and brought her back to the apartment where she stayed until Graham arrived in New York. They stayed in a very nice hotel for two weeks that his parents paid for. They were able to go to music concerts and eat well. They enjoyed every minute of it.

Marvin Raymond Graham and his English bride, Pat, traveled to Panama City, Florida until after the was over. They found an apartment and noticed right away that there were a lot of bugs in the Southern Region of the United States. They ended up moving into military housing on the beach which they enjoyed. Graham was given the job of photo lab technician and produced pictures that the Air Force took from flying aircraft. His job was very easy, and he worked rarely. He mostly enjoyed his time on the beach through the remainder of the war. After the war was over, he was ready to get discharged. By October 1945 he was getting annoyed that GIs [Annotator's Note: government issue; also, a slang term for an American soldier] were being separated from service everywhere but Tyndall Field [Annotator's Note: in Panama City, Florida]. He soon found out that the commanding officer was being court martialed which delayed the discharges of the men there. He and a handful of other GIs requested a transfer to Lowry Field [Annotator's Note: Denver, Colorado]. He worked in a warehouse that held servicemen's luggage. Graham was quickly mustered out of the service as a Staff Sergeant. There was a good chance that he was going to be sent to Japan, but the Japanese had surrendered. Also, the missions had become easier for pilots, so it was not necessary for Graham to be given orders back to war. [Annotator's Note: There is a break in the video.] Graham was not well at the conclusion of World War 2, so he never took advantage of the G.I. Bill. He did use the G.I. Bill to buy a home in a Denver subdivision that was built for World War 2 veterans. He recalls when the first family in the neighborhood bought a television, everyone came over to see it. Graham had a job when he was discharged from service, but he needed a car for his job as a salesman. When he went to the local bank, the banker gave him a loan without hesitation because he was a war veteran. He made a career as a successful salesman.

Marvin Raymond Graham welcomed his English wife, Pat, when she came over to the United States. He believes his life started when he joined the service. After World War 2, Graham appreciated everything about life. Graham remarked that he was desensitized when he came back from a mission and other planes did not. He considered himself very lucky to have survived. He thinks not enough people in America know about World War 2 which upsets him. He said the men that died in World War 2, died for their country, but believes that it is a waste today because this country has gone to hell. He does not think it is important to have institutions like The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana] because he believes this country needs to be saved again.