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Welcome to Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg
Corumbus. Our guest in this edition is

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John Lucky Luckydoo. He served as
a pilot and co pilot in the one

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hundredth Bomb Group in the US Army
Air Corps during World War Two. He

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successfully served twenty five missions, which
was a rare feat at that time.

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And Lucky, thanks so much for
being with us. Well, thank you,

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Craig. Where were you born and
raised there? I was born and

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raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee, somewhat
known as the cradle of the Confederacy,

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on a place called Missionary Ridge,
which became a very memorable battle in the

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Civil War in eighteen sixty three.
And was there a history of military service

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in your face family? Not really. I did become a member of the

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Junior Rotc in high school and that
was my introduction to the military. Living

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in Chattanooga, my father raised show
horses, and just twelve miles away in

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Chickamauga, Georgia, was a cavalry
base for the Third Cavalry, and as

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townies, we were invited to participate
in some of their horse shows and they

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did a box highlighter every weekend and
then in the summertime, I became a

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member of the Civilian Military Training Force
CMTZ at Fort Oglethorpe, where we lived

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in tents and rode army horses for
two weeks. As a result, I

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noted that young officers on a cavalry
base were riding around in convertibles, and

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they were sought by all the young
ladies, and the government furnished polo players

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with a full stable of polo ponies
that could travel all over the world and

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compete, and if you were any
good at all, that became a very

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sought after avocation. I aspired to
go to West Point and was sort of

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attracted to the military way of life
as a potential career. That was long

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before Pearl Harbor, however, I
believe you were about nineteen years old when

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the Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, correct, And at that time I was right

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between high school and college. I
had just entered college there in Chattanooga,

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and my best friend and I had
certainly been convinced that America was eventually going

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to become involved in the war in
Europe, which was raging at that time.

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This was nineteen forty one. The
best thing that we could do would

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be to since we both wanted to
fly, would be to go to Canada

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and join the Royal Canadian Air Force
and get our training, and then once

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America became involved in the war,
we could transfer to our American services.

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Well, we discovered that in order
to train in Canada you had to have

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perenial consent if you were underage,
and at that time we were under a

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We were both under age. My
best friend, whose father had been a

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victim of Mustard Gast in the World
War One, was an only child.

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He never knew his father, and
when we presented the plan to go to

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Canada to his mother, who was
all she had that only child, she

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said to him that, silly,
if you really honestly believe that this is

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what you should do, then you
have my blessing. So I thought,

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naturally, when I went home and
presented the plan to my parents that i'd

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get a similar response. When my
mother discovered that missus Sullivan was willing to

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allow her only offspring to go to
Canada and learn to fly and prepare himself

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for war, she said, well, I hate to see you all do

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this, but if you considered it
to be your best course, then I

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wouldn't stand in your way, but
you have to convince your father. Well,

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when my father came home from his
office and he discovered what we were

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planning on doing, he said,
you blithering idiots. You don't have any

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idea what you're confronting with and what
you're doing. It's none of your business.

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And so war halfway around the world
in Europe, and it's not our

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concern. Back in school, over
my dead body, would I ever give

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you my consent. So as a
result, my best friend went to Canada

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and he trained on spitfires, and
I went to college. So when did

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you join the service? Well,
I joined the service almost immediately following Pearl

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Harbor. At that time. Then
there was no question as to my parental

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consent because we were canon fodder.
We were the proper age to be called

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up. So my fraternity brothers and
I almost im mass joined up in early

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nineteen forty two. And where were
you going to school? I was going

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to school at the University of Chattanooga, which is now a branch of the

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University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Where
did you go for training? I went

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immediately to my actual field in Montgomery, Alabama for pre flight and was fortunate

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enough to be designated as the cadet
adjutant who was the second in command of

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a four thousand cadet corps in pre
flight. And as it turned out,

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that stood me in pretty good stead
all the way through my training, because

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I was cadet captain of each of
my classes. That became very important actually

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at one point because, as you
say in your book, due to some

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questionable instruction, you were in danger
of washing out of pilot training. But

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another person wanted you to have another
chance because of that title. That's correct,

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and so and then you got some
better instruction, right, I did

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what was the difference what finally made
it click for you and helped you understand

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how to be a good pilot.
The difference was basically in the instructors.

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The first instructor I had was a
west Pointer, and he could not fly

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the airplane. He was really not
a natural pilot, and he was not

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able to impart how to fly an
airplane when he couldn't do it in himself.

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So I really was not learning anything. And this wasn't basic training.

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This was the second phase. You
go from pre flight to primary, and

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from primary to basic, and from
basic to advance. I was, as

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you mentioned, captain of my class
and a civilian instructor at Shawfield, South

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Carolina, where I was stationed for
basic stepped forth and said, well,

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you give him to me for thirty
minutes, and if I can't pass him,

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then wash him out. And that
made the difference. I learned more

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in thirty minutes from him than I
did from ten hours with the previous so

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called instructor. But they were pressing
everybody into service, of course, as

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rapidly as possible, and there were
some cracks that people fell through major lucky

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to do. You were also told
in training, and I'm quoting here,

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you're all going to be killed,
which is not the most encouraging thing that

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you want to hear from a commander, but given what was happening with the

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bombers, it was fairly realistic.
So how did you react to that?

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Well, that was told to us, not in training, but actually just

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prior to beings shipped overseas. Forty
of my classmates from my flying school,

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my Advanced Flying School were selected to
be sent to the one hundredth bomb Group,

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which was a V seventeen organization in
Carnia, Nebraska at the time that

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had already been through pre combat training
and they were ready to be shipped out,

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and they pulled all of the co
pilots, second in command of the

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crews out of the planes and stuck
us in the right seat. We never

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bet into B seventeen before. They
only did this in this one group,

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and nobody's ever explained or even admitted
that this was done, but it was.

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And that's one of the reasons that
I wrote the book is because there

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were certainly incidences that occurred in what
became known as the Bloody hundredth bomb Group

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that didn't happen to other groups,
and this is what happened in the hundredth.

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And so here we were second in
command of the crew of ten men

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on to BE seventeen. We were
unfamiliar with the airplane. I've never been

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never flown a four engine airplane before, or our training previously was on twin

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engine aircraft. So the commander called
it together and he said, you look

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to your right, and you look
to your left, and you look ahead

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and behind you, and only one
of you is going to come home.

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So you're going to be killed and
you might just as well accept it.

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So that was the way we went
to combat. That's Major John Lucky luckydo,

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a US Army Air Corps veteran of
World War Two and the bloody hundredth

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Bomb Group still ahead. Lucky takes
us along on its most harrowing mission,

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but up next, he shares the
challenges of trying to adjust to the B

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seventeen while assigned to a crew that
didn't want him there, and the mission

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that almost cost him his toes.
I'm Greg Corumbus, and this is Veterans'

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Chronicles. This is Veterans Chronicles.
I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest this week

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is Major John Lucky Luckadoo, a
US Army Air Corps veteran of World War

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Two and one of the very few
who survived twenty five missions early in the

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war. We now pick up his
story with the difficulty of adjusting to his

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new B seventeen bomber crew and how
a hole in the plane put his health

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and possibly his life in serious danger. Well, it took a while because

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my only instruction was from my pilot
and he was not a warm and fuzzy

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personality. So actually, on some
of the crews that we replaced as co

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pilots, they accepted it as inevitable, and well, that's the military,

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so we'll make the most of it
and the best of it on the crew

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that I was assigned to. It
just so happened that the navigator and the

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bombardier, who were both officers on
the crew, were particularly fond of their

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previous co pilots, the guy I
replaced, and they resented highly the fact

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that this brand new guy that didn't
know from nothing, particularly about to be

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seventeen, was thrust onto their crew, and so they proceeded to make my

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life help. They did everything in
their war in the world that they could

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to discourage me from staying on the
crew. I guess they expected me to

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resign or insist on a transfer or
something, and they were very juvenile about

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it, but stopped more to be
exact. So I was policing my backfield

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while I was trying to learn something
about the airplane and what my duties and

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responsibilities were. I guess it was
something of a blessing in disguise, because

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it forced me to focus on the
job and to be determined that I was

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going to succeed regardless, regardless of
the opposition, and so I didn't worry

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about or concern myself with what my
odds were of succeeding or surviving, because

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survival was the bottom line in combat, and we didn't know anything about the

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nature of the enemy that we were
going to face. We just knew that

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they were experienced, they were very
proven. They'd been fighting for four years

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on the Western Front against the British
and on the Eastern Front against the Russians.

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They were prosed, they knew what
they were doing. They were extremely

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well equipped, and they had excellent
techniques and ability. And so we were

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lambs going to the slaughter guinea pigs, just trying to prove a strategy of

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how the bomber forces of America could
best be utilized to bring Hitler to his

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knees and to assist the British to
avoid an invasion. You mentioned the ability

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to focus on your job, but
Crewe cohesion is also important. So you've

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got these guys that kind of resent
you. You mentioned the pilot. He

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made some questionable decisions in Canada that
delayed your deployment to the UK, and

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then I believe he also harassed you
and injured you, not seriously, but

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interview in bullying you in lack of
a better term. So how are you

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able to work well together given those
issues? Well, you soon learned that

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in a ten man crew you have
to depend on each individual to do their

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specific job and if they failed down
that's the weakest link in the chain.

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So it was a contest. We
were terribly young, we were awfully innocent,

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and we didn't know what the heck
we were doing, but we were

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convinced that it was the right thing
to do. It was our patriotic duty

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and we were willing to put our
lives on the line in order to prove

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that we could do it. And
once you got to England, do you

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say in your book that your first
mission was pretty uneventful relatively speaking, but

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you got resistance on your second mission? So what was it like to face

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real hostile enemies for real? Not
just training, but it's the real thing.

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It was scary and chaotic. It
was traumatic when you're in the heat

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of battle and anti aircraft fires coming
up from the ground and knock you out

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of the sky. These enemy fighters
are coming in and attacking you from all

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angles. All hell's breaking loose.
It's scary, it's just riveting. So

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but you're flying in close formation at
high altitude, freezing, freezing to death

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because we were unpressurized. Absolutely.
In fact, there was one mission where

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flak blew a hole near your feet
right yes, and gave you serious frostbite.

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Tell us a little bit about that
one. It crossed me a bit,

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all my toes and stuck my feet
to the rudder past and at our

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high altitude, at fifty to sixty
degrees below zero, if you take your

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gloves off, your fingers can self
amputate to the nearest knuckle and you don't

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see any blood, you don't feel
any pain, you're not even aware.

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You just see your fingers lying on
the floor. Well, it's a wonder.

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It's just a miracle that I did
not lose all my toes because this

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hole in the nose of the airplane
just sent that jet of cold, freezing

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air directly onto my feet and didn't
affect anybody else on the airplane, but

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it didn't me, and just my
toes, just my feet. When I

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landed. Finally, after five and
a half hours of that, they had

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to chip me out of the airplane
and send me up to the hospital and

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gradually thaw my feet out. They
packed them in ice originally and then gradually

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brought them back to normal temperature.
And fortunately the treatment I got was correct

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and I did not lose my toes, but I still have effects from it

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in the cold weather, And you
were worried about making a successful landing because

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your feet are critical to making a
land that's right. I had to actually

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manipulate the runners with my heels.
When we come back, Major Luckadoo explains

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the stress of flying through flak,
tells us about moving up from copilot to

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pilot, and walks us through his
most harrowing mission. I'm Greg Corumbus and

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this is Veterans Chronicles. This is
Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our

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guest this week is Major j On
Lucky Lucky Do, a US Army Air

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Corps veteran of World War Two.
In just a moment, Lucky will tell

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us about his most traumatic mission,
a mission he did not expect to survive.

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But first Lucky, who tells us
about flying through flak and moving from

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copilot to pilot to eventually becoming operations
officer. Well, you couldn't deal with

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it. You were helpless because if
you attempted to take evasive action, you

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could disturb the whole formation number one
and number two, you could zig when

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you should have zagged and fly into
it instead of away from it. So

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it was something that you had to
essentially put out of your mind and say,

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well, I can't do anything about
this, so I'm just going to

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have to apply straight level. And
actually we didn't fly the airplane on the

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bomb run. The pilot and the
co pilot turned the control of the airplane

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over to the bombadier who was literally
flying it by the input that he had

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with the interchange, the interconnection between
the autopilot and the bomb site. So

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pilot and the copilot we're just sitting
there ready to take over instantly if necessary,

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manually, but the plane was literally
being flown by the bomb site with

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the bomba deer. Now we mentioned
your pilot a couple of times. He

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had a mindset that he wanted to
condense his missions as close to each other

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as possible so he could get done
with them as soon as possible. Correct,

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So when he was done, you
became a command pilot. Then after

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that, right, how pleased were
you to have that promotion? Well,

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00:23:00.680 --> 00:23:07.079
I was still a second lieutenant,
and when the crew finished up, I

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still had four missions to fly,
and so on my next mission, I

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went out with a brand new crew
who was on their third mission as really

215
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an instructor pilot too because I had
the experience, and flying directly in front

216
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of me was the operations officer who
was second in command of the squadron.

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This was the first Week in Black
Week in October, and we were on

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October the eighth. I'll never forget
it was my twenty second mission, and

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I've just returned now from England where
I commemorated the eightieth anniversary of that mission

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on October eighth of nineteen forty three. Thing I was coming back from that

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one, we turned on the bomb
run and we were eighteen ships from the

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bloody hundredth As we turned on the
bomb run, the flack was coming up

223
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so densely from the ground to protect
the target, nenser than we had ever

224
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seen before, and the Germans were
actually flying through their own flack. Normally

225
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they didn't do that. They would
stay back and let the anti aircraft fire

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damage planes enough to force them ount
of the formation, and then when they

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were by themselves, we were duck
soup. That was almost a death knell.

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But on this mission. They were
flying through their own flack, so

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they were susceptible of being flung shot
down by friendly fire as we were.

230
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But that was how spread the Germans
were at that stage, and we just

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I lost twelve out of the eighteen
airplanes on the bomb run, and I

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brought what was left of the group
back with my tacking on to a succeeding

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wave of bombers in the ninety fifth
group in our wing that followed, or

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we wouldn't have made it back because
I lost an engine over the target,

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so I was only flying on three
engines, and that slowed me up,

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and that slowed up the whole formation
if they kept with me. So it

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was extremely traumatic, and the Germans
were so desperate that when they ran out

238
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of ammunition they began ramming us,
just like Japanese kamikazis, and one rammed

239
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the plane directly in front of me
with the operations officer on it, and

240
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they blew up. And so when
I landed, the squadron commander came up

241
00:26:11.119 --> 00:26:15.079
to me. He said, well, Lucky, where is Barker was the

242
00:26:15.279 --> 00:26:21.640
ops officer? And I said,
well, I saw them rammed and I

243
00:26:21.720 --> 00:26:26.519
exploded. Nobody got out of that
aeroplane, so he's not coming back.

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00:26:26.839 --> 00:26:32.759
He said, all right, then
you are the new ops officer. I

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00:26:32.799 --> 00:26:34.359
said, well, that's going to
be a little awkward, and I'm just

246
00:26:34.440 --> 00:26:38.640
a little second lieutenant. He said, Nowhorry, he will give you the

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00:26:38.720 --> 00:26:45.279
support and the authority that you need
and will promote you as rapidly as as

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permitted. And that was every ninety
days in the combat zone. And what

249
00:26:51.519 --> 00:26:56.319
did that job require, Well,
it required ground duties, very heavy ground

250
00:26:56.400 --> 00:27:03.200
duties, and you were second in
command of the squadron. When the squadron

251
00:27:03.319 --> 00:27:12.000
commander was not leading or flying,
then you had to fly. And you

252
00:27:12.319 --> 00:27:21.319
determined the replacements, the qualifications when
they came in to take over your losses,

253
00:27:22.440 --> 00:27:30.240
and you set the formation. You
determined what the bomb load would be

254
00:27:30.319 --> 00:27:33.240
and the gas load, and of
a lot sort of thing for the squadron

255
00:27:33.279 --> 00:27:38.920
for each particular mission. It was
really heavy duty, but you also had

256
00:27:38.960 --> 00:27:48.359
to complete your tour. So when
your squadron led the group formation, then

257
00:27:48.480 --> 00:27:55.039
either you or the squadron commander would
be the command pilot and then in those

258
00:27:55.160 --> 00:28:00.359
days the co pilot on the crew
would go back and fly the tailor con

259
00:28:00.440 --> 00:28:06.920
position. Well, they never fired
a fifty caliber of their lives. They

260
00:28:06.920 --> 00:28:11.720
put me in the tail one on
one mission. That was when I was

261
00:28:11.720 --> 00:28:15.640
flying with my regular crew. I
had no idea what I was doing.

262
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I just bore down on we came
under attack, and I just bore down

263
00:28:22.039 --> 00:28:29.240
on the triggers and burned out both
barrels. So I was useless sitting back

264
00:28:29.319 --> 00:28:34.759
there except to call out lanes that
were going down and tax were coming in

265
00:28:34.839 --> 00:28:41.720
and that sort of thing. But
oh, it was. It wasn't the

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00:28:41.759 --> 00:28:48.400
smartest thing. My eventual wife used
to call that military intelligence. Yeah,

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putting you in combat in a job
that you had no training for is,

268
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yeah, not a good policy.
And I believe when you landed that mission,

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00:28:56.279 --> 00:29:00.359
you made it very clear that was
your last mission as a tail gunner,

270
00:29:00.400 --> 00:29:03.359
correct I did. I simply said, well, hear my wings.

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00:29:04.200 --> 00:29:08.240
You can court martial me or do
whatever you have to do, but I'm

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00:29:08.279 --> 00:29:14.640
not flying in a tail anymore because
I've never fired at fifty caliber. I

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00:29:14.640 --> 00:29:18.839
don't know what I'm doing. A
gunner is much more effective back there than

274
00:29:18.880 --> 00:29:26.119
I would be, and so I'm
not. I refuse, and they said,

275
00:29:26.119 --> 00:29:29.039
all right, you'll have to sit
on the ground when your crew Flaes.

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00:29:30.920 --> 00:29:33.920
Let me go back to October nineteen
forty three. In the mission you

277
00:29:33.960 --> 00:29:38.240
mentioned a moment ago when you lost
one of your engines on the way back

278
00:29:38.279 --> 00:29:42.480
from the bombing run. Were you
facing the same amount of heavy flak as

279
00:29:42.519 --> 00:29:48.200
the way in. Yes, absolutely, And now you're going slower so they

280
00:29:48.200 --> 00:29:53.160
have more time to you were a
better target. And when I called the

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00:29:53.480 --> 00:29:59.440
group that I wanted to tack onto, I told them that I lost an

282
00:29:59.440 --> 00:30:02.720
engine, and they said, well, we'll slow up if we can,

283
00:30:03.960 --> 00:30:08.039
but we can't slow the whole formation
to the point that we're going to fall

284
00:30:08.119 --> 00:30:14.720
out of the sky. So if
you can't cape up, I will have

285
00:30:14.839 --> 00:30:21.640
to go on without you. But
that was inevitable, so you did have

286
00:30:21.680 --> 00:30:26.440
to leave the formation. No,
they slowed up slightly and I could get

287
00:30:26.519 --> 00:30:30.039
partial power out of that engine.
I couldn't get full power, and that

288
00:30:30.240 --> 00:30:37.720
was fun spell the difference, But
that was the salvation for us getting back.

289
00:30:37.039 --> 00:30:41.000
How do you go back up after
something that harrowing? I don't really

290
00:30:41.079 --> 00:30:45.599
know. I've thought about that and
been asked about it, and I have

291
00:30:45.759 --> 00:30:52.319
to tell you that when I look
back upon it and I think of all

292
00:30:52.359 --> 00:30:59.599
of the odds, and I think
of all of the circumstances under which we

293
00:30:59.599 --> 00:31:04.160
were functioning. I have to think, you know, that was suicidal,

294
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That was traumatic. It certainly changed
me drastically. But then I realized too

295
00:31:12.319 --> 00:31:19.519
that nobody goes to war and comes
back the same person. It's going to

296
00:31:19.640 --> 00:31:26.880
change you. It's inevitable. And
when you're facing death day after day,

297
00:31:27.559 --> 00:31:34.519
and if you dwelled on that and
your odds of surviving, that you wouldn't

298
00:31:34.559 --> 00:31:38.759
last. So did you convince yourself
you were coming back that day or did

299
00:31:38.759 --> 00:31:42.240
you just not think? Well,
you just don't think about it. You

300
00:31:42.440 --> 00:31:47.799
just keep concentrating on your job and
doing your job to the best of your

301
00:31:47.799 --> 00:31:56.240
ability, and let events take effect
as they play out. There's just so

302
00:31:56.400 --> 00:32:00.720
much that you have to rely upon
a go. Are you an angel?

303
00:32:00.799 --> 00:32:09.519
Money shoulders to see you through?
And I was extremely fortunate to have survived

304
00:32:10.279 --> 00:32:14.519
well. The title of your book
and how you describe it in the book

305
00:32:15.359 --> 00:32:22.559
basically says it that it's not really
skill that determines whether you survive a mission

306
00:32:22.640 --> 00:32:25.319
or not. It's true, it's
just some make it and some don't.

307
00:32:27.480 --> 00:32:30.240
That's exactly right. Now. One
of the other things I think I read

308
00:32:30.279 --> 00:32:35.799
in your book is that even though
it could be and always was extremely cold

309
00:32:35.920 --> 00:32:42.319
on the plane in stressful situations,
you would still sweat. Exactly in the

310
00:32:42.359 --> 00:32:49.440
heat of battle and trying to struggle
and keep your airplane airborne and you and

311
00:32:49.559 --> 00:32:54.240
your place in the formation and dealing
with everything that you're having the cope with,

312
00:32:54.960 --> 00:33:00.599
you realize that the sweat's just pouring
off of you and you're wearing them

313
00:33:00.599 --> 00:33:10.440
an oxygen mask and to survive that
perspiration freezes instantly and it blocks, It

314
00:33:10.519 --> 00:33:16.480
creates ice crystals in the flow of
oxygen, so you're having to crack those

315
00:33:16.599 --> 00:33:21.799
up with one hand and fly the
airplane with the other. How much did

316
00:33:21.799 --> 00:33:24.920
you sweat that day? You had
three and a half engines, a lot,

317
00:33:25.240 --> 00:33:30.599
yeah, plenty. Now you also
made sure you had two things with

318
00:33:30.680 --> 00:33:35.119
you every time you got on the
plane, and one of them saved your

319
00:33:35.160 --> 00:33:37.039
life. It was a small bible, right, How did that happen?

320
00:33:37.599 --> 00:33:44.559
Well? I used to carry My
mother gave me a new testament that I

321
00:33:44.640 --> 00:33:51.400
carried in my breast pocket and I
wore that on each mission. And the

322
00:33:51.480 --> 00:33:58.680
other talisman that I had was silk
stocking that the girl I was romancing at

323
00:33:58.720 --> 00:34:05.359
the time had had given me as
a good luck term. And uh so

324
00:34:05.519 --> 00:34:09.719
those those were the two we all
had superstitions, or we all had our

325
00:34:09.840 --> 00:34:16.280
routine that we would undergo. If
it had worked before, maybe it'll continue

326
00:34:16.280 --> 00:34:22.519
to work. So you find yourself
doing some strange things, but nevertheless,

327
00:34:23.599 --> 00:34:30.840
you're you're just praying that you're going
to survive. But the Bible literally saved

328
00:34:30.880 --> 00:34:37.960
your life one day with shrapnel correct
did the thin fuselage of the airplane is

329
00:34:38.119 --> 00:34:44.519
just a little plate of aluminum that
an alloy that you know flat, goes

330
00:34:44.599 --> 00:34:52.280
right straight through and a piece of
black came through instruct that testament then increased

331
00:34:52.280 --> 00:34:59.239
the cover of it, or else
it would have penetrated my heart. Do

332
00:34:59.280 --> 00:35:01.760
you still have it? I do, but I can't find it. We

333
00:35:01.840 --> 00:35:10.000
moved to a retirement facility some years
ago and in the process it's been misplaced

334
00:35:10.039 --> 00:35:15.840
and I can't locate it. But
I know among my things, but I

335
00:35:15.920 --> 00:35:19.760
just can't put my hand on it. Tell me about your final mission when

336
00:35:19.800 --> 00:35:23.199
you finally got number twenty five done? What was that mission like? Well,

337
00:35:23.280 --> 00:35:30.400
I was acting as the squadron operations
officer of a second squadron, not

338
00:35:30.559 --> 00:35:37.360
the first one that I was assigned
to, and of course was in a

339
00:35:37.440 --> 00:35:45.519
position to select the mission that I
would lead, and the squadron commander was

340
00:35:47.159 --> 00:35:53.360
had combat fatigue and he had been
sent to the fleckhouses we called it,

341
00:35:53.480 --> 00:36:00.079
or the rest home, and he
wasn't even on the base, and so

342
00:36:00.239 --> 00:36:07.400
I was in command of the squadron
and this mission came up. Where this

343
00:36:07.559 --> 00:36:16.719
was in early of forty four.
The Germans had erected these launch pads along

344
00:36:16.760 --> 00:36:25.000
the coast of Calais, and we're
lobbing these V two rockets into London and

345
00:36:25.320 --> 00:36:35.079
causing horrendous damage. So we had
a mission at lower altitude to knock out

346
00:36:35.119 --> 00:36:39.480
one of those, and that looked
like a milk run to me. So

347
00:36:40.360 --> 00:36:47.280
I selected a pilot who was on
his last mission happened to be from Dallas,

348
00:36:47.960 --> 00:36:54.800
and his crew and we completed our
tour. We thought that we just

349
00:36:54.920 --> 00:37:00.440
duck over the coast and drop our
bombs and scoot home. Going to be

350
00:37:00.639 --> 00:37:07.559
a short and sweet mission and that
would end it. It so happened that

351
00:37:07.599 --> 00:37:14.719
the Germans knew our target, and
they came halfway out across the channel and

352
00:37:15.039 --> 00:37:21.119
attacked us and inflicted some damage,
but they didn't to terr us. We

353
00:37:21.199 --> 00:37:25.400
went ahead and bombed the target and
managed to get home. What was that

354
00:37:25.440 --> 00:37:32.079
feeling like, Well, it was
such a release relief, and it meant,

355
00:37:32.239 --> 00:37:38.960
of course that I was unassigned instantly. I didn't have a job,

356
00:37:39.920 --> 00:37:45.519
and I'd been so concentrated and focused
on doing what I was doing for so

357
00:37:45.719 --> 00:37:52.599
long that it just left me,
you know, useless, And it just

358
00:37:52.840 --> 00:37:58.719
wore on me from that point on, because eventually I stayed on the base

359
00:37:58.840 --> 00:38:05.599
for about thirty days and still had
no duties and on wasn't flying, and

360
00:38:05.639 --> 00:38:16.639
they offered me several jobs but pathfinder
or spotting commander or other jobs, but

361
00:38:16.719 --> 00:38:22.079
I'd still have to fly combat.
And I said, hey, wait a

362
00:38:22.119 --> 00:38:28.440
minute, I've pressed my luck for
twenty five missions with the bloody hundredths,

363
00:38:28.480 --> 00:38:36.760
and I think that's the extent that
I ought to do, so I could

364
00:38:36.760 --> 00:38:45.159
be sent home to train replacements coming
over. And I said, well,

365
00:38:45.199 --> 00:38:52.719
how soon can you cut those orders? So I went to Liverpool and came

366
00:38:52.760 --> 00:38:57.840
home by boat. And that was
a slow process because we had flown our

367
00:38:57.880 --> 00:39:05.079
airplanes across the North Atlantic when we
went to combat, and going back to

368
00:39:05.280 --> 00:39:12.320
twelve days on an old World War
One clunker called the USS Washington, our

369
00:39:12.360 --> 00:39:16.360
guest is Major John Lucky Luckadoo,
a US Army Air Corps veteran of World

370
00:39:16.400 --> 00:39:21.159
War Two. In a moment,
he'll tell us what he believes the legacy

371
00:39:21.639 --> 00:39:25.360
of the Bloody hundredth Bomb Group ought
to be, and the tragic end of

372
00:39:25.440 --> 00:39:30.159
his friend who joined the service in
Canada before the US joined World War Two.

373
00:39:31.039 --> 00:39:37.519
I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans
Chronicles. This is Veterans' Chronicles.

374
00:39:37.719 --> 00:39:44.119
I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest this
week is Major John Lucky Luckadoo, a

375
00:39:44.280 --> 00:39:47.519
US Army Air Corps veteran of World
War Two. In a moment, Major

376
00:39:47.599 --> 00:39:52.079
Luckadoo will tell us what he is
most proud of from his time in uniform

377
00:39:52.559 --> 00:39:58.039
and what the legacy of the Bloody
hundredth Bomb Group ought to be. He

378
00:39:58.079 --> 00:40:01.320
will also share the devastating story of
losing his friend, who joined the service

379
00:40:01.360 --> 00:40:07.760
in Canada before the US entered World
War Two. But up next, I

380
00:40:07.840 --> 00:40:12.280
asked Lucky about whether he had fighter
escorts for his bombing runs, and he

381
00:40:12.400 --> 00:40:16.960
explains how General Jimmy Doolittle made the
bombers safer than ever. Only part of

382
00:40:17.039 --> 00:40:23.679
the time we were supposed to have
fighter escorts, and the theory was that

383
00:40:23.760 --> 00:40:31.119
they could protect us from attacking fighters. Well, the thing that was completely

384
00:40:31.199 --> 00:40:37.559
forgotten was that the fighters were twice
as fast as we were, and so

385
00:40:37.679 --> 00:40:43.480
in order to stay with us,
they had to orbit and burn o'fuel and

386
00:40:43.559 --> 00:40:47.760
they couldn't stay very long, so
they would have to leave and another group

387
00:40:47.880 --> 00:40:53.199
supposedly would rendezvous with us and pick
up and carry us from there, so

388
00:40:53.360 --> 00:41:01.679
they'd just relay us. But those
rendezvous were very haphazard and they didn't work.

389
00:41:04.599 --> 00:41:12.880
Half the time. The fighters couldn't
find us, and so essentially during

390
00:41:12.960 --> 00:41:20.199
my combat tour, I flew unescorted. We had P forty seven's, we

391
00:41:20.280 --> 00:41:24.199
had P fifty one's, and we
had some P thirty eights which we never

392
00:41:24.280 --> 00:41:32.159
saw. But the Germans would simply
wait until the first relay would run out

393
00:41:32.199 --> 00:41:37.320
of fuel and have to go back, and then they'd jump us. So

394
00:41:37.840 --> 00:41:47.119
it was duck soup. When Jimmy
Doolittle took over from General Aker on January

395
00:41:47.159 --> 00:41:53.400
of forty four, he said,
well, forget escorting. You know,

396
00:41:53.440 --> 00:42:00.320
that's not your job anymore. You
go down and straight the the airfields and

397
00:42:00.440 --> 00:42:07.000
catch them on the ground before they
ever get out. And that worked far

398
00:42:07.079 --> 00:42:13.599
more effectively than trying to pick us
up or dog fight in the air.

399
00:42:14.480 --> 00:42:17.760
Just a couple of questions before we
let you go, sir, What do

400
00:42:17.840 --> 00:42:22.079
you see as the legacy of the
Bloody hundredth. Well, it was a

401
00:42:22.199 --> 00:42:31.119
very unique outfit. Its history was
very unusual. Things happened to it that

402
00:42:31.239 --> 00:42:37.920
didn't happen in any other group.
It's being documented now by Tom Hanks and

403
00:42:37.960 --> 00:42:47.519
Steven Spielberg and the docuseries that will
be issued shortly in January. I think

404
00:42:47.559 --> 00:42:57.400
it became notorious because of the extremely
heavy losses that we sustained. When we

405
00:42:57.519 --> 00:43:04.880
sustained them, we did not end
up through the entire course of the two

406
00:43:04.960 --> 00:43:08.760
years that we served. The group
served in Europe in the eighth Air Force

407
00:43:09.760 --> 00:43:15.199
as the group that lost the most
aircraft. It was only the second or

408
00:43:15.280 --> 00:43:22.639
third, but when we lost we
lost very, very heavily. For example,

409
00:43:22.679 --> 00:43:29.280
in Black Week, on my worst
mission, we lost twelve out of

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00:43:29.320 --> 00:43:36.480
eighteen aircraft the first day. The
second day we send up eighteen aircraft and

411
00:43:36.559 --> 00:43:44.639
we lost nine. The third day
we could only put up thirteen aircraft.

412
00:43:45.199 --> 00:43:53.519
We got one back that was Rosie
Rosenthal. So that was a perfect example

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00:43:53.840 --> 00:44:07.119
of how our losses were really staggering. When we sustained them, but overall

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00:44:07.880 --> 00:44:14.360
it sort of averaged out a little
more favorably, So we were about the

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00:44:14.440 --> 00:44:17.960
second or third. What does it
mean to you that you and the men

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00:44:19.039 --> 00:44:22.639
you served with are going to be
getting so much attention through this Masters of

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00:44:22.679 --> 00:44:29.880
the Air documentary. It just means
that we were accidental members of history through

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00:44:29.920 --> 00:44:38.199
no accident on our part. We
ended up being somewhat famous or infamous because

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00:44:38.239 --> 00:44:46.880
of our losses. And Hitler certainly
miscalculated in thinking that we could not replace

420
00:44:46.960 --> 00:44:52.800
our losses, but he completely ignored
the fact that we were protected by an

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00:44:52.800 --> 00:45:00.079
ocean on both sides, and in
the meantime, our subvented population was out

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00:45:00.119 --> 00:45:07.440
producing the world for not only ourselves
but all our elities. So we could

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00:45:07.679 --> 00:45:12.719
we could produce, and we could
train, and we did, and that's

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00:45:12.760 --> 00:45:17.840
what spelled the difference for our prevailing
I want to circle back to something we

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00:45:17.880 --> 00:45:22.960
talked about at the very beginning.
You're explaining how you initially tried to join

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00:45:22.000 --> 00:45:27.000
the service. Your father was very
clear that he would not give you permission,

427
00:45:27.599 --> 00:45:30.599
but your best friend did, and
it's a big part of your book.

428
00:45:30.599 --> 00:45:35.159
He did not come home. What
happened to your friend Sally yes.

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00:45:35.360 --> 00:45:42.280
Sully went through the North African campaign, flying spitfires and chasing Rammel all over

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00:45:44.320 --> 00:45:51.760
the African continent. And then by
the time Pearl Harbor occurred and I went

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00:45:51.800 --> 00:45:57.159
through training and got sent to England, he had been reassigned to England.

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00:45:58.400 --> 00:46:06.079
He came up to my base when
and visit me in a spitfire and I

433
00:46:06.159 --> 00:46:10.280
took him up at it be seventeen
and put him in the pilot's seat and

434
00:46:10.960 --> 00:46:15.360
let him get the feel of the
airplane and everything. He looked at me

435
00:46:15.400 --> 00:46:20.519
and he said, buster, this
ain't flying. You're nothing but a truck

436
00:46:20.639 --> 00:46:25.719
driver. And I said, well, lucky er, silly, I guess

437
00:46:25.760 --> 00:46:30.039
you. We need truck drivers too. And he said, well, let's

438
00:46:30.159 --> 00:46:36.400
land and you fly my spit and
you'll know what flying is all about.

439
00:46:37.559 --> 00:46:40.079
So we landed and I said,
no, I'm not going to do that.

440
00:46:40.079 --> 00:46:46.320
That's stupid, because there's so much
difference between handling a little single engine

441
00:46:46.320 --> 00:46:52.719
fighter and a four engine bomber with
ten on the crew. He said,

442
00:46:52.760 --> 00:46:58.599
no, it's a piece of cake. So he put me in the cockpit

443
00:46:58.760 --> 00:47:06.679
and pointed out the controls and gave
me the speeds and everything. He says,

444
00:47:07.320 --> 00:47:13.880
take her up and foolishly I did. I said, this is stupid.

445
00:47:14.840 --> 00:47:20.360
It was so sensitive and so different, and of course all the instruments

446
00:47:20.400 --> 00:47:29.119
were in kilometers in different than than
our instruments. And because it was the

447
00:47:29.119 --> 00:47:36.320
spit was a tail dragger that meant
the tails out on the ground when when

448
00:47:36.360 --> 00:47:43.079
you were in take off position you
couldn't see straight ahead. In order to

449
00:47:44.039 --> 00:47:49.800
taxi you had to s turn and
look out one side and turn look out

450
00:47:49.840 --> 00:47:57.119
the other. So it was all
together different. Make a long story short,

451
00:47:57.360 --> 00:48:02.760
I managed to take it off and
very tenuously get it around the pattern

452
00:48:02.840 --> 00:48:07.719
and just get it back on the
ground without killing myself or cracking it up.

453
00:48:09.199 --> 00:48:12.760
And he said, well, you've
got to come down and visit me

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00:48:12.840 --> 00:48:19.000
at my base. And in the
meantime he had been transitioned from the Spitfire

455
00:48:20.039 --> 00:48:25.880
to a very vicious airplane that the
British had called the Hawker Typhoon. And

456
00:48:25.920 --> 00:48:30.519
the Typhoon was so overpowered that when
you took off down the runway you had

457
00:48:30.559 --> 00:48:36.920
to keep pull pump opposite rudder just
to keep it straight because the torque was

458
00:48:36.960 --> 00:48:43.199
so heavy that it would pull the
airplane off the runway. And it was

459
00:48:43.239 --> 00:48:47.639
about a month later before I could
get loose and get down to see him.

460
00:48:49.519 --> 00:48:55.039
And when I did, and I
squeezed my bomber into his fighter base,

461
00:48:55.440 --> 00:49:01.079
where the runways are only half as
long as they are at bomber bases.

462
00:49:04.719 --> 00:49:13.280
I saw the smoking wreckage off to
the side and still smoking, and

463
00:49:13.400 --> 00:49:16.679
I taxed it up and asked to
be shown to his quarters, and they

464
00:49:16.800 --> 00:49:22.559
said, well, you have to
see the COO. And I said,

465
00:49:22.599 --> 00:49:25.480
well, I understand that that's the
protocol, because you land on the farm

466
00:49:25.599 --> 00:49:32.599
base, you report to the commanding
officer and telling him you need fuel or

467
00:49:32.639 --> 00:49:38.840
you're lost, or what circumstances are. But I said, I'm in a

468
00:49:38.880 --> 00:49:42.639
bit of a hurry. I've got
to get back. Can't you just show

469
00:49:42.719 --> 00:49:45.559
me his quarter? I said no, you've got to see the CEO.

470
00:49:46.760 --> 00:49:52.159
So they showed me into this wing
commander's office and he was writing and h

471
00:49:52.199 --> 00:49:58.679
didn't look up, and I cleared
my throat and he said, you looked

472
00:49:58.679 --> 00:50:00.239
at me, and he said,
Yank, what the hell are you doing

473
00:50:00.360 --> 00:50:08.320
here? You lost? You need
fuel? Why'd you land here? And

474
00:50:08.519 --> 00:50:12.760
I said, no, sir,
I was just on a social call to

475
00:50:13.599 --> 00:50:17.760
say hello to my best friend,
Sally Sullivan. He said, you knew

476
00:50:17.800 --> 00:50:22.599
him, and I said, yes, sir, he was my best friend.

477
00:50:22.639 --> 00:50:27.760
We were fraternity brothers together. And
he said, did you see the

478
00:50:27.800 --> 00:50:34.599
wreckage when you landed and I said
yes, sir. He said, we

479
00:50:34.719 --> 00:50:39.679
lost him yesterday afternoon and he was
on takeoff and as he just cleared the

480
00:50:39.760 --> 00:50:47.119
runway his engine quit and with full
opposite rudder, he just cartwheeled in and

481
00:50:47.599 --> 00:50:53.519
was killed. And he said,
I was just notifying his mother next to

482
00:50:53.679 --> 00:50:58.719
kin, and I want you to
do it. I said, well,

483
00:50:58.800 --> 00:51:01.639
sir, he wasn't playing for the
Americans. He's lying for the British and

484
00:51:02.519 --> 00:51:07.119
under your command. I think that's
your responsibilities. I know, and I

485
00:51:07.199 --> 00:51:12.559
will, but I think she would
prefer to get it from you first.

486
00:51:14.280 --> 00:51:25.360
So I had to cable her that
Silly lost his life in England and they

487
00:51:25.400 --> 00:51:31.119
buried him three days later, and
I was just back at his gravesite last

488
00:51:31.159 --> 00:51:36.679
week. Sir, When you look
back at your years of service to our

489
00:51:36.679 --> 00:51:39.320
country, what are you most proud
of, Craig. I'm proud that I

490
00:51:39.559 --> 00:51:53.760
served. I am somewhat discouraged that
current generations are not fulfilling their oath that

491
00:51:53.800 --> 00:52:00.639
they took when they entered the service
to protect our value, both foreign and

492
00:52:00.880 --> 00:52:13.480
domestic, because I fear that today
America is being betrayed from within. And

493
00:52:13.559 --> 00:52:15.639
lastly, sir, what does it
mean to you to have us at the

494
00:52:15.639 --> 00:52:22.920
American Veteran Center record and share your
story. Well, I spend much of

495
00:52:22.960 --> 00:52:30.719
my time currently and half for the
last thirty five years speaking to younger generations

496
00:52:30.960 --> 00:52:43.559
and reminding them of the tremendous sacrifices
that were made ultimate sacrifices by fellow citizens,

497
00:52:43.679 --> 00:52:50.760
or they wouldn't be here. They
should never forget that people didn't feel

498
00:52:51.880 --> 00:52:58.400
so strongly that our ideals and our
values were so important that they were willing

499
00:52:58.440 --> 00:53:06.800
to sacrifice their life for the perpetuation
that's above and beyond. And not only

500
00:53:08.760 --> 00:53:15.199
speak to younger children, school children
and college kids and all the way in

501
00:53:15.360 --> 00:53:21.840
between, as well as older people
to remind them of that. But I'm

502
00:53:21.880 --> 00:53:31.199
also mindful that during World War Two, a phenomenal thing happened. The country

503
00:53:31.239 --> 00:53:43.840
came together, was galvanized and unity
to outproduce the world. And that's why

504
00:53:43.880 --> 00:53:49.679
we prevailed. And those citizens,
those people who came out of the homes

505
00:53:49.800 --> 00:53:55.199
and the rosie the riveters and kept
the home buyers burning so we'd have something

506
00:53:55.199 --> 00:54:02.119
to come home to. They've never
been recognized. So I'm trying to get

507
00:54:02.199 --> 00:54:12.360
Congress too, and one of my
lifelong missions is to get Congress to dedicate

508
00:54:12.440 --> 00:54:19.400
the day to commemorate the service of
those who weren't in uniform, who supported

509
00:54:19.440 --> 00:54:24.039
those who were. Call the Hometown
Heroes Day. It's a great idea.

510
00:54:24.559 --> 00:54:28.079
It's a great idea. I hope
it happens, and I hope you are

511
00:54:28.119 --> 00:54:30.000
there to watch the signing of it
when it happens. So thank you,

512
00:54:30.119 --> 00:54:32.800
Major Luckydo. It's been an honor
to meet you, sir. Thank you

513
00:54:32.960 --> 00:54:36.159
very much for your time today,
and most of all, I thank you

514
00:54:36.199 --> 00:54:39.119
for your devoted service to our country. Thank you, Thank you, Craig.

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00:54:39.559 --> 00:54:44.920
We've been joined by John Lucky Luckado
served in the one hundred Bomb Group

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00:54:44.960 --> 00:54:49.480
in the US Army Air Corps during
World War Two. Successfully served twenty five

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00:54:49.719 --> 00:55:02.639
bombing missions with his B seventeen.
I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veteran's Chronicles.

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00:55:05.480 --> 00:55:08.280
Hi, this is Greg Corumbus,
and thanks for listening to Veterans Chronicles,

519
00:55:08.480 --> 00:55:14.400
a presentation of the American Veterans Center. For more information, please visit

520
00:55:14.440 --> 00:55:20.519
American Veteranscenter dot org. You can
also follow the American Veterans Center on Facebook

521
00:55:20.760 --> 00:55:25.760
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522
00:55:25.840 --> 00:55:31.280
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523
00:55:31.280 --> 00:55:37.599
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524
00:55:37.840 --> 00:55:39.760
and please join us next time for
Veterans Chronicles