Thomas W. Stevenson, Jr. was born in 1922 in Brownsville, Texas. He grew up with one sister and two brothers. During World War 2, his two brothers and father joined the service. His father also served in World War 1 [Annotator's Note: World War 1, global war originating in Europe; 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918] in the motorized ambulance corps. His father never discouraged Stevenson from his military efforts. As a sophomore in high school, he took part in the Civilian Military Training Camps (CMTC) at Camp Bullis, Texas, a program which later benefited him when he entered the service. During his senior year of high school in 1940, he again trained with the CMTC at Bullis. Stevenson graduated high school in June 1940 then began taking classes at a junior college in Brownsville. Stevenson decided early in life that he wanted to be a pilot for Pan American Airways. With that in mind, he completed two years of college then volunteered for service with the US Army Air Forces in mid-1942. Stevenson was at the beach working on his car when heard the news of Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. Following induction at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, Stevenson was sent to Camp Livingston, Louisiana for basic training. He trained for two months before being transferred to cadet school. He was then sent to the Santa Ana Army Air Base [Annotator’s Note: Santa Ana, California] for classification where he was selected for pilot training.

After being classified for pilot training, Thomas W. Stevenson Jr. took his primary flight training at Oxnard Army Air Base in California where he excelled. He was then sent to basic flight training at Gardner Field [Annotator’s Note: in Tacoma, Washington] and flew a Vultee Vibrator [Annotator’s Note: The Vultee BT-13 Valiant trainer aircraft]. He was then sent to advanced flight training at Marfa Army Airfield in Texas to learn to fly on multi-engine planes. He completed his training with class 43-I in September 1943 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant. After receiving his wings, Stevenson was sent to Salt Lake City, Utah for crew assignment then continued to Roswell, New Mexico for crew and combat training on a B-17 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber]. When he first saw a B-17, he was surprised by the size of the plane. The trainer told him to do flight checks every time he got ready to fly a plane. He was taught formation flying at high and low altitudes, as well as about dropping bombs on target. Stevenson experienced one practice mission where one of his engines broke and they had to make an emergency landing in Arkansas.

In May 1944, Thomas W. Stevenson Jr. completed all of his training and shipped out for Foggia, Italy where he joined the 772nd Bombardment Squadron, 463rd Bombardment Group, 5th Bombardment Wing, 15th Air Force. He felt confident in his training and was not too worried about his overseas duty. He completed his training with class 43-I in September 1943 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant. He received leave time [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] before he was sent overseas. He decided to go to Dallas [Annotator’s Note: Dallas, Texas] to visit his girlfriend. Stevenson and his crew decided to name their plane “Little Liz” after his girlfriend. Stevenson’s plane’s engine caught fire over a target once. His co-pilot’s oxygen mask stopped working, so Stevenson had to give the co-pilot his mask. Stevenson thought he was going to have to bail out, but luckily the flame retardant extinguished the flame on the engine. Stevenson recounts the conversations that were going on with the crew while they were trying to stabilize the plane. They fell out of formation, so Stevenson told his crew to throw all the guns and equipment out of the plane so that they could catch up to the formation. All of a sudden, P-38s [Annotator's Note: Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter aircraft] came in to guide them to an emergency air strip.

In May 1944, Thomas W. Stevenson Jr. completed all of his training and shipped out for Foggia, Italy where he joined the 772nd Bombardment Squadron, 463rd Bombardment Group, 5th Bombardment Wing, 15th Air Force. He boarded a ship to go overseas rather than flying a plane. He received a “Dear John” letter [Annotator's Note: a Dear John letter is a letter from a female to a male serviceman serving overseas breaking off a romantic engagement] from his girlfriend when he was serving overseas. In January 1945, he was given R&R [Annotator's Note: rest and recuperation] to Egypt and was promoted to operations squadron. The weather was cold and icy which made it difficult to take off on the airfields. He visited Cairo and Alexandra, Egypt before heading out to Tel Aviv [Annotator’s Note: Tel Aviv, Palestine, now Israel]. He soon returned back to his base in Foggia after some complications getting a return flight. [Annotator’s Note: Video break at 0:56.08.000.] The only interactions he had with the people in Foggia were the laundry workers. He got to know some of the Red Cross [Annotator's Note: Red Cross, an international non-profit humanitarian organization] workers after they returned from missions. They would hand out donuts and coffee. He also went to some of the officer club dances. He remembered one mission where he had a new navigator who did not know what he was doing.

In May 1944, Thomas W. Stevenson Jr. completed all of his training and shipped out for Foggia, Italy where he joined the 772nd Bombardment Squadron, 463rd Bombardment Group, 5th Bombardment Wing, 15th Air Force. When crew members were killed on a mission, a group would go into the barracks and gather all of the dead man’s belongings. Stevenson helped with fixing a refrigeration issue on a ship. He had the opportunity to fly around some islands and see sunken ships and submarines. He visited the Island of Capri [Annotator’s Note: Capri, Italy] and was met by the mayor of the island. He was able to explore the island and eat different foods. When he was flying missions, he was never attacked by German fighter planes. They would attack B-17s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] by the nose. Flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire] was the biggest issue when going on a mission, especially the missions to Ploesti [Annotator’s Note: Ploiesti, Romania]. Stevenson went on to fly 35 sorties totaling 50 combat missions from Foggia, including several during which his B-17 was nearly shot down.

Thomas W. Stevenson Jr. served with the 772nd Bombardment Squadron, 463rd Bombardment Group, 5th Bombardment Wing, 15th Air Force in Foggia, Italy. His last combat mission was to a target in Yugoslavia [Annotator’s Note: today the countrys of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia] in November 1944, and he was promoted to squadron operations officer in January 1945. He held that post until March 1945 when he returned to the United States. He remembered getting in trouble with his superior after a mission had gone wrong. As a lead pilot, he led as the Baker lead, which was on the right of the squadron and kept all the planes in formation when they dropped their bombs over the target. On one mission, a commanding officer decided to go the opposite way than instructed in the pre-mission briefing. The officer almost ran into Stevenson. Stevenson had to get the planes back in formation for the remainder of the mission. As soon as he landed back at the base, he got chewed out by his CO [Annotator’s Note: commanding officer]. As a squadron operations officer, Stevenson had to approve the clerk’s aircraft list with the knowledge of upcoming missions. He also made sure the clerks knew the location of all the crews and relayed important information about the mission. Stevenson had a great CO that helped him make the proper decisions.

Thomas W. Stevenson Jr. served with the 772nd Bombardment Squadron, 463rd Bombardment Group, 5th Bombardment Wing, 15th Air Force in Foggia, Italy. When he became a squadron operations officer, he no longer had to fly combat missions. He was given one mission to fly a colonel to the front lines, but had difficulty finding a runway that was not bombed out. He landed and had to miss hitting a mound of dirt and debris. He returned to the United Stated in March 1945. He received orders to report to Love Field, Texas and through a friend found living quarters in town. Stevenson and his friend flew several planes including B-17s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber], B-24s [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber], and B-25s [Annotator's Note: North American B-25 Mitchell medium bomber]. Stevenson was slated to go to Japan, but the war ended before he received his orders. In late 1945, Stevenson was separated from service with the rank of captain. He remained in the active reserve, and later joined an organization of pilot instructors.

After his service, Thomas W. Stevenson Jr. took advantage of his G.I. Bill benefits [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment], but flunked out because he could not concentrate. Fulfilling his earlier dream of becoming a commercial pilot, he went on to fly for Pan American Airlines for 30 years. He met a girl while he was in an infirmary for a knee injury and eventually married her.

Thomas W. Stevenson Jr. believes there should be institutions like the National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana], and we should continue to teach World War 2 to future generations.