Richard "Dick" Schneider was born in Akron, Ohio in March 1923. His family included his parents, one sister, and one brother. Schneider's brother also served in World War 2. The two brothers managed a rendezvous with one another during the war. They got along very well at that time unlike during their childhood. Schneider's father managed to maintain his job during the Great Depression [Annotator's Note: Great Depression; a global economic depression that lasted through the 1930s]. Schneider's mother tried to help others less fortunate than her family. Schneider worked at various jobs from an early age. He was in college and was shocked when the Japanese attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. A wave of patriotism ran over the entire population. Even though Schneider had started college, he enlisted in 1942. His mind was on the war, not school. He used the G.I. Bill to complete college after his discharge. Schneider enlisted in the Army Air Corps after being rejected by the Navy following his physical examination. He volunteered to be an aerial gunner because he wanted to actively participate in the war. He was filled with patriotism.

Richard "Dick" Schneider was trained at various locations in the United States but spent most of his time at Gulfport Field [Annotator's Note: Gulfport Army Air Field in Gulfport, Mississippi] in Mississippi. He trained as an aircraft mechanic which would be his second MOS [Annotator's Note: Military Occupation Specialty]. The weather and environment were hot and miserable in Mississippi. His shift was at night, so sleeping during the daytime heat was difficult. Leisure time was minimal. Classrooms were without seats so trainees had to stand for long periods before a break. Being on the night shift, his meals were all mixed up for him. It was crazy and the heat was unbearable. Calisthenics and marches were tough in the sweltering climate. He stayed at Gulfport for six months then transferred to Long Beach, California for Douglas C-47 [Annotator's Note: Douglas C-47 Skytrain cargo aircraft] mechanic school. During the six week course, Schneider's situation improved somewhat. He next went to Salt Lake City [Annotator's Note: Salt Lake City, Utah] for small arms training for four weeks. It was cold in the morning and hot by noon. Afterward, he finally went to gunnery school in Kingman, Arizona [Annotator's Note: Kingman Army Airfield in Kingman, Arizona]. The training was rigorous with classroom and field gunnery practice. He was offered a role as an instructor after graduation but he wanted to get into combat. He declined the offer. After home leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time], he returned to Salt Lake City then went to Dalhart, Texas where he joined the crew he went overseas with. They trained together on a B-17 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] for three months. The ship's pilot was unhappy with the bomber assignment at first. He had trained to be a fighter pilot, not a bomber pilot. He turned out to be a good leader for the crew. His name was Salvatore J. Malomo [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling] from Bayridge, Brooklyn [Annotator's Note: Brooklyn is one of the five boroughs in New York, New York]. A very intelligent guy, he had graduated from William and Mary College [Annotator's Note: College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia]. Despite rank differences, Schneider and the pilot struck a true friendship. A piano player and singer, Malomo enjoyed entertaining people in a bar that he and Schneider frequented on liberty [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] in nearby Clayton, New Mexico. After graduation, the crew buzzed Clayton at low altitude several times. Schneider threw confetti out the airplane. They could have gotten in trouble if their "hi-jinks" were discovered. The crew completed their training as one of the top ten crews. After his first pilot's death in the war, Schneider had little confidence in any of his future pilots.

Despite several delays, Richard "Dick" Schneider and his crew were sent to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey by train to voyage to Europe. They did not fly because of defects requiring correction on the planes [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers] they were to bring to England. The sea passage was very cramped and uncomfortable. Schneider and his crew mates could only sleep in a hammock every third night because of the passenger congestion. The old Cunard [Annotator's Note: Cunard Line] liner had been stripped of comforts to allow for more troop carrying capacity. The ship was fast and zig-zagged [Annotator's Note: a naval anti-submarine maneuver] every few minutes to prevent submarines from getting a bearing on them. Seasickness was common. Seeing a group of Catholic nuns suffering with the illness was particularly provocative. It took nine days to reach Liverpool, England. Ironically, Schneider sailed home from Liverpool on the same ship that he deployed on a year before, the Mauretania [Annotator's Note: RMS Mauretania]. The crew was assigned to a base at Ridgewell, England. His 533rd Bombardment Squadron, 381st Bombardment Group was in the 1st Combat Wing, 8th Air Force [Annotator's Note: 533rd Bombardment Squadron, 381st Bombardment Group, 1st Combat Bombardment Wing, 8th Air Force]. After some practice missions, they started flying combat missions. The living quarters were Quonset huts [Annotator's Note: prefabricated metal building]. The weather was cold. Officers lived in separate quarters. The enlisted men lived together, ate together, flew together as a crew.

Richard "Dick" Schneider's first combat mission to bomb Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany] was not a lot of fun. He survived five missions to Berlin. The city was defended heavily by flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire] and enemy aircraft. A round trip to the target was eight to nine hours in extreme cold in his aft position where he sat uncomfortably on a bicycle seat [Annotator's Note: Schneider served in the Army Air Forces as a tail gunner aboard Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers in the 533rd Bombardment Squadron, 381st Bombardment Group, 1st Combat Bombardment Wing, 8th Air Force]. The waist doors were wide open and the freezing cold went directly to Schneider's position. He was in a cramped position fighting icing of his breathing equipment and loss of circulation in his hands and legs. Schneider was told there were 800 flak guns around the city. Whenever enemy fighters attacked, he knew someone was going down. They would fly head-on out of the sun and fire their 20mm cannons [Annotator's Note: MG 151/20, 20mm autocannon] at the wing tanks. There were attacks against the bombers aft end also. Schneider shot down an Me 110 [Annotator's Note: German Messerschmitt Bf 110 Zerstörer (Destroyer) heavy fighter-bomber] that was firing on him. He fired continuously at the aggressor despite training to limit firing his .50 caliber machine guns [Annotator's Note: Browning ANM2 .50 caliber machine gun] with short bursts to prevent overheating or jamming. The B-17 was the greatest airplane ever built because of the punishment it could take and still return its crew home. The B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] was more vulnerable to enemy fighters because of its extensive utilization of hydraulics. The B-17 was slower than the B-24 but its electrical circuitry aided its survivability. The German Me 109 Messerschmitt [Annotator's Note: German Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter plane] and the Focke Wolfe Fw 190 [Annotator's Note: German Focke-Wulf Fw 190 interceptor aircraft] were superior fighters until the P-51 [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] arrived. The P-38 [Annotator's Note: Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter aircraft] and other Allied aircraft did not have the range to escort the bombers all the way to the deep targets in Europe. Many times, there were not escorts at all for the bomb missions.

In July 1944, Richard "Dick" Schneider found himself with an extremely painful wisdom tooth. The dentist had a terrible time pulling the tooth. It was painful for Schneider but just the beginning of his problems. Infection and swelling set in and his pain and sleeplessness were awful. The flight surgeon and dentist decided that Schneider had to transfer to another hospital. After arriving there, he passed out from the pain and injured his head as he fell. The hospital ward was full of invasion [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944] casualties. Schneider had an operation that was terrible. He was seven days in the hospital with the wounded from the battles in France. Many were very seriously wounded. After being released, Schneider attempted to join his crew for a mission that had just been called. His name was not on the mission roll call so he had not been cleared to fly. He was to join his crew mates the next day. Schneider's crew was shot down that night. They lost one or two engines when they were hit just past Hamburg [Annotator's Note: Hamburg, Germany]. The pilot tried to make it to Sweden but did not succeed. Instead, the crew had to bail out over the North Sea. The pilot and others were likely pulled under by their parachutes. Only three of the ten men survived. They were captured by Germans who picked them up in a PT boat [Annotator's Note: Patrol Torpedo boat]. It was devastating to Schneider because he had trained and flown combat missions with the group of men. He was shaken by the loss.

Richard "Dick" Schneider became a spare tail gunner after the loss of his former crew mates. It was not his preference to be alternated between crews as they needed a tail gunner for the one they had lost. He never formed attachments that way. He requested and was accept as a lead team crewmen. His responsibility in his tail gunner position was to fire the flare gun for the other aircraft to form up on the lead ship. There was terrible weather 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] and nothing flew. It was brutal just when the troops needed air support the most. He would fire a flare and it would disappear after ten feet. The planes had to be recalled. A few midair collisions occurred. When the weather cleared, all possible aircraft were dispatched to aid the ground forces. Schneider's last mission was on 28 December 1944. It surprised him because the 25 mission limitation had been elevated to 30 but he only had to do 28 missions. He was glad it was all over. He returned home via Liverpool [Annotator's Note: Liverpool, England] on the very same ship [Annotator's Note: the RMS Mauretania] he sailed to Europe on. He had a 30 day leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] and was sent to Santa Ana, California. Asked to train on B-29s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber], he declined the opportunity to fight against the Japanese. [Annotator's Note: Schneider laughs.] His last assignment was at Langley Field [Annotator's Note: now Langley Air Force Base in Newport News, Virginia] in Virginia working on B-24s [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber]. He did not care for the assignment. He was discharged at Camp Atterbury [Annotator's Note: in Edinburgh, Indiana], Indiana. He returned home to Akron, Ohio. He had notified his family he was returning via a telegram sent from the Waldorf-Astoria [Annotator's Note: Waldorf Astoria New York in Manhattan, New York, New York].

Richard "Dick" Schneider had somewhat of a difficult time adjusting to civilian life upon his return to the United States. Many people reacted like they did not know the war had been going on. The veterans were disillusioned by the lack of knowledge in the civilian population to what had happened. He felt he had done his part and survived while some others were not involved. The majority of the population were informed. It took a considerable adjustment. He spent evenings as a regular in a local bar. He met another veteran who was a former flyer who had spent time in a prisoner of war camp. They formed a friendship and spent an interesting time together. Schneider used the G.I. Bill to finish college. It was a blessing. He worked and attended classes all year round. He graduated in less than four years and found himself competing for jobs with fellow veterans. He obtained employment with General Motors [Annotator's Note: General Motors Company in Detroit, Michigan]. It was the beginning of a 34 year career. He worked hard for General Motors as a branch manager. It was a good life. Many people pay tribute to the veterans of World War 2. Some do not but they have never experienced warfare. Schneider is more tolerant now than he was in the past. Most people respect the members of the military since it is an all voluntary force now. Schneider personally enlisted in the Army Air Corps. It was a big part of his life. The memories never go away. He remembers a mission to Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany] where German fighters attacked his bomb wing [Annotator's Note: Schneider served as a tail gunner on Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers in the 533rd Bombardment Squadron, 381st Bombardment Group, 1st Combat Bombardment Wing, 8th Air Force]. Schneider was friends with many of those in the wing including the tail gunner in a bomber adjacent to him. He waved at his friend in the tail gunner position of that nearby plane. Immediately afterward, a wounded bomber crashed into that friend's B-17. Both B-17s disintegrated. Fuel from those bombers spread on Schneider's airplane. It looked like they would have to abandon ship. Schneider was just about to jump from the bomber when the pilot indicated that the ship would not be abandoned. He was just seconds away from bailing out. His friends in the two B-17s were gone instantly. Those memories will stay with him forever.