Stanley Berman was born in September 1920 in Columbus, Ohio, moved to Cleveland, Ohio, and finally to Cincinnati [Annotator's Note: Cincinnati, Ohio]. He played sports as a child and had an enjoyable childhood. He had no inkling that the United States would go to war. In 1939, he went to the University of Cincinnati [Annotator's Note: in Cincinnati, Ohio] for one year, but did not like it and felt that he was wasting his father's money. He left and went to work for a year. World War 2 had begun, though American was not yet involved. A friend of his asked what he thought of joining the Air Corps, so he applied. Two years of college was required to be eligible, but Berman only had one year. However, he had taken so many courses that they waived the requirement. He initially failed the physical due to the depth perception test but retook the physical and passed around June 1941. By September of that year, he was called up to go to Maxwell Field [Annotator's Note: now Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama] for preflight training. He learned how to march and follow commands. After ten days, he was sent to Arcadia, Florida for primary flying school. He soloed after eight hours. His instructor exited the plane, told him to go up, fly a rectangular pattern, land, keep rolling, take off again and do it three times. The second time Berman came in, he ground looped [Annotator's Note: the horizontal rotation of an aircraft while on the ground] and the instructor was aggravated with him. He ground looped again, was checked out physically and he was fine, so they changed his instructor. He flew around 30 hours solo of the 60-hour course. He was always apprehensive and never felt completely comfortable in an airplane. He went to Augusta [Annotator's Note: Augusta, Georgia] for basic training and continued to solo there, on a much more powerful and complicated airplane. His superiors realized he was not going to be a pilot and asked if he wanted to be a bombardier or a navigator. Berman wanted to go home at this point, February 1942, but they were at war. He was allowed to go home, since he had enlisted before the war, but was required to register for the draft. In September 1942, his number was called. He was sent to Aberdeen [Annotator's Note: Aberdeen Proving Ground in Aberdeen, Maryland] for two more weeks of basic training. He was then sent to cavalry school. After about a month, he noticed some of the men were applying for OCS [Annotator's Note: officer candidate school], felt he was equal to those men, so he applied and was accepted. In April 1943 he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant and, ironically, assigned to the Air Corps. He was an Aviation Ordnance Officer with the 8th Air Force in England during the war, arriving in April 1944. His group was in charge of all of the ammunition. He was with a P-51 [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] fighter group throughout the war, and was discharged as a Captain, continuing in the Reserves for a short time, finally ending his service career.

Stanley Berman [Annotator's Note: with the 8th Air Force in England] trained on a Stearman PT-17 [Annotator's Note: Boeing-Stearman Model 75 Kaydet primary trainer aircraft] and a BT-15 [Annotator's Note: Vultee BT-15 Valiant trainer aircraft]. He was assigned to a P-51 [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] fighter group of the 8th Air Force and stationed in East Wretham near Norwich, England. He did not do anything heroic during the war. Right before the war ended, a German plane flew over their base and dropped a bomb. Among Berman's duties was bomb reconnaissance officer, so they had to go find out where the bomb had dropped and whether it had exploded. They saw steam coming up from a field and realized a high-tension wire had been knocked down by the bomb and was lying in the wet grass, causing steam. They reported where it had dropped, so the bomb disposal group could locate and take care of it. He was in London [Annotator's Note: London, England] one night on leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] when he heard a large explosion. He learned the next day that a hotel two blocks away had been hit by a German V-2 bomb [Annotator's Note: German Vergeltungswaffe 2, or Retribution Weapon 2, ballistic missile]. His job was not difficult and the men in his platoon were loyal and respectful. He enjoyed it. He corresponded with his wife and parents. He was in England from April 1944 until January 1946. There had been some talk that they would go from England to the Orient [Annotator's Note: the Pacific Theater of Operations], but it never happened. After the war in Europe was over, and before the war in Japan ended, they had to keep the men occupied, so they formed a school, of which Berman became the dean. He was sent to the Sorbonne [Annotator's Note: Sorbonne University in Paris, France] to train for this new responsibility. Another time when he was on leave in London, he was headed back to the base on an English train and sitting opposite him was a very distinguished looking couple. The man was working on a music score and began asking the soldiers where they were from. Berman responded Cincinnati [Annotator's Note: Cincinnati, Ohio], and the man wondered if he knew his friend Eugene Goossens [Annotator's Note: Sir Eugene Aynsley Goossens, a British conductor and composer], a prominent man. The man on the train turned out to be Sir Thomas Beecham who was the conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. Two years later, Berman was on a train in Harrisburg [Annotator's Note: Harrisburg, Ohio] when Goossens comes walking down the aisle. Berman stopped him and told him the story. Goossens got a great kick out of it and invited Berman and his wife to his next symphony.

Stanley Berman's [Annotator's Note: with the 8th Air Force] daily routine overseas was waking up, going to wash up in the latrine, taking his bicycle to his assigned area to make sure everything was under control. They delivered ammunition to the flight line and turned it over to the armament team who actually armed the planes. Some nights they would be awakened at one or two in the morning to receive bombs. They kept inventory of all the ammunition they had. They were always there when P-51s [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] took off on their escort missions which was exciting. What was especially exciting, was when towards the end of the war, there were 1,000-plane raids with B-17s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] in the air. The sky was full of airplanes all headed to Germany loaded with bombs. All of them together were equal to one A-bomb [Annotator's Note: atomic bomb]. When he was in the service, he did not appreciate where he was and all the things he was seeing and doing, because all he wanted to do was to get home. But he was able to take advantage of shows in London [Annotator's Note: London, England]. A good friend of Berman's from Cincinnati [Annotator's Note: Cincinnati, Ohio], a sergeant, was stationed not very far from him. Officers and enlisted men were not supposed to fraternize, but they ignored that rule and took leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] together in Edinburgh [Annotator's Note: Edinburgh, Scotland], stopping at the Red Cross there who sent them on to St. Andrews [Annotator's Note: St. Andrews Golf Club in St. Andrews, Scotland] to play golf. They would sometimes go to Norwich [Annotator's Note: Norwich, England] at night, maybe twice a week, and into London every few months. The bombing of London was mostly over at this time, Berman received a battle jacket which had to be tailored. He was on his way to a tailor when an air raid siren went off. He ignored it, and no bombs were dropped in the area. By the middle of 1944, the US largely had control of the air, so the Germans were not able to bomb as much, although they did have flying bombs, the V-1 [Annotator's Note: V-1 pulse jet flying bomb, German name: Vengeance Weapon 1; Allied names: buzz bomb, doodlebug], and the V-2 [Annotator's Note: German Vergeltungswaffe 2, or Retribution Weapon 2, ballistic missile]. When in London, he saw a few shows, including Lunt and Fontanne [Annotator's Note: Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, born as Lillie Louise Fontanne, a husband-and-wife acting team]. Once the war in Europe as over, Berman was sent to inspect the 9th Air Force in Germany, stopping in Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France] and arriving in Fürstenfeldbruck [Annotator's Note: Fürstenfeldbruck, Germany]. He ran into one of his fraternity brothers there. They visited the Eagle's Nest [Annotator's Note: Kelhsteinhuas, or Eagle's Nest, Nazi Party building on the summit of Kelhstein, Berchtesgaden, Germany] in Berchtesgaden [Annotator's Note: Berchtesgaden, Germany], which was pretty well-stripped by then.

Stanley Berman [Annotator's Note: with the 8th Air Force] was responsible for loading bombs and ammunition onto their equipment and driving them to the area where they were loaded onto the airplanes by armament officers and crews. P-51s [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] could carry bombs under their wings and were armed with .50 caliber machine guns [Annotator's Note: Browning ANM2 .50 caliber machine gun]. P-47s [Annotator's Note: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft] were stubbier. The P-51 was fast and a very important piece of equipment for the war. They escorted B-17s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] or else went out on their own missions strafing, hitting trains and such. When Berman returned home around April 1946, he began working for his father's small printing business. When he retired 40 years later, the business had grown to 65 people. It was called OneTouchPoint-Berman [Annotator's Note: located in Cincinnati, Ohio]. The war changed his life by making him interested in the world. The United Nations [Annotator's Note: intergovernmental organization whose purpose is to maintain international peace and security, headquartered in New York, New York] is wonderful thing for preventing wars. Before serving, he was not interested in anything civic, but became interested in politics. He did an Honor Flight [Annotator's Note: a national network of independent Hubs working together to honor our nation's veterans with an all-expenses paid trip to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. to visit the war memorials] with other veterans.