[Annotator's Note: This interview clip begins with Victor Fienup in conversation with the interviewer regarding the interview process.] Victor Fienup was born in Saint Louis, Missouri in 1920. They lived near the Saint Louis Municipal Airport, which was Lambert Field then. When he was seven years old, his father took him and some siblings to the airport to see an airman. Lindbergh [Annotator's Note: Charles Augustus Lindbergh, American aviator] asked if Fienup would like to see the cockpit of the Spirit of Saint Louis [Annotator's Note: a Ryan NYP custom-built monoplane flown by Charles Lindbergh, 20 to 21 May 1927 on the first solo, nonstop, transatlantic flight from Long Island, New York to Paris, France]. There was no windshield in the airplane as Lindbergh used a periscope [Annotator's Note: to see outside]. Fienup was hooked. In later years, he took flying lessons and got his private pilot's license by age 18. He had been born at home and had no birth certificate. They had no driver's licenses back then. He flew on the weekends and worked as a journeyman plumber in father's company. As the war clouds were forming, he knew there would be action. He wanted to fly for the military. His father made him a partner in the firm and hoped that by getting government contracts, Fienup could avoid the draft. His father knew about war and young people think they are invincible. Fienup had other ideas and had to take a written exam due to not having college credits. He wanted to fly sophisticated airplanes and did not care if it was a fighter or bomber aircraft. They lost a lot of potential pilots due the eyesight requirements. Fienup and a friend were put on a waiting list and then were called just after Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. They drove to the West Coast and were in preflight training before the end of the month. Fienup was in Saint Louis [Annotator's Note: when the attack happened].

There were four phases to Victor Fienup's flight training. Preflight was ground school for two months, primary was half ground school and half flying for two months. In primary, he flew PT-17s [Annotator's Note: Boeing-Stearman Model 75 Kaydet primary trainer aircraft] and there were PT-19s [Annotator's Note: Fairchild PT-19 primary trainer aircraft] there too. In preflight, the hazing program eliminated half the students. A lot of the pilots who washed out, went to navigation school. In the basic training, flying the BT-13s [Annotator's Note: Consolidated Vultee BT-13 Valiant trainer aircraft; nicknamed Vibrator], they lost another 25 percent who washed out. Harry Crosby [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Second Lieutenant, later Major, Harry H. Crosby] became a navigator because he got airsick. He could carry a paper bag and do well with navigator. Fienup and Crosby became good friends. Advanced training took another two months. His being a private pilot already did not help him in his training. In the Stearman, the instructor wanted Fienup to do an Immelmann [Annotator's Note: Immelmann turn, an aerial maneuver named after German World War 1 fighter ace Lieutenant Max Immelmann] and told him to try it. Fienup got his speed up and pushed forward to soon. He went into a spin [Annotator's Note: an aggravated stall which results in the aircraft rotating about the spin axis] and realized all the fabric was gone on the tail of the plane. He should have been washed out but was not. About halfway through, they more or less they determined who was going to be a bomber pilot or fighter pilot. Bomber pilots were put in twin-engine Cessnas [Annotator's Note: Cessna AT-17 Bobcat advanced trainer aircraft] they called the "Bamboo Bomber." He graduated after he and Sumner Reeder [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces First Lieutenant, later Major, Sumner H. Reeder] had been set back in class due to medical problems. They graduated in September 1942 and were assigned to Salt Lake City [Annotator's Note: Salt Lake City, Utah]. They went there by way of Saint Louis [Annotator's Note: Saint Louis, Missouri] to see Reeder's fiancée. When they got to Salt Lake City, they saw they had been transferred to Boise, Idaho. They got there in the afternoon and went for their orientation flight in a B-17 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] that night. Fienup first flew with John Kidd [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Lieutenant Colonel John B. Kidd] that night. The flight was hard in a new airplane, but their training had prepared them.

Victor Fienup and his crew [Annotator's Note: in the 351st Bombardment Squadron, 100th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force] formed in December 1942 or January 1943. Colonel Darr Alkire [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Colonel, later Brigadier General, Darr Hayes Alkire] was the commander. They took a training formation to Hamilton Field [Annotator's Note: later Hamilton Air Force Base in Novato, California], and he took them through a storm front, and they all scattered. About half the formation went to Hamilton and the other half went to their crew's hometowns and landed. It took a couple of weeks to get them all back together. It was decided that they did not have enough discipline. Alkire was relieved of his command. The men were sent out to be instructors. Alkire was later shot down in the war. Around Fienup, the group was reformed with 40 new copilots. Their copilots had become first pilots. The 40 went overseas with them in February 1943. Only four finished the war, including Drummond [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces First Lieutenant Archibald "Arch" J. "Four Mile" Drummond] and Luckadoo [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Second Lieutenant, later Major, John H. "Lucky" Luckadoo]. That was a 90 percent attrition rate. The 40 crews went overseas by way of Maine, Iceland, Scotland, and down to England. It was a long flight. They had Tokyo tanks [Annotator's Note: nickname for internally mounted self-sealing fuel tanks that added significant range to the aircraft] and most of them got there. Paul Pascal [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces First Lieutenant Paul Pascal] was their navigator and was quite a guy. He could not navigate on the ground but in the airplane he was great. Later on, Pascal got out, ran a bar in Philadelphia, went back in the service, and then went missing on a training flight in a B-25 [Annotator's Note: North American B-25 Mitchell medium bomber]. On their 17 August raid [Annotator's Note: 17 August 1943], nine of them [Annotator's Note: Fienup decides to wait until later to finish the story].

Victor Fienup does not remember his first mission [Annotator's Note: with the 351st Bombardment Squadron, 100th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force on 04 July 1943]. Following an airplane and flying in its propellor wash is mentally and physically fatiguing. After nine or ten hours on a mission at high altitude, he would have two little holes in his head from his helmet. The flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire] did not bother him too much. The fighters [Annotator's Note: enemy fighters] were intense and good. The only thing that kept them together was a tight formation which gave them good defense, especially with the G-model with a chin turret [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress heavy bomber]. A straggler was a dead duck. One on one, you had no chance. The tracers on the fighters came in like they were pointed right at him. He would then think he might not go on the next mission, but always did. Young people are invincible. On a mission to Regensburg [Annotator's Note: Regensburg, Germany] 17 August 1943, they got a real beating. Don Oakes [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces First Lieutenant Donald K. Oakes] went down in Switzerland and crash landed. That crew was interned there. Nine of Fienup's group ended up in Africa. Fienup had damage and a wounded crewmember. Blackjack [Annotator's Note: the name of his B-17] was left there for scrap. Roane [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Warrant Officer, later Captain, Owen "Cowboy" Roane] flew back with "Moe." They had bought a female donkey named Mohammad, but they called her Moe. They put her in the plane with an oxygen mask. Cowboy was a warrant officer and would not take a commission. Cowboy fired a flare on final approach. When asked what the problem he was, he replied he had a "frozen ass" on board. Moe did not survive the winter. Cowboy was one of the younger ones, was very good, and had a dry sense of humor. He later became president of their association [Annotator's Note: 100th Bomb Group Foundation]. Cleven [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Major Gale "Buck" Cleven], Egan [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Major John Clarence Egan], and Kidd [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Lieutenant Colonel John B. Kidd] were a little ahead of Fienup. They were a cocky bunch and were invincible. They ended up in the same prison camp as Fienup, Stalag Luft III [Annotator's Note: in Sagan, Germany, now Żagań, Poland]. John Hall [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Sergeant John Hall] was a legend too. The fighters [Annotator's Note: enemy fighters] did not give the legends any notice. You do the best you can, it is just a matter of whether it is your time or not. In Fienup's case, they had to go to secondary target. [Annotator's Note: Fienup jumps ahead to the landing after the mission in North Africa.] They did not have enough gas to use a traffic pattern and went into a field. Once they got down, there was dust everywhere. LeMay [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces General Curtis Emerson LeMay] was still leading the group and did not know the extent of damage at the target. They got the DFC [Annotator's Note: the Distinguished Flying Cross, or DFC, is awarded to members of the United States Armed Forces for heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in an aerial flight] for that mission. They were tired and LeMay came toward them. Paul Pascal [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces First Lieutenant Paul Pascal] did not salute him and LeMay got on him. They flew back to England on C-54s [Annotator's Note: Douglas C-54 Skymaster cargo aircraft].

There was a lot of "oohs and ahhs" at the mission briefing [Annotator's Note: for Victor Fienup's 17 August 1943 bombing mission to Regensburg, Germany as a pilot in the 351st Bombardment Squadron, 100th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force]. It was a long mission but another mission to Africa was probably longer. After they hit Regensburg, if they had tried to fight their way back, the fighters would have been ready for them. The weather at the beginning was foggy and they were delayed. Fienup remembers a lot, but they are his memories and might not square with the facts. The raid was successful, but they lost a bunch of aircraft. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer mentions a story he has heard and relates it. Fienup does not know if it is an accurate or true story or not.] The fighters [Annotator's Note: enemy fighters] took opportunities where they could get the best results. Fienup and his crew were fatigued but it was not more scary than other missions. It was longer and they were short on fuel. They landed straight in and LeMay [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces General Curtis Emerson LeMay] was dejected at the losses. He chewed out a First Lieutenant. Fienup returned to England after about a week. His records show he flew 13 missions, but he is certain he flew 15. The next mission on 3 September [Annotator's Note: 3 September 1943] was considered a milk run [Annotator's Note: slang term used by American airmen to describe an easy combat mission] to a Renault [Annotator's Note: type of French automobile] plant outside of Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France]. They lost a few airplanes. To this day, he does not know for sure whether his wingman chopped their tall off, or dropped a bomb on them, or they were hit by flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire]. He felt a tremendous whomp and the plane went up. The oxygen tank became like a blowtorch. He gave the order to bailout. They had just finished the bomb run. Evenson [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Technical Sergeant Roy A. Evenson] was older and slower. They wore their harnesses and their parachutes under their seat. Evenson was the top turret gunner. The copilot was pushing Evenson out and he was not leaving. Fienup was in the inferno and went back to the cockpit. He got stuck in the pilot's window at 23,000 feet and he passed out. He thought his father would not like it if he found out about this. The plane exploded and threw him out. He came to and opened the chute. The jolt knocked him out again. He came too and could only hear the parachute rippling. It was a good feeling. His wrists were burned, and his eyelashes and hair was gone. Suddenly, he was floating backwards over a forest and into a field. He landed on his feet and rear. He hid his chute in a haystack. A French boy was there but ran the other way. Fienup hid in a ditch. There was no undergrowth, so it was hard to hide. Germans with dogs found and said that for him, the war was over.

Instead of taking Victor Fienup [Annotator's Note: a pilot in the 351st Bombardment Squadron, 100th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force who had bailed out of his stricken airplane on 9 September 1943] to the hospital, they [Annotator's Note: German soldiers] took him to a doctor who wrapped him in gauze, but if he stood up, water would drop out of him. They took him to Dulag Luft interrogation center [Annotator's Note: Dulag Luft Prisoner of War transit camp and interrogation center at Oberursel, Germany]. They told him they would shoot him as a spy. He told them to do what they had to do. They took him to a German hospital in Bavaria [Annotator's Note: Bavaria, Germany]. He went through Frankfurt [Annotator's Note: Frankfurt, Germany] and the civilians hit him with rocks and sticks. The German military kept the pilots from getting annihilated [Annotator's Note: by the angry civilians]. The German hospital was staffed by captured British medical personnel. They took care of him, and he was fortunate. His hands were usable after some months [Annotator's Note: Fienup describes being burned in the clip titled "Bailing Out and Captured" of this interview series]. You tend to forget the bad things. You have to. By Christmas [Annotator's Note: 25 December 1943], he was taken to Stalag Luft III [Annotator's Note: in Sagan, Germany, now Żagań, Poland]. Vanaman [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Major General Arthur William Vanaman] came after he did. Colonel Spivey [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Major General Delmar Taft Spivey] was the senior officer. Vanaman was taped up at night to keep him from talking [Annotator's Note: in his sleep] because he knew about the impending invasion [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. That hurt his career. Spivey was authorized to go but Vanaman was not. That rank is too valuable at a higher level. Lieutenants, sergeants, and airplanes can be replaced. Fienup had gone to Europe just as Bob Morgan [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Colonel Robert Knight Morgan] and Memphis Belle [Annotator's Note: name of a Boeing B-17F Flying Fortress heavy bomber] were coming back to do PR work [Annotator's Note: public relations work]. They were then putting 200 aircraft over a target. Two years later it was 2,600 over a target, despite having a 20 percent attrition rate. It was a numbers game. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer stops the tape at 0:49:17.000.]

Victor Fienup [Annotator's Note: an American prisoner of war] was taken to Stalag Luft III [Annotator's Note: in Sagan, Germany, now Żagań, Poland] and ran into people who were surprised to see him. They thought he had died. They lost their tail gunner. One of the waist gunners, Daniels [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Staff Sergeant Charles T. Daniels], had been wounded prior to that. His parachute did not deploy, and he died. They had three evadees [Annotator's Note: persons who evaded capture by enemy forces]: Paul Pascal [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces First Lieutenant Paul Pascal], Gene Mulholland [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Second Lieutenant Eugene V. Mulholland], and Kreitenstein [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Staff Sergeant Norman D. Kreitenstein]. The rest were POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war] and Fienup was the only survivor injured. Gene got with the underground and eventually made it back to England after five months. "III" [Annotator's Note: Stalag Luft III] was one of the better camps. It was all officer airmen. Fienup's bombardier was there. He was not buddy-buddy with others like Cleven [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Major Gale "Bucky" Cleven] because they were above him in rank. Later, when people like Sumner Reeder arrived, they were friends because they had been beforehand. Egan [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Major John Clarence Egan], Cleven, Elton [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Captain, later Major, Albert M. "Bucky" Elton] were ranks ahead of them. They played cards. They took their Red Cross [Annotator's Note: Red Cross, an international non-profit humanitarian organization] parcels and tried to make cakes. They played volleyball and walked a lot, but it was mostly boring. The YMCA [Annotator's Note: Young Men's Christian Association] sent them instruments, so they had a band and performed plays. Not many people studied because when you are hungry and cold you are not receptive to learning from a book. At first, the food situation was not bad. They had potatoes and barley. Meat was rare and when they got it, it was horse meat. The Red Cross parcels kept them going. When they went to Moosburg [Annotator's Note: Stalag VII A, in Moosburg, Germany] that was a different story. They had to march there in the coldest wind on the continent. They were just called out, given a Red Cross parcel, and stood in formation for hours before marching off. They were better off marching in a group than trying to escape. They tried to find them shelter for the night. The 50 English men who had escaped and were recaptured were executed as spies [Annotator's Note: called "The Great Escape", 24 to 25 March 1944; Stalag Luft III, Sagan, Germany, now Żagań, Poland; mass escape of 76 prisoners]. Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] wanted to execute all of the prisoners as spies. They only found that out later. Instead of letting the camps be liberated, the Germans were closing the camps and moving the prisoner in order to use them as bargaining tools. Some of the people who saved them from Hitler were tried at Nuremberg [Annotator's Note: Nuremberg War Crimes Trials, military tribunals Nuremberg, Germany, 20 November 1945 to 1 October 1946]. Some of the leaders [Annotator's Note: Allied prison camp leaders] testified that they were treated well. Some of Hitler's men understood that carrying out his orders was not in their best interest. By the time Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] came on 29 April [Annotator's Note: 29 April 1945], there were 130,000 prisoners in Moosburg. The conditions were bad. Once it warmed up it was better as the facilities inside were filled with lice. The march was not all that bad for the ones in shape. They were in World War 1 boxcars called 40-and-eights [Annotator's Note: 40 and eight refers European railroad boxcars which could accommodate 40 standing men or eight standing horses] for a few days and that was worse than marching. They were bombed while in the train [Annotator's Note: by the Allies].

Moosburg [Annotator's Note: Stalag VII, in Moosburg, Germany] was a consolidation of prisoners from all over. When previously at Stalag Luft III [Annotator's Note: in Sagan, Germany, now Żagań, Poland], Victor Fienup could see the German news posted every day. They had several radios and could get the BBC [Annotator's Note: British Broadcasting Corporation]. The Germans never found them. The news would be written down and taken from barracks to barracks. They had lookouts to keep track of the German guards who go under the barracks. The German guards were few in number military rejects who were no match for the prisoners' wits. The German news and the BBC news were opposite of each other and neither one correct. That is what propaganda is like. His father had told him you can believe what you want, but you can only believe what you are exposed to. At Moosburg, there were a lot of rumors about what was going on. The lack of food and clothing affected them. Psychologically not knowing if you were going to return home with all of your faculties, bothered him more than anything else. Not knowing your fate is hard on you. When they were liberated, it was something else. Fienup left when the Germans left the guard station and the Americans rolled in. Some soldiers had taken a building in town and had food and wine. He hopped on a truck with some G.I.s [Annotator's Note: government issue; also, a slang term for an American soldier] going to the front. He started seeing dead bodies and decided to go the other way. A young guy and he hot-wired a car [Annotator's Note: a method of starting a car without using a key]. They got gas from the tanks. They would stop and get food and wine and then drove to Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France] on V-E Day [Annotator's Note: Victory in Europe Day, 8 May 1945]. Someone stole their stolen vehicle. They found out later that some of the people in Moosburg were court-martialed [Annotator's Note: for leaving the camp]. Some did not get out for several weeks. He was lucky to have gotten out.

Victor Fienup went to Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France] on V-E Day [Annotator's Note: Victory in Europe Day, 8 May 1945]. He then went to Camp Lucky Strike [Annotator's Note: one of the transit and rehabilitation camps in France named after popular cigarette brands; Lucky Strike was near Le Havre, France] and returned home by boat. His wounds had healed [Annotator's Note: Fienup had been burned when bailing out of his aircraft as described in the clip titled "Bailing Out and Captured" of this interview series]. Being in camp [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war camps] for so long, his resistance was low. He had eight cavities when he came out of Moosburg [Annotator's Note: Stalag VII, in Moosburg, Germany]. They got R&R [Annotator's Note: rest and recuperation] and were to be retrained in B-29s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] for Japan. If it had not been for the Manhattan Project [Annotator's Note: program that produced the first nuclear weapons], a lot of them would have ended up there and not come back. All the Japanese would have been gone because they were going to fight to the last. The Manhattan Project and the bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945] not only saved American lives, but they also saved a lot of Japanese lives. He was still single and went to Saint Louis [Annotator's Note: Saint Louis, Missouri]. Tires were hard to get but he had gas coupons and visited relatives and friends on R&R. The Japanese war was over and there was a glut of pilots until the Berlin Airlift [Annotator's Note: Allied military operation which delivered food and other supplies to the people of West Berlin between 24 June 1948 and 12 May 1949]. Fienup elected to stay in and had pretty good duty and an interesting career. He flew the Airlift, the Aleutian chain [Annotator's Note: Aleutian Islands, Alaska], over both the North and South Poles, and spent time in New Zealand. As a chief pilot, he flew vice-presidents [Annotator's Note: of the United States] Barkley [Annotator's Note: Alben William Barkley, 35th Vice President of the United States] under Truman [Annotator's Note: Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States] and Nixon [Annotator's Note: Richard Milhouse Nixon, 36th Vice President of the United States, 37th President of the United States] under Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States]. He retired in 1965. He was up in Dover [Annotator's Note: Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware] at a Transport Wing. He was grounded and lost his command due to a heart problem, so he went into maintenance. The Wing was moved to Hunter Air Force Base [Annotator's Note: now Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Georgia]. He made good investments after retiring. He had a large cattle ranch for about ten years and then sold it to Bob Jones University [Annotator's Note: in Greenville, South Carolina]. He has made a lot of money and lost a lot of money. Neither changed his lifestyle too much.

Victor Fienup does not think about the war and has not had bad thoughts about it. Even from his days as a POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war]. He has had heart bypass surgeries, had tumor surgery, and more. He bounces back pretty well. He is 92 and feels great. He quit belonging to organizations except a small ex-POW chapter. He makes a trip to Greensboro [Annotator's Note: Greensboro, North Carolina] every week. He has had a good life. He thinks about the good thinks. Even the POW camp [Annotator's Note: he was in Stalag Luft III in Sagan, Germany, now Żagań, Poland, and Stalag VII A, in Moosburg, Germany] was not all bad. It hurt his career by not being able to be promoted. Sumner Reeder [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces First Lieutenant, later Major, Sumner H. Reeder] made Major just a couple months after Fienup was shot down [Annotator's Note: 17 August 1943]. Fienup was still a First Lieutenant when he came back. Sumner returned home, was flying a training mission in a C-54 [Annotator's Note: Douglas C-54 Skymaster cargo aircraft] out of Florida and just disappeared. After all he had been through, he was lost before the war ended. Fienup goes to the reunions but does not know anyone anymore. Colonel Kidd [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Lieutenant Colonel John B. Kidd] became "anti-anti-war." He made a talk at a reunion, and it did not go well so he stopped going. He was a fine gentleman. He was not as wild as Cleven [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Major Gale "Buck" Cleven] and Egan [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Major John Clarence Egan]. Harry Crosby [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Second Lieutenant, later Major, Harry H. Crosby] and Fienup were friends as was [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces First Lieutenant John B. Murphy]. Out of 40 crews that went over to Europe, only 11 finished their missions. They did not lose 50 percent though. They did not lose much more than any other group, but when they lost, they lost a lot. Fienup takes some pride in having been a member of the original 100th Bomb Group [Annotator's Note: as a pilot in the 351st Bombardment Squadron, 100th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force], being a survivor after being blown out of his aircraft. His later work flying dignitaries under Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States], his bush work in Alaska were real interesting and stick in his mind more than others. He had less than two years college when he entered the Air Force. In 1957 he got his college degree. He has always been conscientious about his work. He has never hesitated to go when asked. Even without the education credentials of others, he was in the middle of the puddle most of the time.