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

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Melvin Jenner. He is a retired
Chief Master Sergeant in the United States Air

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Force. He served as part of
a B seventeen bomber crew and successfully served

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on thirty one American bombing missions in
the European theater, and as we'll soon

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learn, he also took part in
fifteen missions before that with the British.

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Mister Jenner was also part of a
flight over the beaches of Normandy that he

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could not talk about until many years
later. We'll also hear about his service

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as part of the Berlin Airlift and
being part of the crew that helped Chuck

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Yeager achieve aviation immortality. But Jenner
began our conversation by discussing his roots in

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the Midwest. Born in Goodrich,
Kota, I was just a baby when

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my parents moved to Michigan. Was
there a history of military service in your

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family, No, not of it
that I know of. Anyway, What

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are your memories of hearing about the
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. At the

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time of the attack, I was
already in the Michigan International Guard and of

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course Pearl Harbor happened, and it
was long that the National Guard was mobilized

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in the federal service. How did
that change what you were doing in the

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National Guard? I was, of
course mobilized into the federal service. They

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told us what would take place,
that we would be to set to a

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combat unit. And it wasn't long
and I was gone to a gunnery school,

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an air gunnery school, and after
graduation from that in August, I

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was put on a ship and set
overseas. Now, at first you were

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flying A twenties, correct, right, eight to Well, when we first

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got over there, we had no
airplanes. In fact, we didn't know

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what type of airplane we would get. But a couple three weeks past and

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we got the word that our airplanes
would be Boston bombers or the A twenty.

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Described the A twenty, well,
the eight twenties, a twin engine,

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fast, fast bomber. When we
started flying combat out of the A

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twenty, we never had any fighter
problems because we were as fast as they

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were. And of course when we
was attacked by German fighters, we just

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kicked her and Fanny and went home. At the age twenty that I was

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in only had a pilot, and
of course I was a radio gunner sitting

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in the back, so there was
only the two of us. Once our

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bombs are gone, and we usually
hit power stations and air dromes and marshaling

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yards. And but once our bombs
had gone we were we went to the

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deck and started looking for convoys and
trains and airfields that we could just shoot

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up. Tell us about the job
of a radio man. I was a

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radio man, but never got a
chance to use the radio except communicate with

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the pilot. That was a break, because I was always very busy as

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a gunter. What would you be
communicating with the pilot? Well, the

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only communication I had with a pilot
was the intercom, and of course he

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would be telling me what where we
were going, or how fast we were

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going, or what was up ahead, to be on the lookout for a

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train that was still on the tracks. And that was it. What was

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the range of the A twenty the
furthest we ever went was France, and

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once and a one went to Belgium
and Holland, but most of the time

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our missions were in France, and
I flew a total of fifteen of those.

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How did you receive your assignments for
each mission. Well, we were

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called into the commander's office and had
a big map on the wall, and

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of course they would tell us where
we were going and the route. We

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would show us the route we would
take, and how many airplanes were going

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to be in the mission, and
where we would go after we dropped our

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bombs, if we were going to
do any sight seeing sort of, and

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the way home. So just two
crew members and it seems like a shorter

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range than the bigger bombers, is
that right? Oh? Yeah, our

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missions. Our missions were at the
most maybe three hours long, and of

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course that was to our benefit because
the show time we were over enemy territory,

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the less chance they had of getting
us. So, oh, I

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was pretty happy about that. Were
they fairly evasive? Yeah, they had

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a good maneuverability. And the thing
is was there speed? They was?

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Like I said before, they were
as fast as the German fighter and we

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could outrun them or get away from
So how much anti aircraft or flak did

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you have to deal with? Most
of our flat that we received in the

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twenty was from airfields or a machine
gun fire. Very seldom did we ever

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incur any anti aircraft like the heavy
bombers did, because we were always after

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we had dropped our bombs, we
were on a deck and we scooted it

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along pretty good. Did you have
to deal with German planes the Luftwaffe?

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The ones that we would go after
would be parked on the aerodrome, and

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of course we'd go flying across an
aerodrome and I would shoot at the planes

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that was parked, and you know, once in the long one would break

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into fire and had burned. But
most of the time we just make one

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or two passes over an aerodrome and
the airplanes could not get up and get

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to us, so we were pretty
safe that way. Are there any missions

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in the eight twenty that stand out
in your mind? No, not really,

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except one we went after and as
we was going by, of course

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I was firing at the box cards
and we'd come up to the engine part

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and we started firing as the engine
and this one fella came to the door

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and he started the waving and he
was giving me the finger, so I

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turned the gun on him and gave
him a short burst and he fell out.

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That afternoon, at our interrogation,
I was telling our interrogation Ulcer about

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this what had happened. And he
said to me, he says, are

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you sure that fireman wasn't going like
this? And I says, well,

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it didn't look like it. But
that has been in my mind ever since

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because the V victory sign was kind
of a prominent in them days. What

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caliber gun did you have? Some
of the A twenties had thirty calibers,

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but some of them had fifties in
them, So it all depends on what

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airplane is you had. But the
Americans run out of airplanes, and of

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course we had nothing to do.
But the British had a squattern of eight

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twenties and they call them the Boston
Bomber. They were similar to the ones

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that we had. So they transferred
two of us two airplanes to the British

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RAF and I flew with them,
you know, for a total of fifteen

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missions. Explain how you made the
shift back to the beach seventeens, Okay,

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after a certain period of time,
and I don't remember how long we

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were were with them, but it
was two three months maybe, and we

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got word that the my old squadron
was going to get their airplanes, and

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so that we went back to the
to the base American base. Well,

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it's just so happened. I don't
know. The airplanes that we were supposed

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to get went to North Africa,
so I'm woman. We got the word

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of it and it was announced that
our airplanes were we wouldn't get our airplanes.

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I went into my commander and asked
if I could get a transfer and

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he said it's to where, and
I says it's to a B seventeen outfit,

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And of course he looked at me
and he says, Melly, says,

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are you crazy? But I says, no, sir, I just

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want to get it over with.
Well, anyway, in a couple of

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weeks, I had my orders to
go to BE seventeen and it happened to

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be the four to fifty second.
When I reported it in to the squadron

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commander, he said, I see
by your records that you already have some

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combat missions in the A twenty And
I says yes, sir. He says,

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I'll see if I can get you
some credit for what you have.

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Well, it just so happened that
never happened. That's Melvin Jenner, a

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US Air Force veteran of World War
Two. The Berlin Airlift, and much

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more still ahead. In this edition, Chief Master Sergeant Jenner takes us on

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that flight over Normandy on D Day, tells the powerful story of his involvement

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in the Berlin Airlift and what it
was like to be part of the team

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that helped Chuck Yeger break the sound
barrier. Mister Jenner tells us what it

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was like to switch to the B
seventeen bomber, dealing with the enemy flack

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and watching his friend get shot down. I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans

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Chronicles sixty Seconds of Service. This
sixty Seconds of Service is presented by T

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Mobile. T Mobile offers exclusive discounts
for veteran and military families and are proud

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supporters of the National Defense Network.
Visit t mobile dot com to learn more

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about how they support our military community. The Green Bay, wisconsinarious about to

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get its own veterans village to help
local veterans get back on their feet.

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The project has been in the works
for two years and it is expected to

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get the go ahead this week.
The Brown County Board will go to approve

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the land for the homes Wednesday night. The idea came to Gail nor,

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a US Navy veteran herself after she
visited the veteran tiny Home village in Racine.

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Nor worked at the Brown County Veteran
Services Office for six years and would

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get calls from veterans every day who
were about to lose their homes or couldn't

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find an affordable place to live.
She said. With a degree in substance

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abuse counseling and having also worked as
a councilor and a veteran shelter, she

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understood the struggles veteran's face. For
more great veteran stories, just go to

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National Defense Network dot com. This
is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus.

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Our guest in this edition is one
hundred and one year old retired US Air

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Force Chief Master Sergeant Melvin Jenner.
In just a moment, we'll hear what

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it was like to encounter deadly German
anti aircraft fire more commonly known as flak.

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We'll also hear how Jenner watched one
of his good friends get shot down.

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But we now pick up his story
as mister Jenner describes what it was

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like to finally join an American B
seventeen bomber crew. When I joined up

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be seventeen, I was centerson introduced
to the pollen of the serplane and it

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happened to be Lieutenant Walters, and
he took me out to the airplane and

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we walked around and talked about they
had just arrived in England and had already

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flown two missies, and he told
me about some of the things that happened,

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and it's just so everent. We
went up for a couple rides in

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the B seventeen the next few days, and we were scheduled to go on

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a mission. On that first mission
I had in the B seventeen. After

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flying a total mission of three hours
in the eight twenties, my first mission

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lasted eleven hours and fifteen minutes.
And on top of that, we lost

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in our formation. We lost six
airplanes. We landed back at the base

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in England. I got out of
the airplane, walked to the tail and

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looked up at the sky and I
says, oh, Lord, did I

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do the right thing by asking for
a transfer? You to this out.

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But that has been with me ever
ever since. But I was a member

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of a wonderful, wonderful crew.
Every time we flew, whether it was

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a mission or a training floid or
what. Every one of us switched around

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to different positions and we learned to
handle what was present at that time,

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and I'm sure that that helped us
to get by our thirty one missions.

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Now, oftentimes the crew came together
in the United States, and so were

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you a replacement? I was a
replacement in that because those crews were all

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made back in the States. And
I don't remember what happened to the guy

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that I replaced, but somebody had
told me that he he just couldn't handle

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the first two missions, and he
asked to be relieved. So this happens

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once in a while, and nobody
feels or you know, bad about losing

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a crew with that way, if
they can handle it, they don't need

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it to be on an airplane.
So did you still have both roles on

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the B seventeen? Were you both
radio man and gunner? Yeah? Yeah,

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we know, we still do.
My crew was we had finished and

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we split up. It was many
many years before I ever got back in

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touch with any of the crew members, and of course by that time,

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some of them have already passed away. And it wasn't long and I found

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out that I was the only only
man left from our Lady Satan airplane.

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What was the name of your plane, Lady Satan? Really, how did

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it get that name? I don't
know. It was named that when I

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got older. So on those missions, I'm guessing you did experience a lot

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of flack. Oh yeah, fact, well you can't. You can't deal

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with flack. You're either going to
be a hit or you miss. But

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I had a buddy that was in
the same position as I was in the

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twenty and him and I was the
best of friends. And he liked to

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drink a little bit and everyone.
Once in a while he'd go to town

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and the police air police would call
and ask somebody from the square to go

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get him, and it was always
me that was set to get him.

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But he was just that kind of
a fella. And one day I was

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walking to the mess hall after I
was in the four fifty second and I

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saw this man walking towards me and
I said to the man that was with

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me, I says, I know
that man coming, I says, I

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recognize the walk. Well, sure
enough, it was this buddy of mine

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named Oscar McClure. And I,
of course I asked him what he's doing.

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He says, well, you didn't
think he was going to get away

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from me, did you? Because
he was with the Boston Bombers in the

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RAF with me, and he was
on his fourth mission and I was on

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my tenth mission in the B seventeen. Of course, I was in the

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left waist, and he happened to
be flying in an airplane off of our

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left wing, and he saw me, and he was a ball turning operator.

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He saw me and he waved his
guns at me. Of course I

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weighed mine back. But about that
time we started getting some flack, and

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I duck behind the windowsill. And
of course I don't know why, because

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you know, the skin on an
airplane it's not very thick. But anyway,

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that lasted a minute or so,
and I turned around to look out

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the window again, and all I
saw was a wing of an airplane and

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with two engines on it, and
it was props on. The wings were

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still turned. And I looked over
and I could see Oscar's airplane going into

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a spin. And of course,
you know, after so many times that

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I would take care of Oscar when
he was in trouble, it just stuck

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with me that now I could not
do anything to help me. I went

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for about seventy years and could never
even mention his name to anybody without just

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coming to pieces. I joined a
group of guys. There was about twenty

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one guys, most of them were
Marines and the Army. I was the

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only air horse, and it was
a couple of Navy guys, and every

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one of us had PTSD. Once
a week we'd meet, and I did

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that for seventeen years. One by
one, though every one of them,

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twenty guys passed away, and I
ended up the last one, and the

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only one was still alive as the
last one. Do you feel an obligation

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to continue to tell your story in
mass It sure does. I met.

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00:21:37.119 --> 00:21:41.000
I met somebody. I lived in
Orleano, Florida, and I got a

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telephone call from the marror's office stating
that they were having a BE seventeen fly

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00:21:51.000 --> 00:21:56.960
into the city airport and they wanted
to know if I would like to come

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00:21:56.000 --> 00:22:03.359
out and visit it that I said, sure, I sure would. Anyway,

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00:22:03.160 --> 00:22:10.400
I went on when this airplane landed, and as I was walking across

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the ramp, this gentleman come on
of me an office building that was close

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by, and he started walking towards
me and of course to that airplane.

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And when I got to the airplane, he got there about the same time,

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and he wanted to know if my
name was mel Jenner, and I

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said yes. His name was Gary
and he was a lawyer in downtown Orlando,

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and he wanted to know what I
knew about to be seventeen. We

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started a program. Gary would be
sure to get me in all the parades.

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That's retired US Air Force Chief Master
Sergeant Melvin Jenner. When we come

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00:23:00.079 --> 00:23:04.680
back, Jenner tells us about flying
over Normandy on D Day, flying in

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the Berlin Airlift, and being part
of the team that helped Chuck Yeger break

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the sound barrier. That's all straight
ahead. I'm Greg Corumbus and this is

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

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this edition is one hundred and one
year old retired US Air Force Chief Master

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00:23:26.160 --> 00:23:32.279
Sergeant Melvin Jenner. In just a
moment, we'll hear all about Jenner's hush

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hush flight over Normandy on D Day
and what he saw from above that day.

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He'll also tell the emotional story of
his involvement in the Berlin Airlift.

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But up next the first part of
his story on having a front row seat

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to history. As Chuck Yeger broke
the sound barrier, I was stationed after

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the war. I was stationed at
Edwards' Air Force Space, Edward's Air Force

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Spaces, a flight school and expert
in the old station. And I flew

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with guys like Chuck Yager when he
broke the sound barrier, put them in

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this airplane in this be twenty nine, and I'd get him in there and

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make sure he was all secured and
the door was locked properly, and I'd

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give him a big salute and we'd
drop him out of the bombay. And

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I did this for I don't know
a dozen times. Probably was Chuck.

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He was a wonderful winner whole pilot. Was there any concern about what would

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00:24:41.680 --> 00:24:47.759
happen when he broke the sound barrier? No, not a bit, as

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far as I know. He just
put the cold to the meddle and the

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way he went. We're going to
get to some of the things you did

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00:24:53.599 --> 00:24:56.000
after the war in just a moment, but I want to go back to

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00:24:56.039 --> 00:25:02.039
your time in World War Two for
a few more questions. After you shifted

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00:25:02.079 --> 00:25:07.319
to the Best seventeen. Are there
any missions that stand out as particularly harrowing

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00:25:07.640 --> 00:25:14.079
or memorable. I went to Berlin
six times, and Berlin was the most

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heavily defended city at that time in
the world. And when I mentioned something

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00:25:22.759 --> 00:25:26.319
about going to Berlin and they said, well, how did you survive?

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00:25:27.359 --> 00:25:32.720
I don't know. All did our
job like we were supposed to do,

253
00:25:33.400 --> 00:25:38.519
and it wasn't easy, and sometimes
we were hit and sometimes we were hit

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00:25:38.640 --> 00:25:45.880
hard. And I remember a couple
times when my pilot would say, well,

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00:25:45.920 --> 00:25:52.200
we had an engine out and one
is not working too good, and

256
00:25:52.240 --> 00:25:57.839
he said, right over the hill
is Switzerland or Norway or one of those

257
00:25:57.920 --> 00:26:03.759
cities neutral cities. He says,
we could go over there and beyond the

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00:26:03.839 --> 00:26:08.680
war for the rest of the war, but he says, we have to

259
00:26:08.759 --> 00:26:15.279
all agree to go. There was
a couple times when I said, oh,

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I think we can get back,
and of course Duc Wallers would say

261
00:26:21.400 --> 00:26:26.799
did everybody hear that. They said
yes. He said, well we're going

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00:26:26.880 --> 00:26:32.039
to try to get back, and
of course we did. But this happened

263
00:26:32.640 --> 00:26:34.920
a couple times with a lot of
guys too. Says, oh, we

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00:26:36.000 --> 00:26:41.480
can make it back, and we
were lucky enough we did. When you

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00:26:41.559 --> 00:26:47.039
come under fire with the flack,
what does that sound like? It sounds

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00:26:47.119 --> 00:26:52.200
like to me that like you're in
a tin can and somebody throwing rock.

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00:26:52.319 --> 00:26:59.000
Says, you can hear every burst, and you can hear the shrap will

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00:26:59.119 --> 00:27:06.440
when it hits the airplane. Now, your very last mission was doing reconnaissance

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00:27:06.839 --> 00:27:11.200
over Normandy on D Day. Tell
me about that. I had finished my

270
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tour. The crew had two missions
ahead of me. So when they finished

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and Duck Wallers buzzed the field and
did a wonderful job. But when he

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00:27:25.799 --> 00:27:30.640
buzzed the field, the commander drove
up to the airplane and he says,

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00:27:32.480 --> 00:27:37.640
Lieutenant, he says, that was
a wonderful buzz job you did. But

274
00:27:37.720 --> 00:27:40.480
he said, if you ever do
it again, he says, I'm gonna

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bust you. After that, we
were waiting for a trip back to the

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States because we were finished, and
one evening my plant came into the Quartzet

277
00:27:53.680 --> 00:28:00.279
Hunt where we where we were quartered, and he's his it. They have

278
00:28:00.480 --> 00:28:07.160
asked him to be the pillen of
an airplane that they needed to go on

279
00:28:07.279 --> 00:28:15.079
with special mission, and he says
it won't be our lady Satan. But

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he says I don't have any idea
what airplane it's going to be. And

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00:28:19.000 --> 00:28:23.680
he says, they want me to
get a crew together. He says there

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will be a couple special observers that's
going to be flying along with us,

283
00:28:32.519 --> 00:28:34.240
and he says, I want you
to think about it for a while.

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00:28:34.839 --> 00:28:38.119
He says, you don't have to
go if you don't want to, but

285
00:28:38.200 --> 00:28:44.359
he says I'd appreciate it if you
did go. So after a period of

286
00:28:44.640 --> 00:28:48.640
time he came back and I says, I'll to go with you. Well,

287
00:28:48.640 --> 00:28:53.480
they're just so appen he i.
And he was the only one from

288
00:28:53.519 --> 00:29:00.519
our crew that agreed to do this, but he had worked up a crew

289
00:29:00.279 --> 00:29:07.079
and we took off the next morning, and of course we for weeks we

290
00:29:07.119 --> 00:29:11.200
had seen the build up out in
the channel in the North Sea where all

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00:29:11.240 --> 00:29:17.559
these ships were, and we knew
what was going to take place, but

292
00:29:18.160 --> 00:29:22.039
of course we didn't say anything about
it to anybody. But anyway, we

293
00:29:22.079 --> 00:29:30.640
got to the coast of France on
this mission and there was just thousands of

294
00:29:30.839 --> 00:29:37.720
ships and the men were already going
to shore and some of them were in

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00:29:37.839 --> 00:29:41.799
the water. So we started flying
up and down the coast of France.

296
00:29:44.119 --> 00:29:51.519
We had this special observation crew up
in the nose. They were I think

297
00:29:52.160 --> 00:30:00.200
two colonels whatever they were. But
we did this for a month three hours,

298
00:30:03.319 --> 00:30:07.119
and then we turned around and went
back to our home base. But

299
00:30:07.640 --> 00:30:14.240
I saw things in the water that
unbelievable, like tanks in the water.

300
00:30:15.119 --> 00:30:21.119
Out of a dozen tanks, I
think two or three maybe made it ashore,

301
00:30:21.720 --> 00:30:26.759
the rest of them all went down, and of course a lot of

302
00:30:26.839 --> 00:30:36.680
boys didn't make it. Their bodies
looked like logs in the water, and

303
00:30:36.720 --> 00:30:48.519
it was just very, very heartbreaking. But well said, no that it

304
00:30:48.599 --> 00:30:53.759
could happen so quick we got back
to the base, and my pallet says,

305
00:30:55.599 --> 00:31:00.240
don't ever say anything, ain't to
anybody about what you saw. And

306
00:31:00.319 --> 00:31:07.480
I carried it along for many,
many, many years. But I was

307
00:31:08.000 --> 00:31:15.359
so grateful that I had a chance
to witness what I did. I thank

308
00:31:15.480 --> 00:31:23.359
our heavily pot for their riding with
me. It was quite an experience,

309
00:31:23.480 --> 00:31:29.240
and a lot of people always said, well, how did you survive?

310
00:31:30.400 --> 00:31:36.559
Well, I just had somebody taken
care of me. And you know the

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00:31:36.599 --> 00:31:41.680
best thing about it was a couple
of years after the war was over,

312
00:31:41.559 --> 00:31:52.279
I was selected to go to Germany
for the Berlin, and of course my

313
00:31:52.480 --> 00:31:57.839
job was at that time was not
flying anymore. I was in charge of

314
00:31:57.880 --> 00:32:06.920
an engine build up shop. But
periodically one of my friends would come to

315
00:32:06.960 --> 00:32:14.039
me and says, mell, you
want to take my mission tomorrow, and

316
00:32:14.240 --> 00:32:19.200
I said sure, Or sometimes they
just say you want to go with us?

317
00:32:19.720 --> 00:32:24.720
I said sure, and I'd fly
in the Germany in the temple Hof

318
00:32:24.839 --> 00:32:32.359
and we had a load of cold
or all the food you can think of.

319
00:32:32.599 --> 00:32:43.000
You know, we probably started dropping
candy to the children. Lieutenant Halbertson

320
00:32:43.279 --> 00:32:50.319
was the guy that started that.
One day, there was a little boy

321
00:32:50.440 --> 00:32:55.119
there with his sister. His sister
was four years old and he was I

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00:32:55.119 --> 00:33:02.599
think eight, and we dropped our
candy bars and they had little parachutes on

323
00:33:02.720 --> 00:33:09.039
them, and you know, and
they'd flowed down. This boy caught one

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00:33:09.079 --> 00:33:16.440
of the parachutes and had a candy
bar on it, and he turned around

325
00:33:16.640 --> 00:33:22.240
and gave his sister the candy bar
and she took a bite of it.

326
00:33:22.240 --> 00:33:27.960
It was the first time she had
ever tasted chocolate. Well, many,

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00:33:28.079 --> 00:33:34.559
many, many years later, I
lived in Wintergarten, Florida, and my

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00:33:34.640 --> 00:33:40.200
wife was going to church there in
Windergarten. She had my car parked in

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00:33:40.319 --> 00:33:45.920
the drive at church, and this
lady got out of her got out of

330
00:33:45.960 --> 00:33:50.440
the church and went to her car
to get something out of it to take

331
00:33:50.559 --> 00:33:55.920
back, and she was a school
teacher. She got something out of the

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00:33:57.119 --> 00:34:04.000
trunk of her car and turned around
and right behind her was my car.

333
00:34:04.400 --> 00:34:09.119
And I had a bumper sticker on
the back of my car that says Berlin

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00:34:09.199 --> 00:34:16.039
Airlift nineteen forty eight nineteen forty nine. Well she saw that, She said

335
00:34:16.199 --> 00:34:23.239
she almost passed out because she had
never met a veteran from the Berlin Airlift.

336
00:34:24.599 --> 00:34:30.039
She went back in and asked the
pastor of the church if he knew

337
00:34:30.079 --> 00:34:35.480
who belonged to that car, and
he says, no, he didn't,

338
00:34:35.599 --> 00:34:42.280
but he would find out. Anyway. He did find out, and somebody

339
00:34:42.360 --> 00:34:47.679
says, well, that was missus
Jenner's car and her husband was a Berlin

340
00:34:47.760 --> 00:34:55.639
Airlift. Well, it so happened
that we made arrangements to meet, and

341
00:34:57.280 --> 00:35:02.760
one day I went to the it
was destroying. I got the largest Hershey

342
00:35:02.920 --> 00:35:07.880
candy bar you get sick. I
guess it was about five pounds. But

343
00:35:08.119 --> 00:35:14.840
anyway, we made arrangements to meet
at the church on Sunday, and I

344
00:35:14.880 --> 00:35:20.440
was going to the first Baptist church
in Orlando at that time. And after

345
00:35:20.480 --> 00:35:25.239
this service was over, I drove
home, picked up that candy bar,

346
00:35:25.400 --> 00:35:30.719
and went to the Wintergarden. And
when I got to Windygarden there was people

347
00:35:30.800 --> 00:35:36.159
outside the church. They had got
word that there was going to be a

348
00:35:36.920 --> 00:35:42.960
pretty important meetia. I parked the
car in the drive. They got out,

349
00:35:43.039 --> 00:35:46.880
of course, and the pastor come
walking towards me, and he pointed

350
00:35:46.920 --> 00:35:52.119
me down this sidewalk where there was
a group of people. I started walking

351
00:35:52.199 --> 00:35:59.880
with towards that one lady that was
walking towards me, and as we met

352
00:36:00.920 --> 00:36:08.599
her, eyes started crime. And
of course I was two, I guess,

353
00:36:09.960 --> 00:36:16.239
I said I, And I called
her name and said I gave her

354
00:36:16.280 --> 00:36:24.960
that candy bar. Well, it
just so happened that lady was in her

355
00:36:25.239 --> 00:36:32.159
early seventies. All those years,
from the time she was four years old,

356
00:36:32.320 --> 00:36:39.679
she'd always wanted to beat Oh,
I bet her from the Berlin Airlift.

357
00:36:40.119 --> 00:36:47.840
And of course a lot of times
when I was out telling my story

358
00:36:49.079 --> 00:36:53.440
and I would tell this story about
the Berlin Airlift, she was in the

359
00:36:53.480 --> 00:37:00.760
audience with my wife sitting here,
and I'd walk off the stage down to

360
00:37:00.800 --> 00:37:07.519
where she was sitting and I would
reach one hand and grab her and take

361
00:37:07.559 --> 00:37:12.239
her out into the aisle and I
said, ladies and gentlemen, this is

362
00:37:12.320 --> 00:37:21.280
that for your old girls. Oh
boy, it was very nice. Tell

363
00:37:21.320 --> 00:37:24.119
me a little bit more about the
Chuck Yeger story, because that was such

364
00:37:24.159 --> 00:37:30.679
a huge event at the time.
Well, Chuck Yeger, you know,

365
00:37:30.800 --> 00:37:35.880
he was a captain, and so
whenever he'd come out to fly an airplane,

366
00:37:35.960 --> 00:37:39.719
he just come out, get out
of his the jeep or whatever,

367
00:37:40.559 --> 00:37:45.079
and he'd just go up there,
you know, and we'd all go over

368
00:37:45.159 --> 00:37:50.800
to him and tell him, you
know, wish him luck, and especially

369
00:37:50.840 --> 00:37:55.440
in a BE twenty nine, and
we'd all get inside the airplane and the

370
00:37:55.559 --> 00:38:01.639
crew would take off, and after
we'd get to us their altitude, we'd

371
00:38:01.679 --> 00:38:07.760
go back to the bombay and put
him in the in the X one,

372
00:38:08.480 --> 00:38:13.320
get him in there, and I'd
make sure that he was in there good

373
00:38:13.480 --> 00:38:22.639
and the seat was properly positioned and
uh, and then closed up the canopy

374
00:38:23.519 --> 00:38:30.880
and he'd give me this signal,
Okay, I'd give him a big salute.

375
00:38:31.280 --> 00:38:36.840
I'd walk back into the cockpit.
When we got the certain altitude,

376
00:38:36.880 --> 00:38:45.239
the altitude they was looking for,
bombay doors and out he would come and

377
00:38:45.280 --> 00:38:50.679
it wouldn't take him too long,
and he was going. What was the

378
00:38:50.679 --> 00:38:54.400
reaction when he broke us the way? All everybody just clapped, everybody because

379
00:38:54.480 --> 00:38:59.719
everybody, you know, everybody could
see what was going on, and of

380
00:38:59.760 --> 00:39:04.280
course everybody on the ground was,
I'm sure was doing the same thing.

381
00:39:05.760 --> 00:39:08.519
To be twenty nine. Then would
go back and land, and we'd get

382
00:39:08.559 --> 00:39:15.320
out of the airplane and everybody would
clap, and it wouldn't be long before

383
00:39:15.880 --> 00:39:21.119
here he coming back over the field. But you know, at that time,

384
00:39:22.000 --> 00:39:27.119
who would have thought, you know, eighty years later, here you

385
00:39:27.199 --> 00:39:35.000
are telling that story. I love
telling this story, and I couldn't always

386
00:39:35.039 --> 00:39:40.119
do that because of the problem with
PTSD. I've had so many want to

387
00:39:40.119 --> 00:39:46.239
put people that work with me and
help me, and I just kind of

388
00:39:46.320 --> 00:39:52.960
thank the Good Lord for sparing me. What are you most proud of from

389
00:39:52.039 --> 00:40:00.519
your time in the service. Most
proud of I think the time that I

390
00:40:00.639 --> 00:40:07.280
spent on the Berlin airlived. We
fought that Germans for you know, four

391
00:40:07.400 --> 00:40:14.960
five years. I'm sure that there
was times when we did things that we

392
00:40:15.079 --> 00:40:21.679
just had to do. I've seen
and talked to a number of German people

393
00:40:22.880 --> 00:40:32.159
and they says, what a wonderful
group. They would bomb the Germans like

394
00:40:32.280 --> 00:40:38.880
we did in the Eighth Air Force, and two or three years later turn

395
00:40:39.000 --> 00:40:47.599
around and load a bunch of coal
and food into sea fifty pores and make

396
00:40:47.679 --> 00:40:55.599
them landing every three minutes. Every
three minutes, we had a seat fifty

397
00:40:55.639 --> 00:41:05.440
four land and unload their coal,
had food and every kind of commodity that

398
00:41:05.519 --> 00:41:12.880
you can think of. I think
what President Too said, we're staying because

399
00:41:12.880 --> 00:41:19.440
the Russians was trying to run us
out. That was the greatest humanitarian saying

400
00:41:19.800 --> 00:41:25.639
the United States has ever done,
as far as I know. And I'm

401
00:41:25.719 --> 00:41:32.679
just so proud that I had a
little bit of hand. Well, mel

402
00:41:32.920 --> 00:41:37.760
it's an incredible story, and you
tell it so compellingly. Thank you very

403
00:41:37.800 --> 00:41:42.000
much for your time. Thank you, sir, and thank you most of

404
00:41:42.000 --> 00:41:45.320
all for your service. Thank you, thank you. We've been speaking with

405
00:41:45.400 --> 00:41:50.119
Melvin Jenner, a US Army Air
Forces veteran and a US Air Force veteran.

406
00:41:50.480 --> 00:41:52.920
He served in World War Two.
Served as part of a B seventeen

407
00:41:52.960 --> 00:42:00.159
bomber crew. Also successfully survived thirty
one bombing missions in the B seventeen in

408
00:42:00.320 --> 00:42:05.000
edition to fifteen in the A twenty
also took part in the Berlin Airlift and

409
00:42:05.159 --> 00:42:09.880
was present at Chuck Yeager's breaking of
the sound barrier shortly after World War Two.

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I'm Greg Corumbus. This is Veterans
Chronicles. Hi, this is Greg

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Corumbus, and thanks for listening to
Veterans Chronicles, a presentation of the American

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Veterans Center. For more information,
please visit American Veteranscenter dot org. You

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can also follow the American Veterans Center
on Facebook and on Twitter. We're at

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AVC update. Subscribe to the American
Veterans Center YouTube channel for full oral histories

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and special features, and of course, please subscribe to the Veterans Chronicles podcast

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wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks
again for listening, and please join us

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next time for Veterans Chronicles