Willis Mills was born in July 1926 and grew up in Holyoke, Colorado. It was a small farming community. His father worked for the WPA [Annotator's Note: the Works Progress Administration was a federally sponsored program that put unemployed Americans to work during the Great Depression], putting in sewer systems and the power plant for the town. Mills’ mother worked outside the home as a housekeeper and laundress. Mills had an older sister who graduated from high school, then went to beauty school. She eventually owned a beauty shop. There were no sports in the school attended by Mills. He played sandlot baseball and basketball. Class size for grade school was only about 15 students. His high school class was also small. Halloween was a big event for the high school students. The boys pulled a prank on the principal using an empty outhouse [Annotator’s Note: Mills laughs]. Mills attended high school in 1940 and 1941 before the war started. Nothing was taught about the war going on in the world. Mills was not interested in history at the time. He heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] while traveling with the high school basketball team to a game. The driver of the car informed his passengers. The driver returned his passengers back home rather than to the scheduled game. Mills’ sister had married an Air Force officer named Colonel Dixon [Annotator’s Note: no given name provided]. The couple was at Mills’ mother’s house at the time of his return from the cancelled basketball game. The officer had to report back to duty when he got word. Prior to the attack, Colonel Dixon had spent six years at Hickam Field in Hawaii [Annotator’s Note: the Japanese attacked Hickam Field’s combat aircraft at the same time as they bombed, torpedoed, and strafed the warships, aircraft, and personnel at Pearl Harbor.]. The family learned a lot about the attack from the veteran officer. Not much changed in the town because no foreign people lived there. As a result of his work in the power plant with the heavy equipment, Mills’ father developed stomach problems and had to seek other employment. Mills’ father moved to Hayward, California and joined relatives there. He obtained employment in Moore shipyard [Annotator’s Note: Moore Drydock Company operated out of Oakland, California] as a shipfitter. [Annotator’s Note: The interview is briefly interrupted for a water break.] It was the summer of 1942. Mills and his mother continued to live in Holyoke for another year. When Mills turned 16 years of age and obtained his driving license, he and his mother moved to California. Despite the prejudice shown toward the Japanese, Mills serviced a Japanese motorist while he worked in a service station. The man was nice looking and very pleasant. Mills learned the news through the newspaper because no television existed at the time.

Willis Mills was attending Hayward High [Annotator’s Note: Hayward High School in Hayward, California] when he decided to join the Army. Still a junior in school, the seniors talked about the draft catching up with them and having to go into the infantry soon after graduation. Six of the group wanted to join the Air Force. Venturing to San Francisco [Annotator’s Note: San Francisco, California] to see a recruiter, Mills passed examinations for selection and entry into the Air Force. He was designated as an aviation cadet in 1943. Mills’ parents approved of his selection as an aviation cadet because their son-in-law was a colonel in the Air Force. Mills felt good because not everyone was selected for entry into the Air Force. Of the six who ventured to San Francisco, he was the only one able to enter the Air Force. The rest went into the Navy or the infantry. He became a cadet, coincidentally, when the war was coming to an end. He got out of high school in June [Annotator’s Note: year not provided but likely 1943 or 1944] and went to work in an Air Force supply depot. He was not called into the Air Force until January 1945. Sent to Beale Air Force Base[Annotator’s Note: near Maryville, California], he experienced the unexpected in training. He weighed only 123 pounds and was not built for the rigor. Next was basic training at Kessler Field in Mississippi [Annotator’s Note: in Biloxi, Mississippi]. He met other trainees from across the country and had fun with them. There were 15 of them who hung out together. It was quite a training, difficult and yet ok. With the war winding down, no one was being sent any longer to cadet school to learn to fly. He was given a choice of staying as a cadet, or going into radio or AM [Annotator’s Note: aviation mechanics] school. Two of Mills’ friends stayed in cadet school and ended up as MPs [Annotator’s Note: military police] in Tucson, Arizona. Mills selected AM school at Kessler Field. He trained on B-24s [Annotator’s Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber]. Next was Langley Field, Virginia where he worked on B-25s [Annotator’s Note: North American B-25 Mitchell medium bomber]. The planes were destined for Germany, but that order was rescinded. Mills was instead shipped to Kearns, Utah for a month after which he boarded a ship for the Philippines. The troops were provided nice wool uniforms for Alaska, so it got warm on the boat. It was quite a deal when the men reached the Philippines [Annotator’s Note: Mills chuckles].

Willis Mills went into Manila [Annotator’s Note: Manila, the Philippines] for a few days and observed the destruction of many buildings. None of the men with Mills wanted to return to the city because of its extreme disorganization with people running around. After a brief assignment of a few days at the main airport at Manila, Mills was transferred to Palawan [Annotator’s Note: Palawan, the Philippines], which is an island nine degrees above the equator. The Japanese had constructed an airfield using American prisoner labor. Steel was used to build the runways. After the Japanese withdrew, the Americans used the runway for P-38s [Annotator’s Note: Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter bombers]. Shortly after Mills arrived, the base transitioned into a training facility for pilots to learn to fly single engine aircraft. Brand new P-51s [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] for two squadrons arrived. The pilots were taught to fly with a single engine since jets were going to be deployed soon. [Annotator’s Note: The P-51 was a single engine aircraft unlike the twin engine P-38 fighter.] Mills had to take the Cosmoline [Annotator's Note: name for petroleum-based corrosion inhibitors] off one of the brand new P-51s and install new spark plugs and get the plane ready to go. Reporting to his squadron commander that he had completed the task, the officer ordered the 18 year old Mills to run up the engine. Mills had never done so before, but he went across the runway and started up the P-51 [Annotator’s Note: he laughs]. It was quite an experience for him. [Annotator’s Note: he had originally enlisted in the Air Force as an aviation cadet.] Mills had a real good P-51, 569 [Annotator’s Note: likely the unique identifying number assigned to his aircraft]. Each aircraft would run three or four flights a day, each with a different pilot in training. It kept Mills quite busy. Later, he had spare time and was assigned another P-51, number 18. Every morning, Mills would start both of his P-51s up for checkout with the canopy back. The loud noise provided him with hearing problems [Annotator’s Note: he laughs]. He really enjoyed his time in Palawan. He lived in a four-man tent in a coconut grove. It was close enough to a cove in the ocean where he could take a dip if he wanted. The war had shut down completely so it was safe enough to ride a jeep around the island. It was a great time. Though some Japanese were reported in the mountains, Mills never felt threatened. The Filipinos were happy to see the Americans after what they had been through [Annotator’s Note: the Japanese occupied the Philippines from 1942 to 1945]. After six or seven months, some of the P-51s were moved to Japan. Mills’ group was sent to Fort Oblanca [Annotator’s Note: spelling uncertain] which has since been destroyed by a volcano. It was 20 miles south of Clark Field [Annotator’s Note: a major Air Force base situated 48 miles from Manila]. A new two-mile airstrip for jet P-80s [Annotator’s Note: Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star jet fighter] had been installed. After the P-51s reached Mills’ new location, he was transferred to training for the P-80s. He initially worked with a crew chief, but subsequently became the crew chief for four of the fighters. He aided the mechanics if they needed help. The flatland location with no towns nearby became kind of boring. To lessen the boredom, he visited a radio operator friend at Clark Field. As time passed, he was permitted to return home. [Annotator’s Note: He chuckles.]

Willis Mills returned to the United States aboard a ship and docked at Oakland [Annotator’s Note: Oakland, California]. The return was disappointing to him since he had hoped to attend college with the G.I. Bill of Rights [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]. Instead, he found the institutions of higher learning had been filled by servicemen who had returned from overseas much earlier than him. He could not attend Hills Business College in San Francisco [Annotator’s Note: San Francisco, California]. There was a three-year wait list. Good jobs had been absorbed by the veterans who had returned earlier. After a few months, Mills obtained a job at the Hayward Airport [Annotator’s Note: in Hayward, California] working on small airplanes. He then went to work in a boring job for the telephone company. He soon moved to a job with the Caterpillar tractor company, but disliked it. He went to work in the Oakland Airport for Transocean Airlines. He worked on C-54s [Annotator’s Note: Douglas C-54 Skymaster transport aircraft] that were being refurbished for use in the Berlin Airlift [Annotator’s Note: Berlin Airlift was the successful resupply by air of Berlin, Germany after the Soviet Union blockaded supplies from entering the city by ground in June 1948]. He worked for Transocean for two years. It was enjoyable work, but it was a job that he did not want to do it all his life. The Berlin Airlift was good according to what he heard. It was too bad that the citizens of Berlin were cut off. Mills tells a story of a monkey that was an irritating pet of another fellow he moved in with. It was quite an experience, but the monkey had to be taken away. [Annotator’s Note: He laughs.] Mills met his future wife while he was working for Bell Telephone. It was 1947 when he met her at a high school football game. He had a 1940 Merc [Annotator’s Note: Mercury automobile] and gave some girls a lift. One of the girls was Patsy, whom he asked out for a date. Their relationship lasted 63 years [Annotator’s Note: He chuckles.]

Willis Mills remembers his work on P-51s [Annotator’s Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] at Palawan [Annotator’s Note: Palawan Island, the Philippines] as his most memorable experience of World War Two. He did things that people would not think to do today. For example, he took a cross country train trip from Beale Air Force Base [Annotator’s Note: near Maryville, California] through Texas to New Orleans [Annotator’s Note: New Orleans, Louisiana] to get to Kessler Field [Annotator’s Note: in Biloxi, Mississippi]. After basic training, there was a four week lapse period prior to the next assignment. Mills worked in the office and got a lot of passes. He enjoyed going to Biloxi and one of his favorite restaurants. He particularly liked fried chicken. He also took three-day passes to New Orleans several times. He and up to five others would rent a room and share the sleeping and rest accommodations [Annotator’s Note: He laughs.] He liked Bourbon Street and the jazz music. It was quite an experience for a boy coming out of the farm country. Before he was transferred from Mississippi to Langley Field, Virginia, he was given 30 days off to return home to California. Mills made it to Texas before a bus strike stopped his progress. He hopped on a train and made it to Fresno and then Hayward [Annotator’s Note: Fresno and Hayward, California. Hayward was his hometown.]. The trip to Virginia was through an airfield in Sacramento [Annotator’s Note: Sacramento, California] where he boarded a B-47 [Annotator’s Note: Boeing B-47 Stratojet high altitude bomber] and flew to Saint Louis [Annotator’s Note: Saint Louis, Missouri]. He then hitchhiked to his destination. He met interesting people on the way. He met some girls who gave him a ride. It was an interesting conversation. He saw his brother-in-law in Dayton, Ohio. He caught a flight to Washington, D.C. and hitchhiked to Langley Field. He did things that he would have never anticipated before joining the service. From Langley Field, he went to Salt Lake City [Annotator’s Note: Salt Lake City, Utah] and then Kearns, Utah. It was cold weather there and likely why the Alaskan equipment was issued to them. [Annotator’s Note: He laughs because he was deployed to the tropical heat of the Pacific and the Philippines in a wool uniform.] World War Two changed Mills’ life fantastically. Otherwise, he would have been in a little town [Annotator’s Note: he was born in Holyoke, Colorado] with no jobs. Hayward was a larger town, but what would his father have done when he was told he could not run the power plant? [Annotator’s Note: Mills father developed physical programs while working in the Holyoke power plant and had to seek work in a California shipyard as a result.] Mills’ two-year service in the war was enjoyable. He would have loved to have gotten in sooner so that he could have flown as a pilot. [Annotator’s Note: He had enlisted as an aviation cadet, but the war’s end resulted in a transfer to aviation mechanics training.] Mills feels World War Two history should be taught because of what is happening with Russia today [Annotator’s Note: the August 2022 interview was conducted during the Russian invasion of Ukraine] and the world. It was bad that the Japanese were put in prison camps [Annotator’s Note: internment camps]. Mills is very happy that he participated in the Flight of Dreams. He flew in a B-25 [Annotator’s Note: North American B-25 Mitchell medium bomber] and enjoyed it since he worked on those planes in the war. He was grateful to the people who put together the program for the veterans of World War Two.