Richard Notebaert was born in January 1920 in Rochester, New York. He was youngest of the four children of a bridge and road builder father and a first generation German [Annotator's Note: German-American] mother. He graduated from a Catholic high school and completed the equivalency of two and a half years of college required to get into the Army Air Corps cadets. Notebaert "flunked" his first Army physical examination because his excitement raised his blood pressure to an unacceptable level. Undeterred, Notebaert enrolled in a civilian pilot training program during lunch breaks from his job at an automobile dealership and earned his private license. He passed the Army physical on his second attempt, the week before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. Then, Notebaert said, "They just grabbed us in," and he was commissioned. His training took him to Salt Lake City, Utah; Spokane, Washington; and Casper, Wyoming. There, he married the girl he had courted by correspondence for nine months, and they lived together in a one-room apartment for a month before he was transferred to Morrison Army Airfield in Florida, and his wife went home to New York.

At Morrison Army Airfield in Florida, Richard Notebaert's old crew broken up, and he was assigned to another crew that needed a copilot. It took about a week for them to fly from Natal, Brazil to Dakar, French West Africa. Notebaert mentioned that they were greeted by tall, shiny black African natives that he found "wonderful." The plane they had brought across the Atlantic went on to England, and their captain named the new aircraft "Star Picker." Notebaert noted that American airmen in Africa had to complete 50 missions before they were sent back the United States. Rommel [Annotator's Note: German Army Field Marshall Johannes Erwin Eugen Rommel] was still active in Africa when Notebaert started flying missions from Marrakesh in Morocco, and he said they bombed quite a few German troop installations and airstrips. He remembers lines of German prisoners marching through the American camp on their way to interment in the States, and he said they would trade anything for American chocolate. His squadron [Annotator's Note: 346th Bombardment Squadron, 99th Bombardment Group, 12th Air Force] moved to Tunis [Annotator's Note: Tunis, Tunisia], where they operated out of an old wheat field, flying missions to Messina, Sicily, and chasing Rommel "up the boot" of Italy. His squadron was often under attack from 88mm [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery] ground fire, and once in a while one of their squadron was shot down. At that point in the war, most of the German fighter planes had moved up to Europe and Russia. But, while returning from one mission, just as they were flying over the little Mediterranean island of Pantelleria, they were "jumped" by three pursuit aircraft. The gunners had already broken their weapons down so they wouldn't have to clean them after they landed at base, and the Star Picker couldn't fight back. Three members of the crew were wounded, and the pilot landed at the nearest airfield for medical help. Luckily it was an English airbase, with an experienced resident surgeon, and all of the wounded recovered. Noteboert said he lost contact with them afterward. In fact, he has only spoken with one of his fellow crewmembers since the war ended. Notebaert said he still can not express the relief he felt on completing his last mission.

Returning to the United States on a Liberty ship [Annotator's Note: a class of quickly produced cargo ship], Richard Notebaert said he had a miserable 28 day trip through bad weather and sub [Annotator's Note: submarine] infested waters in a convoy across the Atlantic. The food in Africa had been awful, and as a farm boy he couldn't wait to enjoy a glass of milk and some fresh farm butter when he returned to New York. In Africa, Notebaert had been living in tents, and many of the soldiers had intestinal difficulties that the surgeon treated with morphine. Sand storms would blow their tents down, and it was difficult to keep sand out of their clothes. The sand was also a problem for the aircraft, and Notebaert described a mission over the harbor at La Spezia [Annotator's Note: La Spezia, Italy] that was botched as a result of the runway conditions at takeoff. Notebaert said the ground crew was wonderful, and usually worked through the difficult conditions.

One of the times Richard Notebaert met with serious resistance occurred when he was on a mission to Wiener Neustadt, Austria to attack a ball bearing factory. He had to refuel on the way, because it was pretty far north, in fact, farther than any place the Allied aircraft had reached to that point. But the site was fogged in, and Notebaert didn't have radar, so he had to return to base. When they made a second attempt a week later, the Germans were ready for battle, and there were three attack planes in the air when they neared the site. The first plane approached, firing, but missed Notebaert's aircraft; the second plane attacked, and all of Notebaert's guns were firing. That plane exploded in the air. The third plane flew away, and Notebaert said his crew was glad it did. Another time, the American colonel in charge of Notebaert's wing got permission to bomb a town where high ranking Nazis were reportedly living a good life. His joke with his pilots was that if they killed a general, he would give them a half a bottle of scotch; if they killed a colonel, he'd give them a quarter of a bottle, and if they killed a captain, he'd let them smell the cork. In a foul-up, the squadron [Annotator's Note: 346th Bombardment Squadron, 99th Bombardment Group, 12th Air Force] bombed the wrong city. Maintenance problems often grounded the limited number of planes flying out of Africa when Notebaert was there. His squadron consisted of 12 aircraft, and only rarely flew in the company of B-24s [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber]. Notebaert flew a B-17 [Annotator’s Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] with the 99th Heavy Bombardment Group, and was sometimes accompanied by P-40s [Annotator's Note: Curtis P-40 Warhawk fighter aircraft] from the 99th Fighter Group, and P-38s [Annotator's Note: Lockheed P-38 Lightening fighter aircraft] that provided some protection.

In this clip, Richard Notebaert talks about the missions he flew over the bigger cities in Italy, attacking an airfield in Naples, and bridges around Rome. During one mission over Rome when the enemy was evacuating, Notebaert's squadron [Annotator's Note: 346th Bombardment Squadron, 99th Bombardment Group, 12th Air Force] was flying so low that the Norden sight [Annotator's Note: Norden bombsight] couldn't be used, and the bombs were dropped "visually." Missing the bridge, the bombs hit the ground and the explosion pushed the airplane forward by force. Not all planes in the same situation were as lucky. Notebaert estimated one plane was lost for every three missions the squadron flew. When Notebaert showed up for the briefing on his 25th mission, he learned he was slated to take the crew out as its pilot. He was glad to be in command, and had no fear of flying the B-17 [Annotator's Notes: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber], which he considered "a beautiful piece of equipment." Asked about hair-raising experiences, he brought up a situation when his aircraft nearly ran out of gas, and two engines quit before the plane could be landed. In his entire flying career, Notebaert only aborted one flight, and that time it was because his waist gunner had an ear infection that became painful at altitude. Long missions into Germany usually required an overnight fueling stop, and the crew slept on the plane in sleeping bags. Notebaert said the crew always stayed together, but the planes they used perpetually changed.

By Christmas of 1943, Richard Notebaert was home. His new baby was four months old, and his little family spent two weeks of his 21 day leave in Atlantic City where they had "real food." He went to a nearby field and flew a piper cub aircraft in order to get the hours he needed to qualify for flight pay. Notebaert remembers that mail was free for servicemen, and that V-mail [Annotator's Note: Victory Mail; postal system put into place during the war to drastically reduce the space needed to transport mail] was a great convenience. After his leave, Notebaert received orders to report to Roswell, New Mexico where he became a B-17 [Annotator’s Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] instructor for the next nine months. He had enough points for discharge before V-J Day [Annotator's Note: Victory Over Japan Day, 15 August 1945], and decided against staying in the military. His transition back into civilian life went smoothly, mostly because he stayed in aviation, a field he liked. After returning to New York, Notebaert became a civilian flight instructor, then accepted a position as pilot with the National Gypsum Company in Buffalo, New York where he spent the rest of his working career.