bobdina
08-30-2010, 10:42 AM
96-year-old Okla. veteran shares WWII memories
By Skiler Schmitz - Durant (Okla.) Daily Democrat via AP
Posted : Sunday Aug 29, 2010 14:33:18 EDT
DURANT, Okla. — A 96-year-old Army Air Forces veteran, newly titled author Robert Pipes said he first began sharing his World War II stories around a campfire on an Apache Indian Reservation in Point of Pines, Ariz.
He said he began sharing those stories to pass the time while he was sitting by the fire with his co-workers and friends. Recently, Pipes released his memoirs about working on the “Playboy Crew,” a B-24 Liberator bomber crew, during World War II and the struggle he beat to stay alive after he was shot down in Nazi-ruled Holland.
Pipes said he was reluctant at first to share his stories with people beyond the campfire because at that time he had almost forgotten about that part of his life. One night his late wife Betty overheard one of his stories from a co-worker and asked him to write them down so he would not forget.
“After Betty heard one of my stories she began encouraging me to write the stories down so they would never be forgotten,” said Pipes.
He later recorded those stories for a co-worker’s son who planned to present them to his class. Pipes’ son Brian would later hear those tapes and encourage his father to write down his stories. Brian also helped his father revise the stories for his book. Pipes said he became astonished that he had never heard some of those famous war stories.
Pipes began his military career when he was 21 by joining the 112th U.S. Cavalry in Texas. “Their motto was ‘Rarin’ to Go’ and so was I,” said Pipes. In May 1941 he was discharged from the Cavalry and re-enlisted in the Army Air Corps.
He would serve three years in Dallas before he was assigned to Brooks Field, Texas, where he began extensive training to work aboard a Liberator as a flight engineer and top-turret gunner.
“Thus began my Air Corps career and the World War II stories began to unfold,” said Pipes.
The title of his memoirs, “The Playboy Crew 1943-1944 Memoirs of World War II” is named after his Army Air Forces crew that he worked and lived with for four years during the war.
Pipes said it was the days before Playboy magazine, founded in the 1950s, when the Playboy crew was named. He said they had their fair share of missions during the war, ranging from buzzing targets on the French coast to bombing German forces, “Our plane was decorated with a male duck that I painted, and it was loaded with 75- and 100-pound demolition bombs,” said Pipes. The typical age in his crew was around 21, and he said the name Playboy just fit the group of men that were in the crew.
In April 1943, the Playboy Crew made a crash-landing in Holland after raiding the skies to fight the German forces at the Friedrichstrasse railroad station in Berlin. Pipes said the crew was about six miles from the Germany-Holland border when it crashed in Holland. He said he used his parachute to jump from the plane before it crashed, landing him in an open field where he was greeted by a man.
In fear of losing his life and freedom, he spent the next year hiding from Nazi soldiers in haystacks and rabbit holes. One day he was walking down a dirt road when he was stopped by a member of the Gestapo. Pipes said that if he had been caught by the Nazis he would have been killed for being a U.S. spy.
“I never kept a diary because I feared if I were caught by the Gestapo they would think I was an American and would have probably killed me,” Pipes said.
Pipes said in 1988 he and Betty returned to the Netherlands to visit the de Bruin family and other Dutch men and women who helped him hide during that fearful year. He said that he was overwhelmed with emotion then, and even now when he thinks of the time and the men that were lost.
“Some of the people who had helped me lost their lives,” said Pipes.
He said the men and women fighting for freedom today are fighting a completely different battle then the one he once fought.
In Pipes’ memoirs he pays great tribute to the men of the Playboy Crew, and the Dutch men and women who helped him get back home. At the end of his memoirs he says that the Dutch people were fighting in their own way by aiding the allied forces. He said they were doing this for the same reason he was, “for freedom,” Pipes said.
Pipes said that he got a report back from his son Brian recently about the sales of the book, “He said the sales were doing great and the book can be found all around the world in China, Japan and even New Zealand,” said Pipes.
Pipes said that since writing the book, he has visited many classrooms across the country and he is surprised at the great responses the book has made.
By Skiler Schmitz - Durant (Okla.) Daily Democrat via AP
Posted : Sunday Aug 29, 2010 14:33:18 EDT
DURANT, Okla. — A 96-year-old Army Air Forces veteran, newly titled author Robert Pipes said he first began sharing his World War II stories around a campfire on an Apache Indian Reservation in Point of Pines, Ariz.
He said he began sharing those stories to pass the time while he was sitting by the fire with his co-workers and friends. Recently, Pipes released his memoirs about working on the “Playboy Crew,” a B-24 Liberator bomber crew, during World War II and the struggle he beat to stay alive after he was shot down in Nazi-ruled Holland.
Pipes said he was reluctant at first to share his stories with people beyond the campfire because at that time he had almost forgotten about that part of his life. One night his late wife Betty overheard one of his stories from a co-worker and asked him to write them down so he would not forget.
“After Betty heard one of my stories she began encouraging me to write the stories down so they would never be forgotten,” said Pipes.
He later recorded those stories for a co-worker’s son who planned to present them to his class. Pipes’ son Brian would later hear those tapes and encourage his father to write down his stories. Brian also helped his father revise the stories for his book. Pipes said he became astonished that he had never heard some of those famous war stories.
Pipes began his military career when he was 21 by joining the 112th U.S. Cavalry in Texas. “Their motto was ‘Rarin’ to Go’ and so was I,” said Pipes. In May 1941 he was discharged from the Cavalry and re-enlisted in the Army Air Corps.
He would serve three years in Dallas before he was assigned to Brooks Field, Texas, where he began extensive training to work aboard a Liberator as a flight engineer and top-turret gunner.
“Thus began my Air Corps career and the World War II stories began to unfold,” said Pipes.
The title of his memoirs, “The Playboy Crew 1943-1944 Memoirs of World War II” is named after his Army Air Forces crew that he worked and lived with for four years during the war.
Pipes said it was the days before Playboy magazine, founded in the 1950s, when the Playboy crew was named. He said they had their fair share of missions during the war, ranging from buzzing targets on the French coast to bombing German forces, “Our plane was decorated with a male duck that I painted, and it was loaded with 75- and 100-pound demolition bombs,” said Pipes. The typical age in his crew was around 21, and he said the name Playboy just fit the group of men that were in the crew.
In April 1943, the Playboy Crew made a crash-landing in Holland after raiding the skies to fight the German forces at the Friedrichstrasse railroad station in Berlin. Pipes said the crew was about six miles from the Germany-Holland border when it crashed in Holland. He said he used his parachute to jump from the plane before it crashed, landing him in an open field where he was greeted by a man.
In fear of losing his life and freedom, he spent the next year hiding from Nazi soldiers in haystacks and rabbit holes. One day he was walking down a dirt road when he was stopped by a member of the Gestapo. Pipes said that if he had been caught by the Nazis he would have been killed for being a U.S. spy.
“I never kept a diary because I feared if I were caught by the Gestapo they would think I was an American and would have probably killed me,” Pipes said.
Pipes said in 1988 he and Betty returned to the Netherlands to visit the de Bruin family and other Dutch men and women who helped him hide during that fearful year. He said that he was overwhelmed with emotion then, and even now when he thinks of the time and the men that were lost.
“Some of the people who had helped me lost their lives,” said Pipes.
He said the men and women fighting for freedom today are fighting a completely different battle then the one he once fought.
In Pipes’ memoirs he pays great tribute to the men of the Playboy Crew, and the Dutch men and women who helped him get back home. At the end of his memoirs he says that the Dutch people were fighting in their own way by aiding the allied forces. He said they were doing this for the same reason he was, “for freedom,” Pipes said.
Pipes said that he got a report back from his son Brian recently about the sales of the book, “He said the sales were doing great and the book can be found all around the world in China, Japan and even New Zealand,” said Pipes.
Pipes said that since writing the book, he has visited many classrooms across the country and he is surprised at the great responses the book has made.