Perry L. Garten was born in November 1917 in Peculiar, Missouri. He grew up in Missouri and graduated from high school there in 1935. He grew up on farms. He started working in the fields early in life. As a boy, he earned a man's wage for performing a man's daily work. In 1941, he went to work as a clerk in a parts department. He was married to a school teacher during that time. He was drafted into the service and went to Fort Leavenworth for processing.

Perry Garten was drafted and sent to Fort Leavenworth for processing. He was then shipped to Bowman Field near Louisville, Kentucky. He learned to be a soldier there. He became a maintenance repairman for gliders. Transferred to Sedalia, Missouri, he became a member of a newly formed glider organization within the Army. After about three months, he was promoted to corporal. He was learning more about how the Army worked. His promotion was due to his high score on examinations. The score served him well in that he received rapid promotions until he reached the rank of Tech Sergeant. He next transferred to North Carolina for glider take off and landing practice. He then deployed via South America to Karachi then Calcutta. Garten and his outfit assembled gliders at the port of Calcutta. After being at Calcutta for about a month, he was flown to Lalaghat which was a staging area for the 1st Air Commando Group.

Perry Garten was asked by the commander of the 1st Air Commando Group gliders at their assembly area at Lālāghāt if he would be the commander's glider copilot. It was an honor for Garten and he accepted. During some of the briefings he met Orde Wingate [Annotator's Note: British Army Major General Orde Wingate] and Lord Mountbatten [Annotator's Note: Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma] from England. On D-Day for their first flight into Burma, the troops were prepared. The flight was uneventful. There was some inaccurate ground fire but no damage. The overloaded gliders came in much faster than the planned speed. The pace of landings was so fast that there was no time to set up landing approach indicators. Some gliders crashed into or jumped over other gliders that had landed previously. Consequently, casualties were significant even before the ground action started. Garten assisted in clearing up the runway so the DC-3s [Annotator's Note: the Douglas DC-3 was the civilian variant of the Douglas C-47 Skytrain transport aircraft] could arrive with support troops. Prior to the flight back to Lālāghāt, Garten briefed the British glider troops over two days about the operation. He was impressed with the seasoned British soldiers. They had been through quite a bit. Garten flew 50 total missions into and out of combat zones. He flew troops and supplies in and removed wounded on the way out. They were basically all "milk runs" [Annotator's Note: uneventful missions]. On return trips, the glider would be picked up by a transport aircraft flying about 120 miles per hour. The inertia of the tow cable pulling tight set a pilot back in the seat. It was, however, a fairly routine operation. Garten was never afraid. He had confidence of his return home. On the first mission, Garten was provided with a plug of opium with the direction to use it as collateral for his release should he be captured. He tried to return it to supply when he was leaving India. They refused to accept it so he threw it into the jungle. It might have made him a wealthy man if he kept it when he returned to the United States. [Annotator's Note: Garten laughs.] The men just did not talk about that situation. It seemed strange to Garten because he knew of no other man who received a similar plug.

Perry Garten removed wounded troops from the combat zones in his glider. The injured Australians were very stoic but the Indians were more vocal. The Australians would tell the Indians to shut up and stop their complaining. It was strange how different troops acted differently. While stationed at Bowman Field near Louisville, Kentucky, promotions came fast. That brought on duty assignments that Garten felt he was not qualified for. He was a newcomer to the service and yet he was first sergeant. He knew he was not qualified for being responsible for 200 people. Some of the men from the east were loud and obnoxious. Gartner singled out one man and taught him a lesson when he boxed him in the gym. There was no further trouble after that. [Annotator's Note: Garten laughs.] Conversely, Gartner unsuspectedly tangled with a middleweight champion who taught him a lesson. When Gartner and his wife heard about the Pearl Harbor attack, they knew what would come next. He was drafted about a year later. He was 27 when he was overseas. He was 23 when he was married.

Perry Garten flew gliders in India and Burma. The storage and troop transport area within the glider was very limited. There was a bubble in the front for the pilot and copilot to fly the aircraft. It was quiet and smooth in flight but on a mission it could be noisy. Garten assembled gliders in a large hanger. Wings had to be set on a platform and anchored down. The tail was received pre-assembled from the manufacturer. The rigging had to be finished for the aircraft to operate. It was a primitive means of flight. The first combat load Garten carried was 14 British soldiers, Chindits, plus one security officer with the pilot and Garten. Every soldier carried his personal supplies. The men brought extra ammunition with them. The gliders landed into a hornet's nest. The participants did not think about it at the time. The night landings only had a slight bit of moonlight. Afterward, attempts were made to remove salvageable gliders. One enlisted man went to pieces. He was bound up and loaded in a transport. A month later, he died of spinal meningitis. His nerves got to him. Garten worked on clearing the runway after the gliders landed. The aircraft were light without a load and were pulled out of the way. Bulldozers were used to fill in ruts and removing debris to clear the runway. The landing strip was in good shape after the labor was expended.

Perry Garten got along well with the Chindits. They were professional and spoke English. The Gurkhas had a unique knife. When they discovered sleeping Japanese, any soldier wearing shoes would be beheaded. They were fearsome and uncivilized people. They were not big people at all. The runway was cleared after the initial glider landings with no opposition. The Japanese found it a week later. The commander of the DC-3s [Annotator's Note: the Douglas DC-3 was the civilian variant of the Douglas C-47 Skytrain transport aircraft] was Captain [Annotator's Note: name inaudible]. He had flown as Rickenbacker's [Annotator’s Note: US Army Air Service Captain Edward V. Rickenbacker] copilot. Jake Sarts [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling] was a transport pilot. He flew the last troop carrier out of Vietnam. Alison [Annotator's Note: USAAF then USAF Major General John R. Alison] was seen often but Cochran [Annotator's Note: USAAF Colonel Philip G. Cochran] was seldom seen. Cochran was always looking for the enemy in his fighter. When a railcar was unloaded, everyone in camp would assist. That included high ranking officers. The regular Army did not like Garten's outfit [Annotator's Note: 1st Air Commando Group] at all. They had an informal structure that irritated the regular Army but they never succeeded in assimilating the Commandos.

Perry Garten did not want to remain in the military after the war. Upon returning home, his former company did not offer him the wage he wanted so he went to work for another company. He sold cars and farm machinery for three years then decided to go back into farming. He bought a farm and raised his family there. His son followed Garten's path and became a cattleman. As farming income became tighter, Garten took a job in developing quality control systems. He became shop foreman along with quality control. He then assumed management of the machine shop along with the other tasks. He supervised good foremen. He learned how to work people who knew their jobs. Garten had a reputation as a hard man who was fair.

Perry Garten flew a security mission with a colonel that ended up in China. It was an unexpected experience for Garten. Garten would often be asked to fly missions for other officers. There were plenty of enlisted men who could do so but Garten was often requested to fly the superior officers. Incidents happened while he was in the service. During monsoon season, cobras would sometimes drop out of the ceiling of the chow tent. Garten brought brass knuckles back from the war. Garten feels he is a better man for the experiences he had during the war. After the war, he enjoyed staying busy and working. Garten witnessed acts of heroism. A case in point was the soldier named Estelle Kneeknobber [Annotator's Note: spelling of given and surnames uncertain]. Rather than give his unit's position away to the enemy, he quietly drowned during a river crossing. He had lost hold of the man who was assisting in his fording the rapidly running stream. It was courageous for him not to say a word while he was consumed by the river.