January 10 is a special day to Georgia. The Georgia Bulldogs proved that Alabama can be beaten as the Dogs won the National Championship.
January 10 is also a special day for 96 year old WWII Veteran, Bob Bright of Cordele, Georgia. It was January 10, 1945 when Bob Bright climbed into the gun turret on his 23rd mission. A short time later, at 25,000 feet Bob was donning his parachute to jump from the burning plane before it exploded.
Of the 9 crew members, only 3 survived. Bob was captured and spent the next six months in a German Prisoner of War camp. General George Patton and his troops liberated the camp and Bob came home.
I had the privilege and honor to talk with Bob Bright and another World War II veteran, Jack Roche. This is Bob’s story.
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This week we recognize and remember December 7, 1941, the attack on Pearl Harbor. That attack brought the United States into World War II. I want to introduce you to a couple of men who served our nation in World War II.
Earlier this summer I video recorded a conversation with Bob Bright and Jack Roche from Cordele. These two men served our nation in the Army Air Corp in the European theater of World War II.
I got to know these two men in the daily prayer time at Christ Episcopal Church. They faithfully show up every morning to pray for the needs in our community, state, and nation. We should never underestimate the power of these prayers that go to God’s throne of grace every morning.
Every day, the number decreases of these men and women who served during this critical time in world history. It is important to hear their recollections and be always reminded of the cost of freedom.
This video conversation focuses on Jack Roche who served as a Bombardier in the 15th Air Force. You will be glad that you invested a few minutes to meet Jack Roche.
See and hear PFC Julian Parker’s story in his own words.
On D-Day, June 6, 1944, Nineteen-year-old Private First Class, Julian Parker stood in silence with his fellow American soldiers on the landing craft as it churned toward Normandy. Seventy-seven years later, he talked with me about his experiences. Continue reading →
On June 6, 2019 the entire world will remember the 75th anniversary of the largest military operation in history. It was an epic conflict of good vs evil.
Thousands of young Americans who just months before were securely living in homes on farms and in cities across our nation crowded into landing craft.
The vast armada chugged toward the beaches of Normandy like a cloud of gnats on a South Georgia farm. As these brave young men stormed the beaches, they were charging into the gates of hell itself.
While the invasion was underway, President Franklin Roosevelt, in a nationwide radio address, led the nation in prayer for this undertaking. Take 5 minutes to listen. Share this with your friends and especially young students who are learning about our nation’s history.
Text of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Address and Prayer on D-Day – June 6, 1944
My fellow Americans: Last night, when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass with success thus far.
And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer:
Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.
Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.
They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.
They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest-until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men’s souls will be shaken with the violences of war.
For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and good will among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.
Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.
And for us at home — fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas — whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them–help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.
Many people have urged that I call the Nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.
Give us strength, too — strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces.
And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be.
And, O Lord, give us Faith. Give us Faith in Thee; Faith in our sons; Faith in each other; Faith in our united crusade. Let not the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose.
With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogancies. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister Nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.
Thy will be done, Almighty God. Amen. President Franklin D. Roosevelt – June 6, 1944
Wall at Normandy Cemetery – American Battle Monuments Commission
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 Bright of Cordele, GA
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
Bob Bright 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 Center Top Row Pilot and Navigator Circled in Red
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.
Bob Bright’s POW Record
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.
These two veterans of World War II are enjoying a bowl of homemade vegetable soup and talking about their Army days. They might not be alive today had it not been for an historic decision made by President Harry Truman.
As WWII was coming to a close on the European front, attention turned to the Pacific and Japan. Among options available, a massive invasion of Japan similar to Normandy was on the table.
There was a big difference in Normandy and Japan. Normandy was in France, a nation occupied by the German army. Japan was not an occupied nation.
An invasion of Japan would have been an invasion of the homeland of a people who had already demonstrated a willingness, even desire, to heroically die for their country. Normandy would have been a small skirmish contrasted to the American lives that would be lost in an invasion of Japan.
Another option was a secret weapon that was ready for deployment. This weapon would reign destruction and terror of such a magnitude that the Japanese might choose to surrender. President Truman decided to use the new weapon.
On August 6, 1945 the first atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima. Sixteen hours later, President Truman called for Japan’s unconditional surrender or, “expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth.”
The Japanese leaders fiercely debated among themselves about continuing the fight for favorable conditions of cease fire or accepting the American demands. On the evening of August 8, the Soviet Union broke their neutrality treaty with Japan and declared war. Shortly after midnight August 9, the Soviets moved into Manchuria.
Later that day, the Americans dropped the 2nd atomic bomb on Nagasaki. Japanese Emporor Hirohito had enough and ordered the Japanese to accept unconditional surrender. He gave a radio address announcing the surrender on August 15. On August 28, 1945, the Americans began the occupation and rebuilding of Japan.
Robert Cole and Billy Forrest were both draftees from Georgia. They were both sent to Japan as part of the American occupation at the end of the war. They were both assigned to the Signal Corp.
73 years later, they met each other for the first time. They compared notes and found out that both had been deployed to Japan immediately following the Japanese surrender. Both were in the Signal Corp. Both recall going through a terrible storm on the way to Japan. They concluded that they might have been on the same ship.
They served in different locations in Japan. Instead of fighting the Japanese, they made friends with them and helped rebuild the nation. They were in Japan for about a year before being sent home and receiving their honorable discharges.
Robert Cole married and had two children. One of them was me. Billy Forrest was already married when he was drafted but he and his wife never had children. Both of these men are now in their 90’s.
They have lived productive lives and impacted the lives of thousands. Billy became a pastor, plays the guitar and sings. He still preaches or pulls out his guitar and sings on ocassion today. Robert applied his Signal Corp training to work at Robins Air Force Base where he retired working in Foreign Weapons Sales. Today he loves to cook and design and build models from scratch.
I may write more about these men later. Both have a great story to tell.
These two men, along with thousands of other young Americans, could have easily been casualties on a Japanese beach in the Pacific Ocean. Billy Forrest could have left a widow back in Georgia. Instead, they were young Americans who befriended former enemies and helped to rebuild a new allied nation of Japan.
Personally, I am thankful that President Truman chose the nuclear option. My prayer is that we never have to use that option again. I also pray for the wisdom of courage of every American President who may have to weigh that decision and use it if necessary.
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As I begin writing this article, it is the same time that 75 years ago today, nearly 2,500 sailors, soldiers, and marines lives would be tragically and suddenly ended or changed forever. A carefree assignment on an island paradise in the Pacific turned into a fury of chaos, confusion, and death.
Scott Barker and I served in the US Army Military Police together in the 1970’s. After his service in the Army, Scott joined the FBI and has now retired.
Scott’s late father, SSG John D. Barker – US Army 1941 – 1945, was at Pearl Harbor on that day. Scott’s father did not talk much about it until his later years. Continue reading →by
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