Virgil Faust was born in Windber, Pennsylvania, an old gold mining town. [Annotator's Note: Faust was born in August 1921.] He graduated from high school in 1939 in the ending years of the Great Depression. He worked at a gas station for a short time and then transferred to the Berwind-White engineering department [Annotator's Note: Berwind-White Coal Mine, Pennsylvania]. He was responsible for surveying and mapping the mines. Faust was with a youth group at his church when he heard the news that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He recalled everyone was concerned and fired up after hearing the news. Faust received his draft notice and entered the service on 13 August 1942 at the New Cumberland recruiting center [Annotator's Note: New Cumberland, Pennsylvania]. The Army sent him to Miami Beach [Annotator’s Note: Miami, Florida] for basic training and tested for assignments. Morse Code came naturally to Faust because he was musically inclined, so he was sent to radio school at Scott Field, Illinois for 16 weeks. After graduation, the Army sent his class to gunnery school for six weeks to fly bomber missions. He was taught how to detail and strip .30 caliber [Annotator's Note: Browning ANM2 .30 caliber machine gun] and .50 caliber [Annotator's Note: Browning ANM2 .50 caliber machine gun] machine guns. Upon graduation, his class was sent to Salt Lake City, Utah to form into crews. He was sent to Blythe, California for more training then on to Walla Walla, Washington and flew seven days a week for five hours a day on training missions. He trained in a B-17 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber]. Faust thought the B-17 was a beautiful plane and loved being in it. From Walla Walla, he was sent to Grand Island, Nebraska where his crew received a brand-new B-17. After getting a certain number of flying hours on the plane, they were ordered to fly overseas. His crew reached Bovington, England and was assigned to a bomb group as a replacement crew in the 91st Bomb Group [Annotator's Note: 322nd Bombardment Squadron, 91st Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force].

Virgil Faust's first mission overseas was to Flushing, Belgium, which was a milk run [Annotator's Note: slang term used by American airmen to describe an easy combat mission]. His target was submarine pens. He thought it was a waste of time because their pens were well protected by a concrete wall. His next mission was to Schweinfurt [Annotator's Note: Schweinfurt, Germany]. They received heavy defense from the Germans. Faust witnessed B-17s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] blown up in the air. They were overcome by the enemy and their plane had caught on fire so Faust and most of crew were forced to bail out. The pilot, copilot, and navigator stayed on and crashed landed in England. Faust states that the most peaceful time of his life was parachuting down. He could not hear anything. Upon landing in a plowed field, he found a way to stay hidden for about 24 hours. He then came upon a German family who captured him. The family fed Faust and then turned him in. He was sent to a prison camp [Annotator’s Note: Stalag XVII-B, Krems, Austria].

In the prison of war camp [Annotator’s Note: Stalag XVII-B, Krems, Austria], Virgil Faust learned to play the card game "Bridge." He also took German classes from a prisoner who was previously a Cornell [Annotator's Note: Cornell University in Ithaca, New York] student but the German guards stopped the classes after about four weeks. Faust also checked books out at the library that was at the prison camp. He and two of his crewmen shared their food throughout their time in prison camp. If anyone of them received a parcel from home, they would divide it amongst the three of them. They thought it was beneficial because it was a better way to save food. Whatever the Germans gave them was not enough for survival. They were given mostly potatoes. Faust remembered that they would receive goods and supplies from the Red Cross and Salvation Army. The parcels they received from these organizations had to be shared amongst all the men because they never had enough for one man to receive his own parcel. He remembers the camp was well organized. It had a theater, which also acted as their chapel. There was a Catholic priest who conducted all the Christian based religions. Faust remembered that the prisoners tried to support each other as much as they could. Some men were troublesome. Faust recalled one prisoner punched a German guard so hard he fell to the floor. The guard pulled his pistol to shoot the prisoner, but a German officer stopped him. The prisoner was court marshaled and sent to a labor camp. Faust believed that the German guards were "blindly disciplined." They only followed orders and ignored any other disciplinary actions by the prisoners. Faust believes he is privileged today and does not hold any animosity for being a prisoner of war.

Virgil Faust was a prisoner of war [Annotator's Note: in Stalag XVII-B, Austria] during World War 2. Towards the end of the war, the American troops went into the prison camp and collected the American and some French prisoners from the Russians. However, Faust and other prisoners were taken on a march prior to the liberation of the camp and were liberated about 300 miles from camp. He was located near the Enns River when one of the prisoners swam across to meet up with American troops to let them know that prisoners were on the other side. The Americans called off the plan to shell that area and built a pontoon bridge to reach the prisoners. During his march, a P-51 [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] flew by and strafed the area and as the plane turned around to strafe again, he spotted an American flag that one of the prisoners laid out. The P-51 tipped his wings at them and continued flying by. After his liberation by the American troops, Faust was taken to Linz, Austria and stayed in an aluminum factory, then he flew to Nancy, France. He had his first real meal there since he was captured. It was fabulous and he enjoyed it immensely. He was then sent to Camp Luck 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] where he reunited with his pilot, bombardier and navigator. He returned to the United States on a Liberty ship [Annotator's Note: a class of quickly produced cargo ship] and landed in New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York]. He remembers seeing the Statue of Liberty. He was ferried over to Camp Shanks, New Jersey. He received a 90 day furlough [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] and he went home by train. He was met by his mother and sisters on the train platform when he arrived in Windber [Annotator's Note: Windber, Pennsylvania].

Virgil Faust believes it is important for future generations to learn about World War 2. He has friends who have given lectures to school kids about their experiences. He thinks younger kids today are interested in learning about the subject. He and his family enjoyed attending reunions. Faust believes that it is important to have institutions like The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana]. He believes that the war did not change him in anyway.