Richard Gibian was born in Montgomery, Alabama in October 1919. The Great Depression [Annotator's Note: Great Depression; a global economic depression that lasted through the 1930s] did not seem to affect him much. His father's business was not making much money. Despite that, the family was well off. His father owned a haberdashery [Annotator's Note: men's clothing store]. Gibian hated selling clothes, but he worked there occasionally. Before the war started, Gibian was in high school. He graduated in 1937 then went to Georgia Tech [Annotator's Note: Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia]. He graduated after the war started. Gibian studied industrial management. After graduating, Gibian volunteered for the aviation cadet program. He grew up near Maxwell Field [Annotator's Note: now Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama] and his father sold uniforms to the aviation cadets. They drove around with girls, which made him want to become a pilot. Gibian did not want to be an infantryman. Gibian trained at Kelly Field [Annotator's Note: Kelly Field, formerly Kelly Air Force Base, in San Antonio, Texas] in Texas. He also trained at Hicks Field in Fort Worth [Annotator's Note: Fort Worth, Texas] and basic training at Randolph Field [Annotator's Note: later Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonia, Texas] in San Antonio. Finally, he graduated in Victoria, Texas. He flew AT6s [Annotator's Note: North American AT-6 Texan advanced trainer aircraft] in advanced flying school. After graduating, Gibian requested to be a fighter pilot. Instead, he became an instructor. He was assigned to Eagle Pass, Texas, where there was an advanced flying school [Annotator's Note: Eagle Pass Army Airfield near Eagle Pass, Texas]. After a year, the Air Force needed volunteer fighter pilots, so Gibian volunteered. That was not long before D-Day [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. He was assigned to the 411th Fighter Squadron, 373rd Fighter Group, 9th Air Force. Gibian initially flew from England, but after the D-Day landings, his unit was moved to France. He traveled from Rheims [Annotator's Note: Rheims, France], to Belgium, to Germany. He sailed to England on the Stirling Castle [Annotator's Note: RMMV Stirling Castle]. There were 200 pilots and 5,000 GIs [Annotator's Note: government issue; also a slang term for an American soldier] onboard. It was a rough journey. The quarters were not cramped. It made the pilots realize that they were treated better than the infantrymen. The ship sailed in a convoy. There was one instance where depth charges [Annotator's Note: also called a depth bomb; an anti-submarine explosive munition resembling a metal barrel or drum] were dropped. One morning, the convoy had disappeared because the ship was taking on water and the convoy left the ship.

Once in England, Richard Gibian was given a few hours in a P-47 [Annotator's Note: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft] to look at the landscape before moving on to his unit [Annotator's Note: 411th Fighter Squadron, 373d Fighter Group, 9th Air Force]. The AT6 [Annotator's Note: North American AT-6 Texan advanced trainer aircraft] had much less horsepower then the P-47. The P-47 was a good plane that was easy to fly. Gibian was sent to Kent County, England and he started flying missions. He flew his first mission the day after D-Day [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. The scene on the beaches interested him, but he does not remember what the mission was about. He dive bombed and strafed anything that moved so he could support the beachhead. Gibian saw thousands of ships and crowds on the beach. He was too high to see machine gun fire. Gibian experienced antiaircraft fire. They [Annotator's Note: the Germans] used 88mm [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery] flak guns. Most pilots were taken out by small arms fire. Gibian's plane took a lot of damage, but it always brought him back home. He had thousands of hours of flight time in all sorts of weather prior to shipping out. Gibian did dive bombing work during the breakout at Saint-Lo [Annotator's Note: Saint-Lô, France] and the Falaise Gap [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Falaise Gap, 12 August through 21 August 1944]. His missions were to attack airfields, factories, and troops. He tried to clear the way for the American ground forces. The fighters went over Saint-Lo before the bombers and started dropping bombs. They then watched the bombers fly over the town. There were so many, Gibian could not see the end of the line. He started looking for targets and found a German tank. He saw his bullets ricochet off the tanks armor. The P-47 had eight machine guns [Annotator's Note: Browning ANM2 .50 caliber machine gun] on it and was a powerful plane. To knock a tank out, a pilot had to shoot under its rear and try to light the tank on fire. At the Falaise Gap, the Allies took many prisoners which allowed the Americans to advance. Gibian then flew to the Brest [Annotator's Note: Brest, France] peninsula. He flew from Saint-James [Annotator's Note: Saint-James, France] to Rheims [Annotator's Note: Rheims, France] to refuel. During the Falaise Gap, Gibian did not know what was happening on the ground, he just dropped his bombs where he was told.

Richard Gibian thought the ground fire was dangerous. When flying to and from a target, pilots flew in an "S" motion to avoid flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire]. Flak was not as lethal to fighters as it was to bombers. While leading a mission, Gibian could not reach his target because of weather. He located the Remagen Bridge [Annotator's Note: Ludendorff Bridge in Remagen, Germany] and started attacking it. The flak was so heavy that Gibian radioed to his squadron [Annotator's Note: 411th Fighter Squadron, 373d Fighter Group, 9th Air Force] not to follow him. He is glad he did not hit the bridge because the Americans later used it. After each mission, the pilots were given whiskey and candy bars. One night, Gibian was at a party when he was asked to lead a mission. One of the men in his flight was still drunk from the party. Gibian told him to stay behind while they flew the mission. A flight always had 13 pilots. The drunk pilot flew the mission anyway. Everyone was told if they destroyed the bridge, the successful pilot would be given a bottle of scotch. The drunk pilot destroyed the bridge, but flew through his bomb wreckage. The pilot made it home with a plane full of holes, but was awarded the scotch. Dive bombing was an acquired skill and the pilots had to judge for themselves when to drop the bomb. Gibian strafed a V-2 rocket [Annotator's Note: German Vergeltungswaffe 2, or Retribution Weapon 2, ballistic missile] site, but was not fast enough to shoot the rocket down. The V-1s [Annotator's Note: V-1 pulse jet flying bomb, German name: Vengeance Weapon 1; Allied names: buzz bomb, doodlebug] came over when he was in England. The engine made noise, but when it went silent, he knew it would explode soon. Gibian received the DFC [Annotator's Note: the Distinguished Flying Cross, or DFC, is awarded to members of the United States Armed Forces for heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in an aerial flight] while leading a mission. He was strafing a German airfield during the mission. He bombed the field and shot four or five planes. He also caught a hanger on fire and blew up a fuel tank. Gibian did not think he was a hero. His unit did not take any casualties on that mission. Gibian had many pilots move through the squadron, but lost about 22 pilots, many becoming POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war]. There was a lot of antiaircraft fire during his mission against the fuel tanker. Gibian shot down a Fw 190 [Annotator's Note: German Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter aircraft]. His friend, Frank Thomas, shot down the other. The German pilot was in the aircraft when he hit the ground. As a fighter pilot, Gibian's number one desire was to shoot down German fighters. In the 9th Air Force, Gibian mostly did dive bombing and strafing missions, so he was excited to shoot down the German fighter. He saw a Me 626 [Annotator's Note: German Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter aircraft], but it was too fast for him to shoot down. Gibian knew he could shoot down the one fighter he killed. Both of the fighter planes were shot down that day. During the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945], Gibian was not abe to fly for five or six days because of the weather. Afterwards, he led a mission in terrible weather. While heading back to base, he was told the field was closed. Gibian managed to land at a different field and told his group that it was cold and he wanted them to dilute the oil in the planes to keep them from freezing. The following morning, all the planes started down the runway. Gibian's plane could not make speed for a few minutes but he was able to take off. While in air, he tried to melt the ice, but instead it heated up the air, which messed with his instruments. Many of his later missions were strafing runs against vehicles and gun emplacements. Near the end of the war, Gibian flew a mission covering the troop's parachute jumping over the Rhine [Annotator's Note: Operation Varsity-Plunder on 24 March 1944]. He saw many gliders crashing. While looking for targets, Gibian located a column of German artillery in retreat. They were using horses to move the guns and Gibian managed to kill many of the horses, which kept the guns from moving.

Richard Gibian had R&R [Annotator's Note: rest and recuperation] in April 1945, and was told he would be going to the Pacific. While he was home, the war ended and he started flying as a test pilot at Eglin Field [Annotator's Note: now Eglin Air Force Base in Okaloosa County, Florida]. He remained there until he decided to leave the service in December 1945. Gibian flew all the fighter planes available including the P-51 [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft], P-38 [Annotator's Note: Lockheed P-38 Lightening, fighter aircraft], B-26 [Annotator's Note: Martin B-26 Marauder medium bomber], P-61 [Annotator's Note: Northrop P-61 Black Widow night fighter aircraft], the Bell P-59 [Annotator's Note: Bell P-59 Airacomet twin engine jet fighter aircraft], which was the first American jet. He loved flying the P-47 [Annotator's Note: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft]. The P-51 and P-38 were also nice to fly. After the war, Gibian got married and started working at a clothing store. His father had a candy plant in Selma [Annotator's Note: Selma, Alabama] and Gibian started working for him. Gibian found the job to be challenging. When he started, there were 25 workers and it eventually expanded to about 300 workers. Gibian bought a plant in New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans. Louisiana], but they ended up only really working from the original plant. The war made Gibian mature. Before the war, he did not know what he wanted to do with his life. He knew he would be drafted if he did not volunteer. Gibian thinks that had it not been for the Allies, especially the US [Annotator's Note: United States of America], we would be speaking German or Japanese. He believes the world was saved from a terrible person [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler]. Gibian felt surer of himself after the war. After the war, the GI Bill helped people go to college, allowing the country to grow. Everyone was patriotic. People would tell war stories for years. Gibian thinks The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana] is great because it educates the kids who might not know about the war. He thinks every school in the country should go to the Museum. The most dangerous thing Gibian did during the war was teaching people how to fly. Two of his students died during training, which shook him. Many pilots died during training. Right before graduating, Gibian's roommate died during training. Another man was killed after he landed when someone landed on top of him. His parents were there and saw it happen. Gibian did not adjust to civilian life easily at first. He wanted to stay in the military and was given a permanent commission. He decided he did not wat to be a test pilot, so he went to the Reserves. He was recalled for the Korean War [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 1950 to 1953], but did not go overseas. He regretted not staying in the military. Gibian made many lasting friendships during the war. He did not meet very many bad people in the military. They were all hard working people. He is glad he survived the war. There were six men from Eagle Pass [Annotator's Note: Eagle Pass Army Airfield near Eagle Pass, Texas] that volunteered for overseas duty with Gibian. They all survived the war and Gibian believes it was because they had so much flying time prior to going overseas. He started flying the P-47N [Annotator's Note: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft] at Eglin Field [Annotator's Note: now Eglin Air Force Base in Okaloosa County, Florida], which had longer range and was mostly flown in the Pacific. Gibian liked flying that plane.