Otto Kirkpatrick was born in October 1921 in Marianna, Arkansas. In the summer of 1943, he graduated from navigation school. He received his second lieutenant commission and wings. He was assigned to the 344th Bomb Group [Annotator’s Note: 344th Bombardment Group, 9th Air Force]. They were put in B-26 planes [Annotator's Note: Martin B-26 Marauder]. They were getting ready for combat. They flew a plane to Europe. They took the southern route to Florida, the Caribbean, West Africa, and then England. They were not supposed to talk about anything they learned. If they became prisoners to the Germans, they would not know any information. They were told they had to fly five missions with the bomb group to get the feel of war. On their first mission, Kirkpatrick was talking to the crew members and he volunteered to transfer to another crew. He went out with the other pilot. The plane he was supposed to be on collided with another plane. The weather was bad and they could not see well enough to land. He went on all his flights with no fear. When they were under fire, he would hope that it would end quickly. When they were on their last mission, they got hit by some flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire]. This was the first time he felt fear.

Otto Kirkpatrick got orders on Easter Sunday 1943 to transfer to the 322nd Bomb Group [Annotator’s Note: 322nd Bombardment Group, 9th Air Force] area. They flew with the Pathfinders [Annotator’s Note: target-marking squadrons in the British Royal Air Force Bomber Command]. They had the training to lead bomb groups into combat with cloud cover, at nighttime, or on missions that were close to their own troops. They had to fly straight and level for longer times. On missions where the cloud cover would not disappear, they did not get shot at too much. They led all 11 groups of bombers in the 9th Air Force. Kirkpatrick flew 65 missions. They flew twice as many missions as the heavy bombers. They could not fly without the Pathfinders. They had newer technology that was better than the other planes had. On one mission, they had over 40 holes in their plane. Only one person was hurt badly late in the war. They did two missions that day. One piece of flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire] came in and hit the guy in the knee. Kirkpatrick started to help him. When they tried to land, they were signaled not to land on the fighter strip. They needed immediate medical attention. Kirkpatrick knew a nurse who was stationed in London [Annotator’s Note: London, England] who was taking care of their man. Before the war ended in Europe, they were stationed on the border of Holland and Germany. They stayed in a hotel in London. This was the day that Germany surrendered and people were in a mob with excitement. A British officer in the Pathfinders was going to Germany to look at the radar technology. Kirkpatrick went with him and saw the Germans were just people again.

Otto Kirkpatrick went to college after he got back from the war. Before the war, he was working for the conservation service. He was going to business school in Memphis [Annotator’s Note: Memphis, Tennessee] and then he went to Arkansas State in Jonesboro [Annotator’s Note: Jonesboro, Arkansas]. He was in school when he heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. The teacher told them they were at war. Kirkpatrick has the newspapers from Honolulu [Annotator’s Note: Honolulu, Hawaii] about the attack. He volunteered for service. He took a test to be a pilot. He started pilot training, but he did not do well. He transferred to navigation training. The B-26 [Annotator's Note: Martin B-26 Marauder] was quicker and more difficult to land. It was a pretty good plane and easy to bring home when it was shot up. It was loaded with machine guns. Kirkpatrick was based in England while he was overseas.

Otto Kirkpatrick thought England was nice. The English welcomed them. It was another culture. He had flown to London [Annotator’s Note: London, England] from Holland when he heard the war was over. People were yelling and excited. There were about a million people on the streets celebrating. They flew back to Holland the next day. There was a colonel who was under MacArthur [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] in the Pacific who became their commander. He was asking volunteers to go with him to go to the Pacific. Kirkpatrick wanted to think about it. He was thinking about his family. He did not think they would be going back over so quickly. He welcomed the atomic bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945] being used on the Japanese. The Japanese did not play the game of war the way they were supposed to. It saved a lot of American lives.

Otto Kirkpatrick talked with some of the guys about how the war affected them after Germany surrendered. Some of them had hearing problems from the bombs and machine guns. Kirkpatrick thought it was alright because he served his country. He got married during his time in service. He thinks the museum [Annotator's Note: The National World War II Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana] is necessary. People need to understand what war is like. He could tell the horror stories of seeing body parts blown up. They saw planes crash as they came in. Kirkpatrick jumped over a torso as he ran up to the plane. The doctors were cutting off their legs. The torso was someone on the ground crew. He was not troubled by it. They did not bomb hospitals or prisons because that would be their men. The B-29 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] was the last kind of plane he flew in. It was the first plane he had been in that considered protecting people’s ears. When he got out of the service, he was a captain. He went back in from 1947 to 1949. He was a squadron navigator. They screened everyone that went on the planes for the Pathfinder programs.