Richard R. Ruess was born in Los Angeles, California in August 1918. His parents had two daughters that were killed in an automobile accident before he was born, which left his father somewhat distraught. His father blamed himself for the accident. Ruess was raised in a very strict but loving and supporting household, along with his older brother. Both he and his brother were responsible for outside chores and household chores. His father taught them hunting and boxing at a young age. Ruess' parents could afford for the family to go to the movie theater once a week, but he never recalls his parents were able to take him out to dinner. Ruess recalls that there was always enough food for everyone to eat even though they never had high quality food. He and his brother attended school, and both played a variety of sports. Due to the Great Depression, Ruess did just about anything for a job. He had a paper route, worked in the corner drug store, worked for the butcher, renovated fields in the winter, and worked on oil fields during the summer. After Ruess graduated from high school, he attended junior college. His family bought a car for twelve dollars and Ruess used it to get to and from college. In 1940, he was attending school at the University of Nevada in Reno [Annotator's Note: Reno, Nevada] on a football scholarship. His number was called for the draft, so he quit school and began working for a mill so he could defer his draft and enlist into to Air Force. He aspired to be a pilot. In March 1941, he went with a dozen other men went to March Field in Riverside [Annotator's Note: Riverside, California] for physical evaluation. Ruess did not passed the physical because his hearing was too low. His family doctor told him to drink some coffee before the next physical, which Ruess did and passed. He was accepted into the Allen Hancock School of Aviation [Annotator's Note: Allen Hancock College of Aeronautics Contract Flying School] in Santa Maria, California as an aviation cadet.

After about five weeks of pilot school and 20 solo hours [Annotator's Note: at the Allen Hancock College of Aeronautics Contract Flying School, Santa Maria, California], Richard R. Ruess was washed out of the program. Ruess was very disappointed and ashamed to tell his father. The Army Air Corps gave Ruess a choice to go to bombardier school, navigation school, or join the Canadian Air Force. He chose to go to navigation school. While he was waiting to be transferred, Ruess was put on guard duty. World War 2 had officially broken out right before he was eliminated from the program. There was an announcement that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. Ruess and ten others were sent to Ellington Field, Texas for a few weeks, and then transferred to Kelley Field [Annotator's Note: in San Antonio, Texas] for navigation school in May 1941 and received his commission in July 1942. The Army Air Corps sent Ruess to Washington D.C. to be part of the 1st Mapping Group. Ruess never heard of this kind of group before.

Richard R. Ruess was sent to Canada on the St. Lawrence River [Annotator's Note: after being assigned to the 1st Mapping Group]. He flew in a B-34 Ventura [Annotator's Note: Lockheed B-34 Ventura medium bomber]. The planes had been outfitted with three cameras that replaced the turrets. Using the Trimetrogon [Annotator's Note: system of aerial mapping involving the use of three cameras], they were able to capture 20 miles of aerial photography. Due to the cloudy weather, they had a lot of difficulty capturing aerial photographs. His unit was then sent to Montreal [Annotator's Note: Montreal, Canada], which again had problems due to the weather. The Army Air Corps transferred his unit to Winnipeg [Annotator's Note: Winnipeg, Canada]. After being assigned to various missions in Northern Canada, Ruess' unit was ordered to fly from Canada to Loretto, Texas. The mission was to capture all of Mexico, which they did. When they completed their trip in Mexico, they were sent on a new mission in South America. The members of his crew included a pilot, an engineer, a navigator, a radio man, and a photographer. There were no weapons or bombs on the plane. They used high pressure oxygen masks in the B-34. It was a good plane and allowed them to get in and out short fields. A mission involved 12 airplanes that were split into three flights. One flight was sent to Chile, the second flight to Rio [Annotator's Note: Rio De Janeiro, Brazil], and the third flight, Ruess' mission, was to British Guyana. His crew had much difficulty due to the bad weather. His next mission was Venezuela. His crew photographed the Orinoco River, which had never been done before. The military wanted to use the river to transport supplies, but the pictures relayed that it would not be feasible due to the rapids.

[Annotator’s Note: Richard R. Ruess was assigned as a navigator to the 1st Mapping Group] he received orders to report to Brazil. His unit photographed the jungles of Brazil [Annotator’s Note: Ruess asks to turn off camera. Video Break 0:32:30.000], along with various cities on the coast. Ruess and his crew stayed in various hotels in the areas they were assigned to. His crew was sent to locate an island off the coast of Brazil because the military wanted to use it as an emergency landing point. Ruess remarked that it was difficult at times to locate places because they did not have advanced navigation systems. Trying to find this island became very troubling. They lost one plane in their squadron when it ran out of gas and needed to make an emergency landing on an island. Nobody on the plane was injured. Another plane attempted to locate the island and ran into a mountain killing the whole crew. Ruess’ crew and another crew went up following that accident. Both planes lost each other in the fog, but Ruess was able to finally locate the island and his team landed there in the early part of 1943. His crew then returned to Venezuela. While in Venezuela, his squadron had to have Venezuelan officers on board while they were working in the country. Every successful capture they had was to be sent to the Venezuelan government at Caracas [Annotator's Note: Caracas, Venezuela]. Every weekend, Ruess and his pilot would deliver the photographs. Ruess dated the daughter of the Brazilian Ambassador to Venezuela, while the pilot dated the daughter of an American agriculture aide to Venezuela. After he was finished with a mission for the day, he called his girlfriend. She sent him a car to bring him and his crew to Caracas. Ruess also had an interaction with the son of the United States Ambassador to Venezuelan. Ruess, his pilot, and the two girls were exiting the theater when they saw the son of the United States Ambassador to Venezuela get into a scuffle with a Venezuelan. Ruess and the pilot had to diffuse the argument before a physical fight ensued. Ruess kept in touch until the end of the war. He enjoyed knowing her and was amazed by her personality and knowledge of languages.

[Annotator's Note: Richard R. Ruess served as a navigator in the 1st Mapping Group.] He received orders [Annotator's Note: Interviewee asked to turn of the camera. Video Break. 0:44:37.000] to photograph areas of Brazil. When his plane and another plane went through some clouds, Ruess' pilot radioed to the other plane that he was going to divert. The other plane's pilot decided to stay on course. Ruess later learned that that plane had a lot of problems on the return by staying on course. The plane started to stall out but were able to break out of the overcast at 500 feet and land safely at the airport. The plane was so damaged by the up currents that it was never flown again. [Annotator Notes: Video Break. 0:50.01.000.] The Air Corps replaced Ruess' pilot and at first Ruess was concerned with his inexperience, but by the end of his tour he realized that the pilot was exceptional and was happy to fly with him. Ruess' pilot was able to secure a four-seater plane so Ruess and a couple of ground crew men could take a tour of the countryside in South America. [Annotator's Notes: There is a loud fuzz noise in the audio 0:52:15.000.] The left and right engines began to spark, and the co pilot headed for an airport to land the plane nearly missing a barn. They found out they were dragging 500 yards of coiled wire. After his tour in South America, He was assigned to go to Colorado Springs [Annotator's Note: Colorado Springs, Colorado]. They were given a B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator] and began combat training. Ruess was sent to gunnery school and then radar school in Boca Raton [Annotator's Note: Boca Raton, Florida]. After completion, he was sent to Newcastle, New Jersey for more navigation training. He then was sent to California before going overseas in the South Pacific.

[Annotator's Note: There is static noise in the audio throughout clip.] It took Richard R. Ruess 13 hours to fly to Honolulu [Annotator's Note: Honolulu, Hawaii] from California. The Army Air Corps renamed his group the 4th Photo-Reconnaissance Squadron from 1st Mapping Squadron [Annotator's Note: 4th Photographic Squadron, 1st Photographic Charting Group]. As they flew through the Pacific, they stopped in Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands], and New Guinea. He also had missions in Australia. Ruess worked with two other navigators that had a sense a humor. While they were stationed in New Guinea, an intelligence officer arrived early in the morning, decided to get drunk, and eventually passed out. The two navigators saw the officer sitting up and rubbing his head. They decided to go over and tell him good morning and take him to the mess hall. What the intelligence office did not know was the navigators were playing a prank on him. It was only five o'clock in the morning. The navigators pranked the officer again on their way to Australia. The navigators, on different planes, reported seeing a freighter and light cruiser. The intelligence officer reported to an Aussie [Annotator's Note: slang for Australian] intelligence about what the navigators saw. When the Aussie captain checked the coordinates, he asked the intelligence officer how long he had been here. The captain knew that the intelligence office had been tricked. Ruess continued to perform missions as a navigator on Peleliu [Annotator's Note: Peleliu, Palau] and the Philippines. [Annotator's Note: Interviewee asks to stop the tape. Video Break.1:09:41.000.] His squadron suffered one plane loss in Zamboanga [Annotator's Note: Zamboanga, Philippines]. The plane crashed on take-off and ran into a church while some Filipinos were in service, killing several of them.

In early 1945, after completing missions in the Philippines, Richard R. Ruess' squadron [Annotator's Note: 4th Photographic Squadron, 1st Photographic Charting Group] was sent to China. They experienced a small amount of flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire] during this time. His plane was never attacked by a Japanese fighter plane. They worked in China for three or four months, then were sent to Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Okinawa, Japan]. Ruess flew a mission over Yokohama [Annotator's Note: Yokohama, Japan] and when they photographed the city after a large bomb raid, he saw utter destruction. He also had a mission to photographs Hiroshima [Annotator's Note: Hiroshima, Japan] the day after the atomic bomb was dropped [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapon dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, 6 August 1945]. He remarked that it looked like a massive vacant lot like the bomb destruction at Yokohama. He then received orders to photograph the atomic bomb damage at Nagasaki [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapon dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, 9 August 1945]. Ruess believes that the Japanese were fanatical people and does not know if they would have surrendered if they continued with the air raids over Japan. He believed that dropping the two atomic bombs saved more lives than it killed. Truman [Annotator's Note: Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States] deserved a lot of credit for making that decision. [Annotator's Note: A clock rings in the background at 1:20:31.000.] An announcement was made about the surrender of the Japanese while Ruess was on base at Okinawa.

At the conclusion of World War 2, Richard R. Ruess had 85 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] so he was sent home. While waiting on an island near Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima, Japan], he experienced a couple of typhoons. He was living in a tent and one of the galvanized poles from the mess hall flew through and knocked his tent out. In late October 1945, Ruess was put on a ship to return to the United States. He was seasick from the time he left until he arrived at Honolulu [Annotator's Notes: Honolulu, Hawaii] ten days later. He arrived in San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California] on 17 November 1945. He was then sent to Fort MacArthur in San Pedro [Annotator's Note: San Pedro, California]. He then received a long leave time [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] and promoted to Major in February 1946. He separated from the service in April 1946. Ruess does not know how the military utilized the photographs that his squadron [Annotator's Note: 4th Photographic Squadron, 1st Photographic Charting Group] created during his time in service. He has not seen any evidence of how they were used for military purpose. Ruess developed strong and lasting friendships with most of the men from his squadron. Because they were a small squadron, everyone knew each other. His squadron did not receive any special medals, but they were given an unexpected job and did it well. He appreciated his experience of the war and felt lucky to do his part. Ruess remarks on the crew of planes, Over Exposed, and Well Developed. Over Exposed crashed during one of their missions. Well Developed was decorated by a Fox Studio [Annotator's Note: 20th Century Fox Studios, Hollywood, California] special effects man who was also a crew member of the plane.

Richard R. Ruess believes it is significant to have The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana] because the public forgets events in history easily. He would like to see a full B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber]. He enjoyed showing his grandchildren the B-24 while he visited the museum. He recalled them being noisy and spent a long time in one. At the end of the war, they were pushing the planes into the water because they did not want to bring them home. He wanted to bring home the sextant [Annotator's Note: navigation instrument] he used throughout his time in service but decided he did not want to steal it. Later he saw a whole barge full of the sextants and the crew was dumping them into the water. Ruess thinks that the most impressive thing is the damage in Yokohama [Annotator's Note: Yokohama, Japan], and the decision to drop the atomic bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on 6 August 1945 and Nagasaki, Japan on 9 August 1945] that saved hundreds of lives. Having seen the damage of all three site, Ruess cannot believe the amount of destruction at Yokohama due to the air raids. He thinks it should be mandatory to send everyone through The National WWII Museum, so they can see what happen and make sure it never happens again.