Omer Van Huylenbrouck was born in Detroit, Michigan in June 1922. He grew up there. He had two brothers and two sisters. His brother served in the Army as a cook. His father was a carpenter and a good one. He worked on model homes. He got different odds and ends jobs during the Depression. Van Huylenbrouck only worried about getting enough to eat, but they usually did. He was by the pool room hanging around when he heard [Annotator's Note: about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. It was hard to believe. He had never heard of Pearl Harbor before. He worked as a die setter for the Square D Company and worked for them for 45 years.

Omer Van Huylenbrouck was drafted. They gave him a heavy coat. He had tried for the ski troops. They were on their way, it started getting warm and they had to take their coats off. They went to Florida and stayed in hotels on the beach. It was nice. He was drafted into the Air Force in 1942. They practiced in the fields and the streets. It was nice weather. He was trained to be an armorer, taking care of the .50 caliber guns [Annotator's Note: Browning M2 .50 caliber machine gun]. They asked for volunteers to be aerial gunners, so he volunteered. His uncle told him to never volunteer for anything, not even to eat cake. He volunteered for everything. He thinks they went to Las Vegas [Annotator's Note: Las Vegas, Nevada] for gunnery training. He loved seeing the country and traveling by train. Guys would get off the train and buy booze to bring back. He was not much of a booze drinker. He was in the tail as a gunner. They trained in both pick-up trucks and in the back seat of an AT-6 [Annotator's Note: North American AT-6 Texan advanced trainer aircraft], shooting at towed targets. One pilot flew really close so they could get more points. He had never been around guns before and to this day he does not like guns.

Omer Van Huylenbrouck was assigned to a crew [Annotator's Note: Van Huylenbrouck indicates to the interviewer he has a list with their names]. Harold Wiley [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces First Lieutenant Harold Joseph Wiley] was the pilot; Dean Sanner [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Lieutenant Dean Sanner] was the copilot; John Villard [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Staff Sergeant John (Villalobos) Villard, the radio operator; Wesley [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Technical Sergeant Julian Wesley] was top turret gunner; and George Little was ball turret gunner. He gave them trouble. He always had an excuse to not go in the turret. John Villard, Junior [Annotator's Note: unable to verify identity] and Wesley were really close. They likely crewed up in Nebraska. He had very good officers. One had been an enlisted man and he treated them really good. Wiley was a quiet guy but thorough and knew what he was doing. He served on B-17s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] as a tail gunner. He sat like he was sitting on a bicycle. He was on his knees with an armored plate in front of him. He reached over to get the two guns. He had a visual sight on the gun. He was assigned to the 305th Bomb Group [Annotator’s Note: 308th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force] and they went overseas together. He was in the 364th or 365th Squadron [Annotator's Note: 365th Bombardment Squadron, 308th Bombardment Group], part of 8th Air Force. He got a furlough [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] home before going overseas. It was a good trip. He got out of the taxi and his sister was coming down the street. His mother did not like that he was going. Despite his last name, his family was all born in the United States.

Omer Van Huylenbrouck went to England by boat. They traveled all over missing the submarines. He went on the RMS Mauretania. They did not have good accommodations. Their officers did so they would go stay with them. He did not get seasick. They had no duties, they just sat and relaxed. Food was dried eggs and sausage. They went to Chelveston [Annotator's Note: Chelveston, England] to their base. He had no contact with British civilians. They lived in Quonset huts there. One thing he liked about the Air Force was that he always had a dry bed to go to, unlike the Marines or the Army. There were 25 to 30 men in each hut, four crews. Nobody he was with was shot down. Some of the other crews did. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks the interviewee what it was like to walk in and see empty beds.] What can you do, that is the breaks. It was foggy, cloudy, and damp there. If it rained, they did not go on a mission.

Omer Van Huylenbrouck went on his first combat mission with a different crew. It was nothing exciting. [Annotator's Note: Van Huylenbrouck tells the interviewer it is all in a book that is there.] He saw planes get shot up and blow right up into nothing. Those were the breaks. Fighters did not bother them too much due to the escorts taking care of them. The Germans were good pilots. They would come right through the formation. He could shoot at them, but it was hard to tell if he was hitting them. If anyone tells you that they shot down an aircraft from a bomber, they are not telling the truth. Everyone else is shooting at them too, so how can you tell you did it? He does not think he ever shot any down. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer tells him his second mission, on New Year's Eve, 31 December 1943, was to Bordeaux, France to a German airfield at Bordeaux-Merignac.] Van Huylenbrouck does not recall anything about the mission. He remembers they ran out of gas that time and had to land. They celebrated New Year's there. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer reads his notes in a book and tells the interviewee he said he yelled, "Happy New Year Hitler" when their bombs hit the ground. He does not recall it, but he laughs.] When they were not flying, they would go to London [Annotator's Note: London, England]. He experienced bombings there and had to go down into the subway. To the British, it was second nature. They were used to it. They were friendly to the Americans. He would sightsee, it was good. He had a candy bar that he would put on the shield [Annotator's Note: on the armored gun shield in the tail of his Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] in front of him then on the way back [Annotator's Note: on the way back from a bombing mission], he would eat the candy bar. They got a shot of booze when they got back. He would just give his to somebody who really wanted it.

[Annotator’s Note: Omer Van Huylenbrouck served in the Army Air Forces as a tail gunner on a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber in the 365th Bombardment Squadron, 305th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force stationed at Chelveston, England.] They did not tell them where they were going until in the briefing room the day of a mission. The first time they said they were going to Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany] he almost crapped his pants. It was quite an experience. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer reads off a list of towns Van Huylenbrouck flew missions over.] He was the replacements for the guys who got shot down at Schweinfurt [Annotator's Note: Schweinfurt, Germany], where 60 planes were lost [Annotator’s Note: Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission on 17 August 1943]. That is 600 men dead. When they first started, they used different aircraft, but after about four missions, they used the same one. It was nicknamed "Reich's Ruin" [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress heavy bomber, number 42-31480]. He thinks Little [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Staff Sergeant George Little, the ball turret gunner] named it. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer says that his 14th mission, on 3 March 1944, was to Berlin.] The guys all moaned and groaned. Berlin was really fortified with flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire]. Flak scared the hell out of him. There was nothing they could do about it. On the way to the target, the Germans would put up a curtain of flak that they would have to fly through. It was as bad as he thought Berlin would be. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks him to tell him about his more memorable missions but Van Huylenbrouck does not know what to say.] Van Huylenbrouck knows that the Germans had yellow-nosed planes. They called them "the boys from enemyville." They would fly right through the formation. After their morning mission briefing, they would eat breakfast and then go to the plane. They did not really talk about the target for the day. They stayed warm with electric suits. He would bend down and it would burn the back of his legs. That hurt. They wore regular underwear, the suits worked pretty well. He wore a helmet but that was it for any kind of body armor. He would watch where the bombs hit. After the mission, they would go to a debrief and tell them about the whole mission. Van Huylenbrouck would then go to the barracks and take a nap. Some of their missions were 12 hours long. Once, he had to go to the bathroom but got disconnected from his oxygen and passed out. They got the mask back on him and he was okay. That is a good way to go. You fall asleep and that is it.

Nobody on Omer Van Huylenbrouck's plane was ever wounded by flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire] as far as he knows. They flew all of their missions during the day. The British flew at night. He looked forward to getting mail. The number of required missions was 25 when he started. Doolittle [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces, then US Air Force, General James Harold Doolittle] came in and raised it to 30. They prorated it, so he had to fly 29. He would have liked to kick Doolittle in the pants. He would get weekend passes and go to London [Annotator's Note: London, England]. He did not get to any other big cities he thinks. Some guys went to Scotland, but he did not. He arrived home from overseas on D-Day morning [Annotator's Note: Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. He was glad he was back home. Those guys had easy missions. They would go a little bit into France and then turn around and fly back. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer tells him his last mission was to Berlin, Germany. He says he remembers nothing about it.] He got nervous about finishing his missions, but he did not worry about it. What is going to happen, is going to happen. Their targets were usually ammunition dumps, airfields, and railroad yards. After his last mission, he packed and went home.

[Annotator's Note: Omer Van Huylenbrouck returned to the United States in June 1944 after flying 29 combat missions out of Chelveston, England as a tail gunner on a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber in the 365th Bombardment Squadron, 305th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force.] Omer Van Huylenbrouck went to pilot training school but washed out. The math was too tough for him. He stayed in the Army until the end of the war. If you had so many points [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home], you got out. There was talk that he was going to go to B-29s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber], but it did not happen. The Pacific was easy. They did not have German aircraft to deal with. The Germans were good pilots. He does not really recall the atomic bombs being dropped [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan on 6 and 9 August 1945] nor the Japanese surrender. He does not recall when he was discharged, but he was a Staff Sergeant. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer explains that all of the enlisted men who flew were sergeants or above in case they were shot down. The Germans would not make prisoners of war who were sergeants or above work.] Van Huylenbrouck did not take advantage of the G.I. Bill, but he should have. He went back to work for his former employer. It was easy and veterans got all of the time in the service added to their seniority. He worked for Square D [Annotator's Note: the Square D Company in Detroit, Michigan was an American electrical equipment manufacturer] for 29 years. He still has problems with nightmares once in a while. He just lives with it.

The most memorable experience of the war for Omer Van Huylenbrouck is his first mission to Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany]. He was worried about the flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire]. It's bad stuff. There were a lot of targets that were worse than Berlin though. Flak was worse than fighters. Fighters gave him something to do but they couldn't do anything about flak. He fought in the war because it was the thing to do. He does not think it changed him or his life. His service means nothing to him; he just did it. He has no idea what World War 2 means to America today. He has meetings every second and fourth Thursday of the month with World War 2 veterans called The Flyboys Group. Van Huylenbrouck feels that there should be a museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana] and that the war should absolutely taught to the future generations. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer goes through Van Huylenbrouck's mission list]. On New Year's Eve 1943 [Annotator's Note: 31 December 1943], they had to land at a different field than their base, where they celebrated with fresh eggs, beer, and Scotch [Annotator's Note: Scotch whiskey.] After a mission, regular armorers took care of the guns. Once in a while, they had to clean the guns themselves. He saw planes go down, but it had no effect on him. He thought his pilot was good. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer points out that in a book he is looking through, Van Huylenbrouck wrote a note about someone chickening out and not flying one day.] Ray Ridge [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Sergeant Raymond Ridge, flight engineer and top turret gunner, 364th Bombardment Squadron, 305th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force; reduced in rank to Private after opting for ground duty] was on a different crew. The pilot of that crew that day got the Medal of Honor [Annotator's Note: the Medal of Honor is the highest award a United States service member can receive who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor]. That was not a regular occurrence. Ridge was the kind of guy who in training, would say he was going to win the war by himself.