Stephen Ananian was born in December 1922 in Manhattan, New York City [Annotator's Note: the Bronx is one of the five boroughs in New York, New York]. He was the youngest of four children and was spoiled. He was interested in aviation early on. When he was 11, he lived in Brooklyn [Annotator's Note: Brooklyn is one of the five boroughs in New York, New York] and delivered newspapers. He made three dollars a week which was a lot during the Great Depression, and he would give it to his mother. She would sometimes give him a quarter for himself. He would then take the trolley car to the subway and go to Floyd Bennett Field to watch the airplanes land and take-off. He wanted to fly badly. He saw the Hindenburg [Annotator's Note: LZ 129 "Hindenburg"; German passenger airship, also called dirigible or blimp] before it crashed [Annotator's Note: called the Hindenburg disaster; 6 May 1937, Manchester Township, New Jersey; now Naval Air Station Lakehurst]. He saw it on its last flight and heard the news on the radio that night. He built flying model airplanes. He was young then and his parents did not know where he was. The person who took care of them was the cop on the beat. Those were the good old days. They were a product of the Depression, but he was never without food or anything. They made their own toys. They played stickball [Annotator's Note: Ananian describes the game in detail] in the streets. Willie Mays [Annotator's Note: Willie Howard Mays, Jr., American baseball player] called himself a three-sewer hitter. His team was the Brooklyn Dodgers [Annotator's Note: American baseball team; now the Los Angeles Dodgers]. When you went to the field, as the game was about to start, they would lower the fences to about 12 inches off the ground. That was so the kids could climb under and watch the games without paying. They also played kick the can instead of soccer. They could not afford a ball. They made scooters out of old roller skates. In 1933, when he was one-year old, his father bought a home. In 1935, they could not make the bank note and lost the house. His father lost about 90,000 dollars in the Depression. He did not declare bankruptcy and paid off his debts over his lifetime. Honor was a part of their name.

Stephen Ananian was a freshman at NYU [Annotator's Note: New York University in New York, New York] as aeronautical engineer. He worked out in the gym at school. Someone had a portable radio on, and he heard that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He rushed home. On Sundays, his family had brunch. He had made up his mind to enlist in the Army Aviation Cadets and he was figuring out how he was going to tell his family. He was the youngest of four kids. After dinner, he told his dad he wanted to talk to him. He started telling him that he was going to join. His father said his country was in trouble and asked what he was going to do about it. His older brother told him he would never make it. He went to Grand Central Palace [Annotator's Note: exhibition hall in Manhattan, New York] in New York and took his tests. He passed. He was enlisted on a deferred status to go back to school. Flying school was not available and he would have gone into the calvary if he had gone in then. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Ananian what he did in between 1941 and 1943.] Ananian knew he was going to have to take tests to get in the service. He took all of the Civil Service Examinations that he could to get experience taking tests. He also took an adult education course in aviation mechanics that was a great help in his military career. He had a tragedy in his life. In January 1943, his oldest sister died. Two weeks later, on 23 February 1943, he was called to active duty. He still felt it was his duty to go. His parents had immigrated to the United States in 1902 from Turkey. They could not do enough for the United States.

Stephen Ananian took a train to Atlantic City, New Jersey for boot camp. He had been in ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps] at NYU [Annotator's Note: New York University in New York, New York]. In Atlantic City, he became a Drill Instructor. There were about 10,000 Aviation Cadets there. There were not enough flying schools, so they started the CTD, College Training Detachment. They were given tests for college equivalency. They went to college for a variety of subjects. In college, they were marching but had no band. He organized one with about 30 volunteers. He had no experience playing anything and was made the drum major. They had academic studies in the morning. In the afternoon, they went out to Reading Airfield [Annotator's Note: Reading Army Airfield, now Reading Regional Airport, Carl A. Spaatz Field, Berks County, Pennsylvania]. Ananian was at Albright College in Reading, Pennsylvania. They were taken up in Piper Cubs [Annotator's Note: Piper J-3 Cub light observation aircraft] to see if they liked flying. He was there for two months and then went to Maxwell Field [Annotator's Note: now Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama], Alabama. From there he went to Nashville, Tennessee for classification. There, he was classified for pilot and because he was under six feet tall, he could be a fighter pilot. He went to Souther Field in Americus, Georgia for primary training. It was the field Charles Lindbergh [Annotator's Note: Charles Augustus Lindbergh, American aviator] had soloed at 20 years before in a Curtiss Jenny [Annotator's Note: Curtiss JN-4 Jenny, training aircraft]. Lindbergh, Jimmy Doolittle [Annotator's Note: US Air Force General James Harold Doolittle], and Roscoe Turner [Annotator's Note: Roscoe Turner, American aviator] were Ananian's heroes. Ananian flew PT-17s [Annotator's Note: Boeing-Stearman PT-17 Kaydet primary trainer aircraft] there. The instructors yelled at them constantly to prepare them for combat. On his fourth flying hour, his instructor told him to land and keep the engine running. He told him to fly around the field once and land and he would give him his solo. He said he would never give him a chance to kill him again. Ananian was elated. He had to land three or four times and became a pilot. They did a lot of aerobatics and stunt flying. Outside the field was a cotton field and he had never seen one. He was thrilled to be seeing the country. He went to basic flight training in Greenwood, Mississippi. After that he went to Jackson, Mississippi for advanced flying school. In Greenwood, he flew the BT-13 [Annotator's Note: Vultee BT-13 Valiant basic trainer aircraft; nicknamed the Vultee Vibrator]. [Annotator's Note: Ananian describes the differences in aircraft for each level of training.] Advanced flying was in the AT-6 [Annotator's Note: North American AT-6 Texan advanced trainer aircraft] and the P-40 Warhawk [Annotator's Note: Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighter aircraft]. They did a lot of stunt and formation flying and aerial gunnery. On 12 March 1944, with Class 44-C, Ananian graduated and got his wings. He went to Dale Mabry Field [Annotator's Note: Dale Mabry Army Airfield, Tallahassee, Florida] in Florida for fighter transition school. He had been an expediter in a photoengraving plant before the service. At Dale Mabry they saw that and sent him to Meridian, Mississippi for photo reconnaissance. He flew P-39s [Annotator's Note: Bell P-39 Airacobra fighter aircraft], P-61s [Annotator's Note: Northrop P-61 Black Widow night fighter], and B-25 [Annotator's Note: North American B-25 Mitchell medium bomber] a little. They would fly over the Grand Canyon on the deck, 50 feet off the ground, and then go up to altitude, drop a flare, take a picture, and fly back. Their other target was Niagara Falls in New York. He wanted to be transferred out. He wanted to shoot the Germans; not take their pictures. He transferred overseas on the SS Ile de France [Annotator's Note: also called SS Normandie].

Stephen Ananian went to New York City [Annotator's Note: New York, New York]. He was going to fly overseas on a bomber. The weather was lousy for two days, so they sent him to Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn [Annotator's Note: Brooklyn is one of the five boroughs in New York, New York]. They went overseas on the SS Ile de France [Annotator's Note: also called SS Normandie] which had been captured from the French. The trip took four and a half days because the ship was fast and did not have to zig-zag [Annotator's Note: a naval anti-submarine maneuver] for submarines. They went to Scotland and then to Cox Hill in Wales [Annotator's Note: Wales, England] to a pilot replacement pool. There, he learned about the P-51 [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft]. He loved it. It is a pilot's airplane. It is not an easy plane to fly; it is highly complex. Flying a fighter aircraft is very physical. He checked out in it. They had one in the hangar they could use to learn the controls. The landing gear was unusual and had several safety features. The 339th Fighter Group, 505th Squadron [Annotator's Note: 505th Fighter Squadron, 339th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force] had lost their commanding officer. He had been killed in a midair collision in combat over France. Things were somber when Ananian got there. Captain Archie Tower [Annotator's Note: later US Army Air Forces Major Archie A. Tower] was the Operations Officer. He was very strict and professional. When Ananian checked out in the P-51, he had to see Tower. Ananian read the flight manual and then had to take a cockpit test. He was blindfolded and strapped in with the radio hooked up. Tower asked him where things were while blindfolded. Tower told him the landing gear was tricky and told him to go fly for about an hour. Ananian took off but the landing gear would not come up. He landed and Tower drove up in a jeep, angry and yelling. Ananian told him he thought it was a safety pin that had sheared. The mechanic said that was what had happened. Tower then sent him up in another plane. It was beautiful. In combat, you do a 360-degree overhead approach, and Ananian did that and a slow roll [Annotator's Note: aeronautic maneuver]. A slow roll is reserved for somebody who has a victory in combat. Tower had a stern look and told him he was in trouble for that slow roll. At the Officer's Club, Colonel Henry [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Colonel John Henry] tapped him on the shoulder, welcomed him to the outfit, and then walked away. He turned and came back and told Ananian he had seen the slow roll and did not think it was so hot. Tower told him he had made it in with the old man [Annotator's Note: "old man" is slang for the commander]. Tower would call Ananian on the radio if he was having trouble with his P-51. That is how much they respected one another.

Stephen Ananian's first combat mission was a ramrod mission, one where fighters escort bombers. Cowboys in the old days were called ramrods when herding cattle. It was appropriate. He was briefed on the mission and was told there were storm warnings on the English Channel so there would be no air-sea rescue boats on hand. There were gale force winds, 75 miles per hour. They were over the Zuiderzee, Holland [Annotator's Note: also called Zuider Zee; was a shallow bay of the North Sea] in formation escorting the bombers. They went over Helogoland [Annotator's Note: Helogoland, Germany] where the German antiaircraft gunners were trained. A large burst hit him, and his engine cut out. His flight leader, Tom Rich [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Second Lieutenant George T. Rich], was flying wing and stayed with him. He called air-sea rescue and told them they were going down. Ananian had been hit in the supercharger. He knew if he got down to 7,000 feet, he could fly the airplane. He did that and flew along very slowly. He would rock the wings of his aircraft to lubricate the engine. He flew for 45 minutes without oil. As he got over the North Sea, they were met by three P-47s [Annotator's Note: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft] from air-sea rescue. They were just inside of England and all hell broke loose. The engine overheated and flames were coming in the cockpit. He said over the radio that he was leaving. Archie Tower [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Major Archie A. Tower] was monitoring this back at the base at the control tower. Ananian tried to stand up but the slipstream knocked him down. He rolled the airplane upside down so he could just fall out of the cockpit. When the parachute opened, the dingy [Annotator's Note: life raft] came out of its case. He inflated it and hit the water before he could get out of the chute. There were strong winds and rough seas. He was being dragged across the waves by his chute. The dingy was attached. Rich came down and buzzed him. He did this three times and was able to collapse the parachute with the aircraft's slipstream. That saved Ananian's life. The chute was now filling with water and dragging him under. His unit [Annotator's Note: 505th Fighter Squadron, 339th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force] was the first to have G-suits [Annotator's Note: also called anti-g suit; flight suit designed to prevent loss of consciousness in high levels of acceleration force, or g force]. He was in the water for about an hour and a half. Air-sea Rescue Walrus [Annotator's Note: Supermarine Walrus; British single-engine, amphibious biplane] landed and tried to pull him in but could not. A minesweeper [Annotator's Note: small warship designed to remove or detonate naval mines] came along and took him on board. The flying boat broke a pontoon on take-off and that crew had to be rescued. That was his first mission.

Stephen Ananian flew 63 combat missions. In every major skirmish and dogfight he was in he never got hit. 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], they escorted the cargo ships dropping supplies to Bastogne [Annotator's Note: Bastogne, Belgium]. That was hairy because of the weather. They often could not get off the ground due to the fog. Archie Tower [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Major Archie A. Tower] asked for volunteers for a weather mission. Ananian and Cecil Byrd [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Lieutenant Cecil L. Byrd] volunteered. On one mission, Byrd had to crash land because he could not see the field. Ananian went on the next mission. They would fly over the English Channel to about 25,000 feet, marking the cloud cover. On his return, he had a 50-foot ceiling. They had a homing device and vectored him in. They used a flare to let him know where the field was. When he broke through at 50 feet off the ground, he was over the living quarters of the 505th Squadron [Annotator's Note: 505th Fighter Squadron, 339th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force]. He flew down the street and landed at the end of the runway. [Annotator's Note: The tape breaks. When it starts back, the interviewer is asking him what the water was like when he had to bail out previously on his first combat mission.] The water was freezing. He knew he would freeze. Will Cox [Annotator's Note: unable to identify] had bailed out the week before and lasted six minutes. Ananian had his G-suit [Annotator's Note: also called anti-g suit; flight suit designed to prevent loss of consciousness in high levels of acceleration force, or g force] on and that may have helped him. The other thing was that he told himself he had to exercise. The North Sea was so choppy, they did not know where he was until Tom Rich [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Second Lieutenant George T. Rich] located him. Rich said Ananian looked like a mouse hanging onto a donut. Cecil Byrd flew weather missions as well. When you fly for 45 minutes in dense clouds and then break out into blue skies, it is beautiful. They would say "blue skies" to each other from then on. That comes from flying using instruments over Europe. It’s rough.

Stephen Ananian says that the idea that if the Germans had built their jet fighters sooner in the war, it would have gone the other way, is baloney [Annotator's Note: slang for not true]. Their jet-propelled fighters had certain shortcomings. The Germans put up over 300 Me-262s [Annotator's Note: German Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter aircraft] during the war, and 100 were shot down. They only had 40 minutes of flying time. All it could be used for was fighter interception. It could not fly to England and back. The engines had to be changed every 20 hours. It was designed for that. The fighter pilots flying in jets were not versed in flying in weather. The Germans took Ju-88 [Annotator's Note: Junkers Ju 88] bomber pilots and put them in the jets. The first squadron was the one that Ananian met. He saw ten of them taking off from the airfield. The mission was in the Frankfurt [Annotator's Note: Frankfurt, Germany] area. He was escorting bombers at the time. The P-51s [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] had been chasing the jets. The jets were drawing the P-51s from the bombers. The P-51s would have to drop their fuel tanks to chase them. Then they did not have enough gas to escort the bombers. The 8th Air Force Headquarters said not to chase the jets unless directly attacked. Ananian knew they would come up because the weather was clear. When the day was over six of the ten jets were shot down. The jets climbed through the bombers and broke into three flights. Three came toward Ananian. Ananian had a plan that made sense to his officer. He did not chase them; he went to a spot where they would turn and come back up. They were coming across. He had the K-14 computing gunsight [Annotator's Note: Ferranti Gyro Sight Mk IIc; produced as K-14 for the Air Force and Mk18 for the Navy]; it was designed for planes moving about 100 miles per hour. The jets were much faster. Ananian shot to where he thought their line of flight was. He hit the jet and it turned into his line of fire again. Ananian killed the pilot as he was standing up in the cockpit [Annotator's Note: to bail-out]. He turned towards the other two when another P-51 flew between them. He had to break off and the other two got away. Harry Howard [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Lieutenant Harry F. Howard] told him he got him. He was in five encounters all in all. This one was 9 February [Annotator's Note: 9 February 1945]. The next time his flight was backing up another flight. They were chasing some jets that were landing and Corey [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Captain Harry R. Corey] shot one. On another, Bob Irion [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Second Lieutenant Robert E. Irion] was leading the flight and he shot down a jet. On the fourth, they were on a fighter sweep looking for jets. Ananian saw a huge bomber when flying the wing of Tom Rich [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Second Lieutenant George T. Rich]. Rich thought it was a Focke-Wulf 400 [Annotator's Note: Focke-Wulf Ta 400; not built beyond a prototype]; Ananian thought it was a Me-264 [Annotator's Note: Messerschmitt Me 264 long range strategic bomber]. As they started to attack, Ananian looked back and saw 12 Me-262s coming at them. Rich turned into them and Ananian thought it was great, six for each of them and they would be instant aces. They had no fear of them. They broke into three flights. Rich and Ananian chased them and fired at them. They damaged them. The last time was on Ananian's last mission. He dove on one and told his wingman to take the plane. They only damaged the plane. In five encounters, they destroyed three. After he landed, his commander told him it was his last mission. Ananian wanted to keep flying but his commander said that if anything happened to him, he could not face his mother.

Stephen Ananian only knew he had flown his last mission after he landed, and his commander told him. Ananian wanted to keep flying but his commander said that if anything happened to him, he could not face his mother. The next morning, he got a call asking if he wanted to fly a volunteer diplomatic mission. He went to Prestwick, Scotland and flew one of 50 P-51s [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] to Sweden. This was March 1945. The big concern of higher command was what the Germans were going to do. Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] had committed suicide [Annotator's Note: 30 April 1945]. "Were the German going to keep fighting" was the question. The Swedes had been asked to ask the Germans to surrender Norway. The Americans gave them fighters to do that for them. These were brand new aircraft with no markings. The Americans had been told to shoot down any planes with no markings. He had flown 63 missions and did not want to go down in the North Sea. They complained to the brass who grounded all other aircraft that day. They took off on 13 April 1945, Friday the 13th, and Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] had just died [Annotator's Note: 12 April 1945]. They had their uniforms in a B-17 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] flying with them. They were to wear them to impress the Swedes. As they came into Stockholm [Annotator's Note: Stockholm, Sweden], the B-17 navigator said there was a snowstorm over the field. They had to delay their landing and told them to give the people an airshow. They flew over and under every bridge. When they landed, they got a fantastic reception. They stayed about a week and they got a medal from the King of Sweden [Annotator's Note: Gustaf V; born Oscar Gustaf Adolf]; the Gold Medal of Vasa, Eighth Class. Sweden was a neutral country. If a pilot had any aircraft trouble and went to Sweden, you were interred as a prisoner of war. Certain people were flown back on the midnight airlines [Annotator's Note: Ball-bearing Run, also known as the BOAC Flights or British Overseas Airway Corporation; 1939 to 1945]. This was B-17s and B-24s [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] that had been interred. They flew between Stockholm and Prestwick, Scotland. Ananian flew in one going back. The bomber had engine trouble. Ananian was awarded many medals [Annotator's Note: he lists them all].

Stephen Ananian says the greatest privilege he has is his role in the 339th Fighter Group Association. [Annotator's Note: Ananian invites the interviewer to the next reunion.] Five members of his outfit [Annotator's Note: 505th Fighter Squadron, 339th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force] became Major Generals. He feels it is important for future generations to learn about World War 2. He has spoken to the present pilots in the military. He talks about the problems they had in the Korean War [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 1950 to 1953]. The Navy did not teach dog fighting. The Air Force did and were getting more kills than the Navy. Now they do the training, which he thinks is great. When he went overseas, he had no combat training. The saying was that if you survived your first ten missions, you would survive the war. This was true. He believes there is going to be a day when the Chinese knock out the satellites. How will the pilots fly the new remote-control aircraft without satellites? He tells them of the day he was on a mission over Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany] and his compass went out. He flew back with his Boy Scout knowledge using his watch to navigate all the way back to England. He absolutely believes the museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana] is important. People do not believe he flew 12 days with two days off. The average mission was 300 fighters and 600 bombers flying from England to Berlin and back without radio controllers. There were 1,000 airfields in East Anglia [Annotator's Note: East Anglia region of England]. Ananian says the thing about any war is the number of people you lose. The 8th Air Force lost 35,000 men. These men gave their lives so the rest of us can live in freedom. Ananian questions every day as to why he was able to have children and grandchildren and he believes it is a gift that these men gave. We should not let it go in vain. People attack us only because we have freedom. From now on, we will know about 9-11 [Annotator's Note: 11 September 2001 Attacks terrorist attacks on the United States]. The World War 2 generation knows about 7 December [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941], the time they learned that we had to be prepared constantly. We make the same mistakes. The only reason we are free and independent is what Teddy Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Theodore Roosevelt; 26th President of the United States] said, "speak quietly and carry a big stick" [Annotator's Note: big stick ideology, big stick diplomacy, or big stick policy refers to Theodore Roosevelt's foreign policy. First used 26 January 1900]. Ananian was never as frightened in World War 2 as he is today. He feels we are unprepared.