Bob Bright celebrates his 94th birthday today. He is not only a veteran of WWII but also has a Purple Heart and a POW. 

Bob graduated from Crisp County High school and shortly after that received his draft notice. He went through basic training in Fort Bliss, Texas and one day saw a notice on the bulletin board to apply for Army Air Corp. Bob said that he wasn’t particularly crazy about being in the infantry so he took the test and was accepted. 

Teenage Turret Gunner

He trained to be a gunner on the B-17 Flying Fortress. After his training he was assigned to the European theater.

By this time in the war, the Americans had landed at Normandy and were moving across Germany.

Bob was in the Mighty 8th Bomber Command and part of a proud nine-man crew on the Starduster. The Americans were bombing every day.

In an effort to describe the intensity of the bombing, Bob said that if they were making bomb runs over Berlin, when the first plane got over the target and started to drop its payload, there were still planes in line on the runway back in England waiting to take off.

On his 23rd bombing mission, Bob was going to the plane and decided that he would go back and get another parachute because he didn’t like the way the pin looked. That may have been a providential decision. 

Miracle at 30,000 Feet

The B-17 was hit while flying at 30,000 feet. Bob recalled that one of the engines was on fire. He put on his oxygen mask and looked for one of the crew members but could not find him. Two of the crew members did not put on their oxygen masks and they collapsed.  Bob was in the process of dragging them to the door to jettison the door and get them out of the plane.

It was at that point that the plane exploded. M.F. Carter from Cordele, was on another plane and saw the B-17 explode in a ball of fire. Carter felt the pain of the loss of a friend, knowing that all on board perished.

Miraculously, Bob did not perish. The blast blew him out of the plane and blew off his boots and his jacket. He said that at that height the temperature was probably about 30 degrees below zero. Free falling through the air and nearly frozen, he was able to pull the rip cord and felt the parachute open.

He had escaped death from the lack of oxygen, the explosion, and the freezing temperatures at high altitudes. Now as he floated down through the sky, he was an easy target for anyone on the ground. 

When Bob hit the ground, he found himself surrounded and being beaten up by German youth armed with machine guns. “They were little kids, maybe 8 to 12 years old and they were mean as they could be,” he said. Ironically it was the German SS and Gestapo that rescued the dazed and weakened survivor from the vicious youth. 

They took him to the basement of a nearby church and he was reunited with the pilot and navigator who also miraculously escaped. The other men on the plane were never found. Their bodies likely disintegrated in the high altitude fiery explosion.

The navigator spoke some German and the Gestapo took him outside. Bob and the pilot sat in the basement for hours beginning to think that they lost another fellow crew member. The next morning, they were surprised to see the navigator return. 

Because he could speak German, the navigator was taken to the local Mayor’s home where he was treated with a home cooked meal. Bob laughed that they were sitting there starving, thinking he had been taken out and shot, while he was eating high on the hog.  

They left and walked for about 4 days to a POW camp. On the journey the worst thing he experienced was being led through the little towns where the Germans lined up the bodies of those killed in the bombings. The people in town saw the three US soldiers and wanted to take vengeance. 

The two SS troopers escorting the three Americans were given orders to shoot the first one who laid a hand on the men. Bob said that they did their job and protected their prisoners.

Prisoner of War

When they arrived at the camp, Bob was in solitary confinement for about ten days. He said that it was the worst thing he had ever been through. 

Some of the men in the camp tried to escape. Bob’s observation was that the Germans knew what they were doing and let them try to “give them something to do.” One man got beyond three barriers before being shot by the guards. The Germans lined the men in the yard and dragged the body of the escapee by so that all could see the consequences. 

Bob also remembered the German Shepherds. “They hated Americans. If you just looked at them, they would snarl and show their teeth.” 

Bob said that he never took a shower there. He had heard stories of the Germans putting cyanide in the water and he wasn’t taking any chances. 

After six months in the camp, General Patton and the Americans arrived to liberate the men. The POW’s had to take off all their clothes and burn them. 

Bob finally got his shower and for the first few days they were on a strict liquid diet of eggnog. There were 50 gallon tanks all around the camp and the men could drink all they wanted. After their bodies stabilized, they could eat solid food and were fed royally. 

He got home, went to the University of Georgia, then to graduate school at Purdue University. When the Korean war broke out, Bob was recalled and he served in Tokyo making maps. 

Bob has lived a blessed life and is still blessing others every day. He still drives and is actively involved at Christ Episcopal Church in Cordele. Happy 94th Birthday, Bob Bright. Thank you for your service to our nation.  

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