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G. C. R. Galloway Oral Histories
Media Type: audio
Number of Recordings: 14

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Interviewee: Richard Galloway (RG)
Inerviewer: Troy Reeves (TR)
Date: September 3, 2002.
Location: Galloway residence, Meridian, ID, USA


RG: I guess this is alright, I might turn mine on just for the fun of it and see what I get.

TR: Yeah, well we can, as I said, we can definitely make– and will make copies for you.

RG: Okay. 

TR: Alright, so, today is September 3, 2002. This is the first interview with Richard Galloway, we're here at his home, and what do we consider this, Eagle?

RG: Well, Meridian, // really //, it hasn't been annexed yet, but it... 

TR: // Meridian? // Okay, so, we're in Ada County.

RG: Right.

TR: This interview is for our veteran's history project. The interviewer is Troy Reeves. First off, for the tape, could you give your full name?

RG: Full named: George Curtis Richard Galloway.

TR: And what war did you serve in?

RG: Served in World War II.

TR: What was the highest rank you achieved?

RG: Technical Sergeant.

TR: And...okay, I think the other—

RG: And I turned down cadette after I'd finished over there, so I could've gone on up the ranking, but I chose not to.

TR: Okay. My first question doesn't have anything to do with your veteran's service, but since we'll only be talking to you about your veteran's service and your time afterwards, I was hoping if you could give a brief overview of your young life.

RG: Well, it was not exciting, but fulfilling. I enjoyed growing up. I was born in Shelley, Idaho. The folks moved and Dad was a farmer up there. At that time in 1918– 1919– you know, there was a depressed time then and the farmers weren't making anything. And the grasshoppers and the rabbits were eating up what they would grow, and so he just had to give up farming. He moved down to Salt Lake and we lived with his cousin for a short period of time up on the Avenues in Salt Lake, and I'm still just about three years old going on four. He went to work for the hospital there, and then he started working for the Union Pacific Railroad. So, I think that's sufficient to bring us up to that point. At that time we started working for the railroad and decided to buy a home out on 348 Marion Street in Salt Lake. It's out by the fair grounds there, and that's where we lived, in an older home. It's one of the first that was built in that area– adobe, brick, with two rooms added on it later. So it was an interesting place to grow up in, and in fact, there was a flowing well in the front yard where the early pioneers would come and get their water. So that, that was an interesting little thing. In fact, they called it Danish Town at one time cause of a lot of Danish people there. But in the neighborhood that we grew up in, were many people from the old country– all the Scandinavian countrie– Germany, Switzerland, England, Wales, Scotland, the whole bunch. We even had some Chinese. And farther down were those that were from Greece and other areas. So it was a fascinating place to grow up in, among people who spoke other languages, and we learned how to get along together very well, and they learned the language. Some of them had some problems. One I recall was a captain of the old Prussian army. Well, now he was in America. He was a janitor now because of the language barrier, or because he hadn't had any particular training in what he could do in America. So that's the people I grew up with. It was fun. I enjoyed my growing up years. A lot of kids say they don't, but I, I enjoyed it. I really did. That's where I went to school, [unintelligible] School, Jackson Jr. High School, West High School, and had experiences there and the various activities at those different grade levels which was fun. I remember particularly ringing the bell for recess or the beginning of school. We had this big clapper bell and just run around the school yard and ring the bell and everyone scurried to get to class on time [laughs]. I enjoyed sports, I played a lot of soccer growing up, and baseball. In fact, one of the guys that we grew up with, Fred Sanford, went on to play for the Washington Senators for a number of years. So it was fun playing ball with him. He was a pitcher, and sometimes in those days he didn't have the control he had later [laughs]. Cause I remember he pitched one to me once and it caught in my suspenders. Now, we wore those overalls, if you're familiar with them. Everybody on the railroad that worked on the railroad wore them. In fact, they've come back in style. I noticed some of the ladies around here were wearing some. It dates back to there. That ball caught me in the suspenders [laughs], and stopped it. But anyway, those are some of the fun times. I played a lot of softball, hard pitch– fast pitches they termed it– and then the slow pitch later on. I played football, so I lettered in football and basketball. So much for that. I was also interested in– I did a lot of tumbling. [Clock alarm sounds] That's the time clock we have here, and that just says ten o'clock [laughs]. 

TR: Probably, okay.

RG: Yeah. Well anyway, I enjoyed that tumbling. We went around to the various LDS wards where we'd tumble for them when they had programs, or to the– some of the service organizations, and at the fair grounds when they had the fair. We'd go over and tumble there and we put on quite a act for them. So we enjoyed that. One of the men, or boy then, was Ray Harris, and we used to do a certain performance. Anyway, he later became the swimming champion of the Intermountain West for diving. So he was very good at it. I mention those names because that's part of my life, and these are the people that I grew up with, Ray Harris. As well as 150 others that I could mention by name, but I am not going to. I do that because I've got their pictures. Okay, that's the very early time of life. We used to come up to Idaho to visit an aunt that lived in Teton and my grandmother. So that was the exciting thing back in those days. Dad could get a free pass on the railroad, and so every summer we'd head up north and enjoy the things that were up there in the old, old trains. It was really fascinating and fun to ride on. So, that was our only vacation. We'd never left the area– very seldom– except for the fact that my mother was from the South– North Carolina. And so on two occasions as kids we had a pass and went back to North Carolina. The one year we went through Wyoming, through a blizzard. Then as we got closer to the South, it was spring time, the violets were blooming. And then we got over along the Mississippi and they were having a big– one year they were having one of the big floods. And so we traveled through that, and look out the windows of the train and see the buildings that were submerged up to the top of the homes. You get into the cities and here they were up on the top of the roofs, looking and waving, and that was quite an experience. They had a freight train going ahead of us in case there was a washed out track or something, and we came to one place where we did run over a log that was there. Another interesting thing is they had these little paddle steamer boats going along with the train. So that was– you know, this was an exciting time. My brother and I were– took a walk. We went back to the end of the train and on the platform, the observation platform back there, we were sitting there dangling our feet in the water until the conductor caught us [laughs]. Well, so much for that. It's interesting, the first time we ever ate in a cafe was then, because they decided that they couldn't go through that particular route—it was washed out. So they backed us up for 300 miles and took us into another direction to get to North Carolina. For the first time, we ate in the– on the train cafeteria. That was quite an experience, and I think my mother was scared to death. She was just [laughs] afraid she was going to get a big bill or something, but no it was for free. Okay, that's growing up. That's just a couple of the interesting sidelights. There's some others with it, but that was our experience of getting away from home and becoming acquainted with other things. In fact, the one trip when we were in North Carolina, we actually spent three months in school there. So that was interesting because now you're in a area where the accent was very prominently southern, and they just loved to hear we Westerners read. So, we got a lot of attention in front of the school kids. Well, there's other interesting things, but that's not what this interview's about.

TR:TR: Yeah, we could– I'm sure we could talk about that for quite some time. 

GR: But that gives you an idea of growing up, and it was pleasant for us and we were active and enjoyed it. I was a red-head, yeah, and I received quite a bit of red-headed ginger bread teasing, and things of that sort, but we took care of that later on, so [laughs], yeah, I got in a fight a couple of times, but that's another story [both laugh]. 

TR: Yeah, we probably should jump into your veteran's time here. You graduated from high school in the mid-to-late 30s, is that...

GR: 1935. 

TR: 1935? So...

GR: We only had eleven grades then, so I graduated quite young. I'd just turned 17, so I was pretty young getting out of high school for that reason, and then found work. I worked for Walgreen Drug Company, and a cleaning plant, and then went to work for the railroad. While I was working for the railroad, I was called on a LDS mission to the Southern States. And there I spent two years– in fact it was 27 months, better than two years– in Alabama and South Carolina. On December 7, 1941, we were having a conference with– who later become president of the church– George Albert Smith, who my mother had worked for, and so we knew him quite well. Was there to hold the conference, and we had turned the radio on and listened to all the information that was coming in on the radio of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. So that's where I was, released from my mission, and knowing exactly where I'd go, because I'd already registered for the draft in Alabama. At that I had– there was a– what the dickens was it? Well, a minister of the gospel, is what people generally understand. So, I was a minister of the gospel, and therefore wasn't eligible for the draft unless I went in as a chaplain. And so I went and visited with some of my people in North Carolina, went home, went down to the air corp to enlist. My brother had already– he was in the regular army, and he was already on his way to Europe. Soon they just got the orders to move out, so they were the first planes– 17s– in Europe, and the first ones to drop the bombs. And he has a very interesting history which I'll give you some of it. When I arrived home, as I say, I went down to enlist, and they said, well we don't need anyone in the air corp right now, you'll just... I said, well then I'll just wait for them to call me up. So, I went to work for the railroad for a couple of months, and then I was drafted. Went from Salt Lake, from Fort Douglas, down– well we went down to Wichita Falls, Texas. That's where my brother had been. He's one that helped to set up that base down there [laughs], which was interesting to me. And it was a long ride. They placed two of us in the berths where there normally is one, and that was a sorry mess, but the train was the Union Pacific Challenger. And then we went on the Burlington Ziphyr, went to Denver before we got down to Wichita Falls. When we got there, the physicians gave us the devil because we smelled. Well goodness, we hadn't had a chance to get a shower because when we got there, they were short of water and they wouldn't let you take showers [laughs]. So it was a mess and that was our introduction. There I received my training as airplane mechanic. Everything there was to know about engines, everything there was to know about the electrical systems, the hydrolic systems, and all of those things, because we were being trained to work on the line and repair those planes when they come in. And so, this was the basics. While there– by the way, this is bragging a little bit– but I was always in the top 10 percent of the class. That meant we had a pass off whenever we wanted to leave on free time, we were off. So, I enjoyed that. I made friendships– hundreds of friendships during the time I was in the service. Especially with those young men that were from Utah and Idaho and from our home states that we knew quite well. We held our own church services, and the chaplain allowed us to do that. In fact, he was amazed that the group could get together and hold services. Well, we formed some close friendships. And there was a couple of us– we had been in the South together– and we decided that when they announced that they needed some fliers to man the guns on the big planes, and there was the chance of getting a few stripes, and the excitement of flying on those planes, but it was dangerous. So, what a lot of people don't realize, those people who flew in those bombers volunteered to do it. And I think that should be remembered in respect. Some of them for the excitement, some of them for the cause of the country or whatever the case might be. And in regards to my friend and I, it became a personal matter, which maybe I'll relate it another time, because it's a spiritual thing. Anyway, we decided to go ahead and do that. So, then from there, after we graduated, we were– let's see, where did I go next? It doesn't re– yeah it does too, because we were sent to gunnery school then. And so I went to Wendover, Utah, and this was winter time, and some people talked about the living in tar-paper shacks in Idaho. That's about the only way I'm going to identify it right now. We lived in tar-paper shacks too. And some of them leaked, and we had icicles form inside our shacks. And whenever we had time off that we could take off for Salt Lake, we'd grab the old water truck, coated with ice, and hang onto it to take us into the station so we'd catch a bus into Salt Lake. Dangerous, but that's what we did. And course, that gave me a chance to go home. Graduated from gunner school. We had one incident there where one of the sergeants who was training us had picked up one of the guns– they weigh 47, or 64 pounds by the way– 64 pounds– and he took the gun out– there's carts where we had– and we shot at moving targets then to get the training, the feel of the trajectory we had to make. And he laid it down on a bench that was there, and the thing went off and killed him. So, that was my first understanding that even those who never got to combat– there were a lot of injuries and hurts and killings and failures and what have you. Okay, from there we were assigned to Seattle, Washington, to train, to become acquainted with the B-17– the Flying Fortress. Then they were up to the Fs– when we talk about the numbers behind, it meant that there had been improvements on the plane in a lot of different areas, things that they'd learned. We had sent some B-17s over  to the British air force for them to use and get acquainted with. And they said it was no good, and that they'd be shot down, and then they couldn't believe that we were going to fly daylight flights instead of night flights. They just didn't know how to use the plane. But there in Seattle we learned how to tear it apart and put it back together again. We learned how to trouble shoot. We learned the electrical as well as the hydrolic systems, the– all the other things that go with flying. We were to be in charge of that plane as far as the mechanics part of it was concerned. And it was quite an experience. Just the experience of transferring gas from one gas tank to another, there was so many valves and things, it'd about drive you crazy. And you always wondered, did I do the right thing, now, is that engine [laughs] going to keep going or is it going to quit? Anyway, after we finished our training there and graduated– and I have a list of all of them that graduated with me at that time– and these friends that I mentioned were still with us there, and we had a great time together. From there, we were assigned to come to Boise here, to make up new crews. And there's a lot of interesting men that went through here– Jimmy Stewart was one of them. He was out here at the same time that I was, and crews were formed. They usually would have a unit of them. And in our particular case, there were 29 crews that were formed. I don't know those that went to England– somewhere in the same area– because your squadrons had six or seven planes in them, and there were four squadrons to a group. So that– four times six is twenty-four– so twenty-nine would give you some extras. So that's about what it amounted to– is they got us ready to send us over seas. A lot here, we spent a lot of time and some of it in cross training– lots of flights of just taking off and landing– getting the feel of the country, getting the feel of the terrain underneath us. The feel of the difference of flying over the mountains as well as the valleys. So there was a lot of risks taken. I put this note in because it was interesting to me– I received a letter from my friend who got here before I did. And by the way, he got spinal meningitis, and was released from the service. That's polio back in those days. And so he was released and went to work down in California where he taught the GI's. GI's– Government Issue– GI Joe, then, is the soldier. Well, he taught them how to use the turrets. So he never went over seas– I did [laughs]. And he says, I don't know, Dick, whether we're going to like this because two of the planes run together today over the base, and came down, and two others came back battered up. One had wire around one of the props, and another had bent props. He got too close to the ground– the one flyer didn't see the telephone line. We drove– we flew quite low around here. We'd go over between here and Mountain Home and fly along the railroad tracks. And sometimes the track was higher than we were, and well, so much for that. The crews were made up as I say, and now some further training took place, and we were sent to Walla Walla, Washington, with our group. And up there we learned to fly over that terrain, and boy that was a great experience to see the country. Those beautiful wonderful mountains, the valleys, the sawmills– all of those things we saw at high level, low level– this was part of the training. It was experiences that we won't forget. We flew over the grain fields of Northern Idaho, and Washington, Oregon– not at-tree top levels, at grain-top level [laughs]– and just about hit one of those silos. We were coming up over the hill and all of a sudden I looked up and here was a big old silo right in front us, and we– all three of us–grabbed those controls and we made it around. We did some foolish things too. Kids– yeah that's what we were– just kids up there with this machine. And we'd spot a poor farmer down there on the old dirt road checking these fields and come down and buzz him, and that wasn't fair. The only time it was fair is if it was, you were buzzing your folks [laughs]. Anyway, that was part of the training. We went up to Redmond, Oregon. And there we had a special flight that we were to fly out over the Pacific on a triangle– so many miles out, so many miles north, then so many miles back in. This was a night flight. This was really something that turned out to be quite exciting because a great many of them never made the trip. They just turned around because of the weather and went back to the base. Well, we continued on. That's the way our crew was. We depended on each other and we needed the training. Well, here we are flying out over the Pacific– we decided to go to altitude, you know, you'd have more room to get down if you had a problem [laughs]. Well, we got up there and the wings started to ice up on us. Now, the 17 had a de-icer system across the front of the wings with the idea that you'd shoot some air in there and it would break the ice up. They found out later that wasn't a good idea because it broke the air flow over the wings and you lost a lot of your lift. Well, I had a flashlight that I used, looking at those wings all night long to see how bad they were icing up. And when we felt that they were icing up too much, then we lowered our altitude down into the storm. And that was fascinating too, with the rain beating down and  you got near the ocean, you could see it down there and you see these huge waves. The ice'd melt off the wings alright, but you wanted to get out of there. So, that was the night. We started back on our last leg of that flight toward California, and it, as we neared the coast [gets emotional]. Sorry.

TR: That's okay.

GR: The most beautiful sunrise– this morning's sunrise reminded me of it– the sun breaking through the clouds and rays everywhere. And we came in right where there was a lot of orchards in bloom. And so it was just a beautiful sight. The clouds had broke off right straight down to the beach.

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Interviewee: George Curtis Richard Galloway (GG)
Interviewer: Troy Reeves (TR)
Date: unknown
Location: unknown

GG: And that's one of the nicknames they gave me, the other was Reverend. How much gas did we have? And I'd been transferring pasture in the night [laughs]. I said, well, I figure we got enough to get us to Denver. He says no we don't. [laughing] We need gas right now. So we landed one, I couldn't tell you which airport it was, we land at that airport and gassed up and then flew on to, down to, to Redmund. So that was an exciting night, night of training experience of beautiful things, as well as the training for things that weren't so beautiful, that would be coming. We went back to Redmund, Walla Walla, then we're sent to Salina, Kansas. Salina, Kansas, well fact of the matter is we came back to Boise then, but, and then went to Salina, Kansas. Salina, Kansas we picked up a brand new B-17F. All it had on it was the time, was, when the pilots for Boeing checked it out. So we had a brand new ship and our assignment was to go to North Africa. The crew ahead of us, that were made up of the same time, that had Jimmy Stewart in it, I mentioned, went to, I presume they went to Newfoundland, then over to England. But we were going in a different direction. We picked up there, we made a couple of training flights, we went over Topeka, Kansas. That's the capital. Just for the fun of it we came down around and flew a close circle around the capital and got out of there. We went on over, the next day on, on our way we flew down the Mississippi. And that was fun to observe all of the country. On down, we got down to Louisiana. There was a campus down there, we buzzed it. We went on down to Fort Myers, Florida, landed there, and then they decided that what they wanted to do was to add additional gas tanks to the 17F. So when I talk about this change here, I mean the new planes coming off the line that Boeing were now the G's, and they had a chin turret on them, which made a difference, and the dish—well that'd be two additional guns, so they had more guns than what we did on the F's. And so they sent us up to Robin's Field in, in Alabama. What town was that? There was kind of a race to get up there, do you know. Who can do what first. So they, we took off and got up there, and the planes that got up there first came in for their landing, and of course they then parked and as soon as they could down at the end of the runway, and we were down there early. [Laughs] Anyway, the rest of them come in and then when they started putting the tanks in, the last planes in were the first ones to get the tanks. So we had ten days to twenty days– I don't recall right now, I'd have to look at the records to see– down at Robin's Field and I decided hey, I'm close enough to South Carolina that I can go up there and see all my friends. So I had a pass, and I had the time, and went up there and did that. So that was exciting for me to see all my old friends up there. And one of them had, you know, wartime on December, let's see, December seventh is when the Pearl Harbor, did I say the first before December seventh?

TR: You said seventh.

GG: Anyway, they froze such things as tires, gasoline became rationed, everything became rationed in a sense. And so it was impossible to get a lot of things. Well he decided that he had an old wagon, a buggy's what it was, just an old buggy he had. So he decided to fix that up, and he got some batteries and charged them up and found himself a motor to go with it, and here we went around town with him in that old wagon, just going along at, you know, all of five or ten miles an hour [laughs]. He could almost get it up in that area. And so there were various ways that people learned to cope with what was coming up, and that was one of the interesting ones. Okay, I visited my friends, came back to the base, we were ready to go now. We went down to West Palm Beach. I think I'm right on these, West Palm Beach. We can check that out later because I've got it in here. Anyway, while we were down there, they asked if we would stay behind the regular group, because they wanted to take some training pictures of the 17 and so on. Why they chose us I don't know, but that's alright because it gave us some more time. We had some interesting experiences with that. The pilot had some friends that were hot flying B-26s, that's a twin-engine plane with more power than it needed, but it would sure move along. And he says, let's go over and visit them. So we did, we got over there at the field and we took this friend and a couple of others up on a ride with us on the 17, and we did some crazy things. Well we'd take off, we'd make a quick chandelle, pulled up quickly. And his eyes got bigger and bigger for everything that we did, in fact the tower called us up and told us, you can't do that here [laughs]. This friend that we had with us, well we decided that we wouldn't do that anymore, but what we would do on the sly is, we'd get his attention out one side of the plane for one reason or another, then we'd fire the two engines on one side, and flew it. He said, hey, our engines have stopped. [laughs] He was ready to jump. That's, that's crazy things. I guess we shouldn't have done it because the B-17s, they had lost quite a few in the Gulf of Mexico. They, so much power that when the, when, they had trouble with one of the engines the normal thing would be give the other more power and when they did it turned the plane upside down, nose men. Okay, that was taken care of, our crews were already over in Africa, and we were still laggers coming down the line. We left, left there and went to Puerto Rico, spent the night there. Beautiful base, with all the palm trees and the nice things there. We spent the night there, then took off to Venezuela, I don't remember the name of the port there. Venezuela, spent the night there. And that was more traffic. The next stop was British Guiana, right on the Equator. And the air base was put right in the great jungle there. To get to it we crossed the Amazon. This was amazing. Amazing to me, it took us, I don't know how long, we didn't time it, but it took us a long time to cross the mouth of the Amazon. You could tell the difference because of the color of the water, as it came out down the isthmus there out into the sea, and then it would, you could see it out for 50, 100 miles as I recall correctly. It's quite an interesting thing. We landed there, and we took a look around us, and thought, boy, it's just unbelievable, the, the jungle that's there. You could walk off the runway and you'd be out in the jungle and you wouldn't know where you were. It'd be easy to get lost. Well, we spent the night there, my, I don't remem—well, yeah, because we did have another sergeant that was a flight engineer. So I took him out and we, to warm the engines up and check and see that we were getting enough RPMs and all of that. We didn't check behind us, and here's the latrines, and a row back there, and we blew them over. I don't think there was anyone in them. Now I don't know, all the GI's will know what the latrines are, so that's enough of that. So we left there, went on down to Natal, Brazil. Natal, Brazil we, I spent, I think, as I recall we spent a couple days there. Boy did they feed us. And you could buy things at the PX, that's the store they had on the base for us to buy little knicknacks. We could buy things there like, you know, like gum, we could get that. Or nylons, which the ladies couldn't get, but we could get them and send them as presents. Things of that sort. In fact I bought a watch, at the, at the PX for practically nothing. I still have that watch someplace around. Alright. Oh, and when you ate at the cafe horse, they had big bunches of bananas sitting everywhere, everywhere. All you could eat, you could take as many with you as you wanted to. That, that was pretty good, because when we were ready to take off, we had a monkey to feed. Now I might mention that back in Boise we picked up a black cocker spaniel, and he was a member of the crew, and we called him Bombsight. [Laughing] Alright, now we had a monkey. I don't know which one of them picked that monkey up, so we had a monkey and a dog on that plane all the way. We took off from Natal, it was an eleven-hour flight from Natal to Dakar, South Africa, or North, North Africa. Dakar, North Africa. And so that, that gave us, you better, you know, for eleven hours, you better be able to husband that gas so you wouldn't run out. So that was another training flight really, to get across there. And that was a long ways, eleven hours. We landed in Dakar and the thing that amazed me, I still remember, and I didn't get a picture of them, I did have a small camera, but we were just in a hurry and had to jump on the deep, go in, get ready. But they had some planes there, some older planes, and I'm guessing British. As I say, we didn't have, but they had guards out on those planes. Six foot five, seven foot, black men, with long-muzzled guns. This was a great experience. Okay, we stayed there the night, took off the next morning. There was a B-26 that took off ahead of us. He got to the end of the runway, started lifting, nosed right into the ground. We took off right after him, flew over the top of him. So see, here's another experience. Say flying sometimes wasn't as, these young kids did make mistakes. We went on over to Marrakech, and I think I'm right on that, Marrakech, and we left there from...[papers rustling] Tunis. I happen to have a map of Tunis, and I was just looking at it this morning, and some information of what we could find in Tunis. That was our first encounter with the war. This part of Africa just recently been, well they still had troops there, lots of troops there, in fact the night we got there, the Germans bombed Tunis. And this was first experience of hearing the siren wail, wail throughout the night and see the spotlights come up, spotting the German fighters, and you could tell the—or not fighters, bombers, and you could tell the German planes because they had a certain hum to them. Our planes had a certain hum to them. So we could identify them that way. I don't know much about that battle except it lasted for quite some time and it was quite an exciting display of fireworks, is one way to explain it because there was tracers being used, and here we were laying in foxholes, we were out away of the city itself of course, watching all this take place and wonder, are they gonna hit us next? Okay, they didn't. We then used that as a base and made our first flights out of Tunis, Tunisia. Then we moved on over to Algeria. We got acquainted with the towns a little bit that way, over in those areas, and would go into the kasbahs. The Red Cross usually'd take us in because there was certain sections of the towns out of, off limits. Well, that's another experience, to see these tombs in the streets, right in the streets, and to see the different, well the Jewish, they had their section, and the Arabs had their section, and the French had theirs and the Italians theirs. Who'd I miss? All the nations that had conquered those countries over the years were represented there. So we made some flights out there. In fact the first flight that we made out of the area was Messina Straits, and that's at the toe of Italy. We were to bomb the harbor there. Now see, Italy was still under German control, they were still fighting in North Africa, the ground troops. So we got to see them out of that excitement, these big heavy tanks. In fact we used to hitch rides on them to get into the city. They'd come by and we'd hop on them and take, take off. Okay. That's where we spent the first part of the war is out of those two areas. Now I can tell you which flights were made out of there but I don't recall in my old thinking where they were. 

TR: Well we can, if you don't mind we can, I can ask you some follow-up questions about your time before the actual fifty missions, and then that might get us through today, and then—

GG:—Okay. I'd like to finish up on that flight a little bit because people always ask us, were you frightened? No, but I did watch some of them go through various phases of being frightened. We had a, a radio operator, wasn't able to put his gun together. We'd take them apart and clean them up, and he wasn't able to put it back together again. Now you should be able to do that in a matter of seconds. They're powerful guns, you have 50,000 pounds per square inch, in them, so when they fire you've got a radius there of four and a half miles, that that buildup will travel, the 8 millimeters. Couldn't put it back together, I had to go back put it together for him. And he calmed down—he was the youngest one on the crew, by the way. This is one time, as we neared the target, did I begin to wonder, hey, is this, is this okay? Those guys have big guns down there, 88-millimeter. They were in batteries. Not only that, but they were radar-controlled. They hadn't told us about that. They were radar-controlled, which meant that they could determine the height that the airplane, and the speed of the airplane, and make the adjustments on the ground to meet that, so they were very, very accurate. You had a little bit of a defense because you could see them. Now I don't remember the altitude, I've got it there in my records, the altitude that we were at. We could see the flash of the gun. That meant you had a second or two to change your position a little bit. When you had a battery of guns, they make it look like a shotgun. Yeah, but from then on there was absolute calmness as far as I was concerned. Yes, at times they got scared and there's a lot of interesting stories about that so...That was the first mission returned home safely and returning home, I think on that particular mission if not on another, we saw a plane that had been shot down, in the water, and circled it and found that the, that there was already a rescue unit there to get them. So I, I think maybe that's a good time to break off right there.

TR: Okay. And so just to clarify on that before we backtrack though, that was—

GG: Oh, yeah, I should be looking at that, make sure—

TR: I think I have it here, I think it's Friday August 6th, flight completed, the Messina is that...?

GG: Yeah, that's the Messina. In fact, we made two flights to Messina. [Pause] Yeah, the 90th. So we had, the first mission we turned back, we'd gone over, we'd been deep into the area, and I, I think what people need to realize, and this comes up later, that if you don't have the power to the engines, you've got to keep up with the group or you're a sitting duck out there. And you fall behind. And so that's, where it says we've turned back, and we don't necessarily say we had engine trouble, or whatever it was. If we didn't receive credit, it means that we'd just been in the air a short time, and we weren't over what would be termed in enemy territory, but when we crossed that line, whatever we call it, then we receive credit. So there, you know that there probably is a couple here where we turned back, and when I say engine trouble, maybe the RPMs had dropped from 25 to 23 RPMs, we didn't have the power to keep up. Now maximum was 29,000 and we could draw that for five minutes without burning the engine up. So you'd, it's a safety factor. So that, that flight then to Messina there was two of them. I've got the time somewhere too, but that's on another list.

TR: Yeah. And, ok, I think it was your, again we're just kind of clarifying here. I think it was your first flight that you didn't, you received credit for but you didn't drop.

GG: Yeah.

TR: I think that's where you, I'm reading here your notes—

GG: Is that the one where—

TR: "We saw a smoke signal on the water"—

GG: Oh, okay, that's it.

TR: And circled over it once.

GG: Yeah I should have read these things before we started talking. That's what memory does to you, you get two flights mixed up sometimes. Or you put two of them together in re-telling the story. So I've, I've tried to be careful when I've gone to the schools to talk to them to check it out first, so that I wouldn't get mixed up on it. See I, I mentioned earlier about touchdown with all these GIs on the ground, getting ready for the invasion. So that, that is one of the problems of, of sixty years later, of trying to recall.

TR: But it's, it's good that at the time, you at least took, you know you kept a log, so...

GG: Yeah. Which really wasn't, wasn't to be done. You'd have to destroy it in case you were captured. See, they could very well drop parachuters in on an air base, take it over. These records is what they want, to know how the training's being done, and all of that. So they would get quite a bit of information. I tried to keep it, although yeah, we'd, well they would know about what the altitude, I put the altitude and the bomb run, and so on, on those.

TR: And, well actually, I think there just might be a couple more questions this time.

GG: Okay.

TR: Just to clarify, you've mentioned that you didn't, so you didn't necessarily have to drop your bombs to receive credit for flying the mission?

GG: Yeah. And in that particular case then you'd have to go back and put the pins in the bomb and make sure that they were safe enough to drop. On one occasion we were over the Balkans, and we hadn't been able to drop our bombs, now there may be many reasons for that. Our target was covered over by clouds. That was mostly, you couldn't see the target, you had no way of finding the target. The alternate target, the same way, so you didn't drop. In that particular case we didn't drop but we had enough time, been out long enough, that we had to conserve the gasoline, so we did drop our bombs on a mountainside there, and I don't know whether, Yugoslavia, one of those places, and kept them armed. In other words we didn't remove the cotter pin, to keep that little propellor from turning off, once it's turned off then it sets it off, so if that didn't, then in most cases it would explode.

TR: So then, those bombs that you would, you had to drop on the mountain, would have just landed?

GG: Just, just landed, and they wouldn't explode. It's interesting, it's just been a while back, and I've got the clipping someplace, where they, they found a bomb just out from Rome, and that was at the same time that we flew a mission up in that area. So they, they just took it out and then exploded it someplace that was interesting to me, but that I could identify it from my record book.

TR: Not to get into a specific flight here, but this is a question about flying. In your log, you'll, you'd write something that would say, we flew in the second position first element, or, you know or whatever. I'm just wondering, do you recall what that, what that means?

GG: Yeah, I have it here someplace. There, I would, I would have to explain it. I've got a real good explanation right up there, on that because you stagger your planes. Usually the flights we had, there would be a squadron up here with six planes in it and then they had wing squadrons on that, and so on, and then when they'd fill up then you'd start another element. And that, that meant, and they would have to change the pattern from time to time, to give the maximum protection. What I mean, we could train more guns in that direction. So when you're, when you're talking about shooting down fighter planes, you don't know for sure sometimes whether you got it or when somebody else did. So that, that's an iffy thing because you're shooting a shotgun effect out there. And that's why the Flying Fortress was so dangerous to the, to the enemy because you had a lot of guns. You figured out 13 guns to a ship, you got six ships in a squadron, and then you had [pause] positions of your airplanes, and since you'd get maximum flyer, and so you'd get maximum protection too. See, lot of the guns on the ship you don't, can't use because in my position the upper turret, there were cutoff cams so that as I passed by the vertical stabilizer, I wouldn't shoot it off. And also, the tips of the wings, if I lowered the guns too much, or firing forward. So I was limited. And sometimes that's real aggravating because you've got a beat on the guy, you've got him, you pull the trigger, nothing happens. But the tailgunner can do it, so when they come in on us, they knew where these points were, by the time we were there they'd captured a few planes

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Interviewee: Richard Galloway (RG)
Interviewer: Troy Reeves (TR)
Date: September 4, 2002
Place: near Meridian, Idaho, USA

RG: This is the first time I have read this for I don't know how long.

TR: Wow, your– now, would you call that officially, would that be your log book, or...

RG: Yeah this is what I wrote over there, day by day as it happened, and there's not much– well the information is sufficient for me to remember other incidents surrounding it. See I mentioned to you about the time that I was out on the flight line, and the bomber lost control. Well it did explode, and it destroyed I think two of our planes, I've got here.

TR: Let me quickly say that today is September 4th, 2002. This is the second interview with Richard Galloway. We're here at his home, which we've decided is near Meridian, Idaho. This interview is part of our Veteran's History Project, and the interviewer is Troy Reeves. Yesterday we started talking about, we talked quite a bit about flying in a B-17, but I don't think we ever actually got on tape what your official job was, or what your duties were on the B-17.

RG: I was a flight engineer, which meant that I usually flew up with the pilot, the co-pilot, and used the top turret for my gunnery position. The top turret had two Browning machine guns in it, and it had some automatic stuff on it. Try to frame a plane, which was difficult to do, and difficult position to shoot from because of the cams to protect the tail and the wings and the propellors, and the engines. So that was my position. As a flight engineer you're responsible for the entire mechanical function of the airplane, from the engines on down to anything that I thought was wrong [laughs]. Supposed to be able to take them apart and put them together, which we've done, but I did not work on the ground for the repairs, we had crews there to do that. And of course by the time we got back from a flight we were tired, really tired. So that was my position. And then after I had finished the fifty missions, I was assigned back to the states, went to instructor school, and ended up out here at Galvin Field teaching gunnery under combat conditions, with the new crews that were coming in and being formed here. And at that time it was a B-24 base.

TR: And, I wonder if you could talk a little bit about the importance of keeping the faith basically. You mentioned last time that you continued, or you started to hold church services at various places you were in the states, and I know from reading your log book that you continued to do that while you were in North Africa and in Europe and Italy. 

RG: Okay fine. [Pause] I had just, as I mentioned earlier, been on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as LDS, and I was released on Pearl Harbor day, then went right into the service. I had some close relationships with George Albert Smith on that particular occasion, who later became president of the church. And so that was a fascinating experience for me. It was a highly spiritual experience. We baptized many people, we started many branches of the church in Alabama, and consequently, afterwards I wrote many letters to those people back and forth, during the time that I was in the service, and, well, I still contacted them for a number of years. It was the same with my crew and the same with all the LDS fellows that I was acquainted with overseas. Many letters were written to them and back to me. In fact, I have some of them. That's the letters I'm talking about.

TR: So you have a couple of folders, a couple of file folders it looks like, full of correspondence.

RG: And I glanced at them, as I say, for the first time yesterday. I don't even think I read them when I put them in the folders, I just put them in by the date. And they're interesting, fascinating. We– let me start back to the very beginning. When we were in Witchita Falls, Texas, we asked permission to hold services there for the LDS boys, and we were given that permission. In fact, they had started that before I got there, they'd received that permission. But on this particular Sunday, being a returned missionary, and the rest of these kids hadn't had that opportunity, it fell on myself and others that– well, one I'd been with in Alabama– to get the meetings organized. And we did it in a matter of just maybe a half hour. Just call on these fellows individually, you give these talks, you do these things, you take care of the sacrament, things of that sort. And the chaplain asked me before it was over, he says "May I say something?" I said certainly. He said, "Would– I have been in the service for a long time." And he says, "I've never seen anything like this in my life, where a group of young boys could get together, organize themselves, and have a meeting and everything run as smoothly as it's run, and the great talks that were given by them." And I thought that was quite a compliment. And the church did not have any chaplains, or, well there were some off and on over the years, but we weren't recognized as being in the main stream of everything. And so these were beginnings of many changes to take place. In fact, I was just looking at some dog tags I had there and they said P for Protestant on them. The reason I have those is because I was given another set that said LDS on it. So now we were being recognized as a legitimate religion [laughs]. That seems strange to us, but nevertheless for those who are not members of the church, it may– they may question about some of the things. Anyway, I– when I first got to North Africa and had some spare time, I'd sit down and write letters. And I recall that I wrote as high as 25 letters in a day sometimes when I didn't have anything else to do, and that's how I spent my time, as well as doing some writing. I wrote letters out of there just– well I guess the first, second day I was there. And this was later told to me that one of the lieutenants who was checking the letters out to make sure there wasn't any information going out that shouldn't go out, and he says, "I don't have to go to church today, I've already had a sermon." Lieutenant Ellsworth, who I enjoyed very very much, he says, "Let me see the letter," and he wrote at the bottom of the letter, "I too am a returned missionary, and I'll look up your missionary for you." Now these were some people in Alabama that I had contacted, we had baptized. I received a letter from that lady and she wrote to me and gave me a report on everything that was being done. It was most gratifying. And then at the bottom she says the lieutenant wrote at the end of the letter that he had read it, and that he would look you up. So I have that letter and in fact it's in there someplace. So that was my introduction to Lieutenant Ellsworth. By the way, Lieutenant Ellsworth, in our group, we had an experience of where some of our men had been wounded and they were in the hospital, and they were going to send them back to the states. They were on Sicily at that time. And I was– and we were in Italy at Foggia. Number two, number two, I remember now after reading. Anyway, we received mission, 'er permission, to take a plane and to fly it over to Sicily to give these young men a blessing. There were five of us. Lieutenant Ellsworth was one of them, and it wouldn't be long after that until he was shot down. And I just found out last year that he had been taken prisoner of war, and that he survived and he has some interesting tales to tell about his experiences. I haven't been able to see him since then. Alright, back to there, when this– we did meet together on the next Sunday in Tunis and held services for all and there was just three of us, but we did it, and that grew until we were having fifty plus men out. So we held services there and I worked closely with a Irwin Clark– he's deceased now– and we worked closely like that not only in North Africa, but after we went to Foggia in Italy, we picked up the same way. Held our meetings in the Red Cross as we did in Tunis, and continued that and at one time we had as high as 150 men there. I'm guessing the average attendance was anywhere from twenty-five to fifty. It was real difficult to hold those meetings because, you know, war is twenty-four hours a day for seven days a week, and it doesn't matter which day. And I noted as I went back through my deal there that I flew a lot on Sunday. We held services in Foggia, we had some excellent experiences there. We had men attending who were not members of the church. Some of them were [pause] baptized. And this wasn't a missionary effort. What I mean, we just made friends with everyone, and they became interested. They wanted to know, and so they were taught. My religion did not hinder me from being a member of the crew. Their standards were maybe different than mine in many respects, but I had respect of the crew. In fact, I have a letter here that's interesting that Irwin Clark wrote to my folks, and in it he says, "It might interest you to know that your son is so well held in esteem by his crew that they call him sunshine, and reverent" [laughs]. Well anyway, we had good rapport one with another. Never once that I know of did anyone ever speak against the church as you find even in Idaho today, where's there's a lot of ruffled feathers. We held those services, I left and– of course when I finished my missions– and by that time we had two LDS chaplains, and they came in and took over at that time. And by the way, as I read the letter from several of the fellows, they told me that they had established– not only joined a church on Sunday, but they were then holding meetings on the side for recreation and– as well as church teaching and so on, and so they were very busy. In fact they were getting together a lot of material. And I presume that Vern Cooley has that, and I've– Ricks, was the other chaplain. So I presume that information is somewhere and it might be worthwhile to look up. Vern Cooley, by the way, lived in Boise and was bishop of my ward. He wanted me to be a counselor, but that wasn't the case right then. So, and then he went back and moved to Salt Lake, so– and I've lost contact. So those are– that's a couple, and I've forgotten which Ricks it was that was over there, but I could find out because I have his name. Well that's the religious experiences. Now as far as prayer, yes, some of the crews with their LDS men, their crew would ask them to have prayer with them before they went on their missions. I don't recall 'pecifically anything like that except that I had respect for them and they had lots of questions, and they felt that there was a rapport there that was worthwhile. So maybe that's sufficient on that, except it was a great experience. To me it was a continuation of what I had been doing. So I went on my mission in 1939, and I got out of the service in 1945. Hey, that's six years isn't it? Six years of that type of experience of being with people and enjoying that type of work. I did mention after the one raid I said a power greater than ours is with us today." I don't claim that the Latter-day Saints or any group of people have a special rapport where there's going to be a guardian angel sitting on their shoulders and changing things, because we believe that man was placed here to have his agency and to make his own choice. And the Lord isn't going to take that away from us, but He will be of assistance and be of helps and we'll be inspired at times to know what's the right decision. That's another story. I guess enough preaching isn't it [laughs].

TR: And I do have one maybe follow-up question. You just said that your mission was basically, what, three times longer? I mean the way you look at it your mission was six years.

RG: Yeah, it was extended for three months. I'd been working in Alabama and had a really successful mission. We had the assignment of having a car, which was unheard of in those days. We bought a car for fifty to a hundred dollars I think it was, and the two of us together made the hundred dollars. That's a lot of money back in those days. And we traveled from one member's home to another. They were scattered, they weren't close enough. So this was all of north Alabama. That would be like covering all of southern Idaho. And that's what we did. We would go around, and meet with the members. We'd have them have their own Sunday Schools in their home, then we'd leave them a list of questions on the assigned lessons they had for them to answer. They would answer back to us, and then we'd go to the next place and so on and make the circuit. I guess back in the old days they'd say circuit riders.[Laughing] That's about what it amounted to. By the time that I was writing letters back they were telling us about branches being organized, where there was a number of people close together, they'd come together and meet. So that was always, you know, a real interesting experience for me, because here I was overseas, dropping bombs of destruction and still talking about that peace can and will come to the earth if we use the right principles to find– bring it here. War isn't going to do it. It's just going to take the individuals, taking the responsibility themselves to make a right choice.

TR: Maybe just one more thing about that. Have you reflected how going on a mission and then immediate– almost immediately entering the service, and then the way you spent your time not only fighting the war but also conducting religious services– have you reflected on how that, basically almost six complete years, affected who you are and how you spent the rest of your life?

RG: Yes when– before I'd gone in the service I'd made up my mind that I was going to come home, get my education, and teach in the seminary system which was quite new at that time. It's where we held, well, instruction to young people and high school age group, teaching the principles of the gospel to go along with what they were learning in school about science and philosophy and all of those things. So that's what I'd planned on doing. I went down to Brigham Young University and talked to President McDonald down there. At that time I was 27, and my teenage plus years were gone [laughs]. My schooling years were gone. Of course they had the G. I. Bill of Rights that we could use. And in talking to President McDonald, he said well– he says, "I think what you need and what you want will take another six years." I was married. I was– would have a family. I would be a long time in school, by the time I got out I would be at least 32. So we took that consideration and– so I stopped on my way in Salt Lake on the way home and talked to some of that were in charge of the seminary system, and I wasn't too impressed with the answers I got because they said, "Well, we'll just take some of the teachers who's had training out of the school system, and use them in the seminary." Well, I felt they'd lost vision of it. They did. I think they'd been in too long. Things let things ride. I then decided that that's what I would do, and then on that same day there was two other things that come up that changed my life in that regard. My brother worked for the Salt Lake restaurant supplies, and he was acquainted with– in fact he turned down a job that he would become a millionaire with. He was with Harmons down there and Colonel Sanders had moved to California, called my brother up and said, "Will you come down and go into business with me?" and my brother says, "I didn't want to go to California." So he turned it down. That's how close he become– came to becoming a millionaire. Okay, back to the main thing here. The– I knew the people in Salt Lake restaurant supplies, knew them very well. One of them had been my scout master, and he wrote me a letter and he says, "Dick I want you to go through southern Utah, or Idaho, and hit all the restaurants and all the eating places throughout the entire area, and bring us a report on it and tell us what you think about it in setting up the business up in that area. At the same time I had gone to the First Security Bank and they had on-the-job training. At the end of the two year training– and this was through the G. I. Bill of Rights– you would become an officer in the bank. Well we had our Sundays off, and we had half a day Saturday off, and so that was a good situation and I took it, because here was two years instead of six to have a vocation. So, I was– sometimes, can you become too loyal sometimes? But I had made a promise that I would go to work for the bank on that day, and here I got this at the same time after I said I would. So I went to work for the bank because I told them I would. Meanwhile, as far as my own life is concerned, I became very active in the church, serving on high councils– I've been on three high councils– I was stake missionary three times, one time as a stake mission president. We didn't have any missionaries in the area at that time, so we did it all with the wards that we had here. Our mission was all the way from Glenns Ferry to far out Meridian [laughs]. In fact we didn't have a building here then. We didn't have a building, we had branches up in Mountain Home, we had branch– or–  had two full-time missionaries under our direction on the Duck Indian Reservation. We had branches at Grandview and down through that area, even Mountain Home and Idaho City. So I was busy that way. At the same time I was also teaching early morning seminary. Thirteen years I taught it. I suppose around 400 kids total, I don't know how it ended up. And it's been fascinating to watch those kids as they became grown-ups. Shoot, they're all grandparents now and some of them close to great-grandparents like me. Really it's been amazing. Some of them have become very well known in the church. Some of the fine professors down at BYU have been some of my seminary students. Two of the General Authorities in Idaho were some of my students. So, it– that's how my life was influenced by being active like that over the years. And I've appreciated the friends and there isn't any place I go in Boise that there isn't somebody I don't know, either from the bank or from the church. Mostly from the church, and I've had some of those– in fact, one of my stake presidents and one of my bishops was one of my seminary students [laughs]. So I think maybe you get the idea, the church members would very much understand that I was busy. Now during that period of time also I gave some radio talks, for over quite a period of time. It was every other Sunday and they gave us the time on the air and so I prepared those talks. So between the seminary lessons I was giving and doing my work at the bank– and sometimes I was going to some bank schools then– I've been busy. And in my spare time I raised a big garden at a lovely orchard with thirty-two trees in it. 

TR: And we may get back to your post-war life in another interview if we get a chance. I want to ask now, you mentioned earlier that on some of your days off, or when you would have some free time you would write letters, up to twenty-five a day you said, and my first question is

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Interviewee: George C. R. Galloway (GG)
Interviewer: Troy Reeves (TR)
Date: Unknown
Location: Unknown

TR: Who were the people that you were writing to the most while you were away?

GG: Well of course there was a girlfriend. There was a number of girls I wrote to that I'd been acquainted with. We were friends. One was a little bit more than a friend almost. She's one that I had met in South Carolina, and she was now on a mission herself, so we wrote for a long, long time. In fact, my mission cost me a girlfriend and the army cost me a girlfriend. What I mean [laughs], I wasn't home to say, hey, let's get married. And I wasn't going to make a commitment that I couldn't follow up with. Look I, I, over there I was at mail call. I've seen fellows get their mail. One I remember especially because there was an ammunition box sitting there. And he got his mail and he'd opened it up. He started sobbing and sit down on that box, and cried and cried and cried. A letter from his wife. She wanted a divorce. She had met someone. This happens a lot with the guys. I saw it happen with my own eyes at a train depot once, where she just said goodbye to her husband, got on the train and made friends with a soldier and they made out all night long. So I'd, I'd seen that side of the story too, and I didn't want that to happen, so I, I kind of left things open. When, when I got out here to get out of the field, there was a girl that walked through my reception line many times, and there were times she'd go through, she'd kiss me and say you broke my heart. My wife I think was about ready to...[laughs]. Anyway, yes I had real nice relationships with a lot of the girls. And I've never been ashamed to introduce my wife to any of them. And she's met all these girls I've been talking about [laughs]. So some of the letters were that way, but they were friendly letters. And then there were letters to the people in our ward, who wrote letters to us about once a month. And that was great because they gave us news of the other, I have– like I said I have those letters here– kept us informed as to what was happening with some of the others. Or on occasion– and it was very few, I don't think it was more than three or four– that lost their lives from our ward and we had 160 men in the service. I wrote to my family. I wrote to my brothers– my two brothers that were overseas, my brother at home– we wrote back and forth continually, and had some very interesting experiences. Well, I'll tell you one here because I think it fits right here. As I mentioned my brother next to me, Paul, was in the regular army. He was now in England, and as soon as the war was declared by the United States, he was over there— the first to fly out of England, the first to drop bombs, the, some of the first to be shot down. He tells some interesting stories. He, they shot down I think it was– well I can't be positive– about seven fighter planes, German fighter planes. He shot down two after he was wounded. He had flack in his face, he had a bullet in his shoulder, he lost his eye as a result of it, later, as I think mentioned earlier. He became the head of the radio training, radio operators training in England for the rest of the time. In fact, he married a Scottish girl over there. I was in Wendover, I had received a notice that he had been wounded. My mother called. She knew where he was, just close to home. And she was almost hysterical, because she didn't know the extent of the injuries, only that they had been shot down, and it had made news. I'd comfort her as best I could. That night I had a dream, and in the– my dream, the 29th Ward has some locust trees around it, with the white blossom on it.  And I dreamed that we were there, and the interesting thing was that the three of us that were in the service were in our uniforms. And this was after everything was over, so I called her the next morning and told her that. My brother that was home said you'll never know what a difference that made in her life. She was then ready for something that she shouldn't have done. One of my letters from Paul went to Salt Lake because he didn't have my address at the time, telling me about what had happened, and that he had lost his eye, and pretty well shot up. And she steamed it open and read it and then sent it on to me. She– that was a tough one for her to live with until she was informed properly. Okay. So there were a lot of experiences I've had then and since then that are sacred to me, and fulfilling. So you, you can see from the books around here, they've been read [laughs]. These books up here, how many, I don't know, one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven...there's twelve there, those are all letters.

TR: So those are twelve binders full of letters.

GG: Yeah. Some of them have, they're just in there for now. A lot like these right here, which is the same thing. So I have a lot of information that, this is what I'd been planning on doing, is getting it all together, putting it in a binder, and saying, there it is. And I have the grandson now that's down to BYU, he probably– you talked to him didn't you? If he wants to write it up, there it is. He can go through those letters and he'll find out a lot about his granddad, which I can't tell you now, and that this question has come up, and I'm happy to talk about it because it is my life. I have three sons—all three of them have been on missions to the church, one to the Netherlands, one to the Southern States, in Florida especially, and the other one to Arkansas. Grandsons, I have fifteen– the eleventh is in the Philippines right now– that have been on missions. Eleven of them. And that just leaves the, there's one boy that's in the Marines that hasn't been on a mission. The other three that are, that's twelve, the other three are not old enough yet. And my wife and I have been on three missions together. Year and a half missions.

TR: And that was after you retired.

GG. Yeah, after, after I retired. Last one was in New Zealand on a little island called Niue. Okay, enough about [laughs]...

TR: I have one more question about the letters. There was a possibility that things you wrote would have been censored before they were sent out. I'm wondering if you would practice self censorship in terms of what you would write to your friends and family.

GG: Yeah. Yeah there, I only had one letter that I wrote home that was cut up pretty good. Very very few of them ever had anything– usually dates or operation. When we'd write home it's somewhere in North Africa, somewhere in Italy, never anything specifically. That's what they'd usually cut out. Anything that the opposition could find that would put things together as what was taking place, like when we had a group of planes fly out of England to make a raid, and then they landed in, in Russia. Somebody tipped them off because they waited until our planes were ready to land then they came in, shot them, shot them up. This doesn't have anything to do with it, except I wished I had the whole thing. Where I found this was I had a frame, a picture frame, that it fell and the glass broke out of it, and when I took the glass out, this is what was used for backing. So this says, meet Miss Sepway and this is July 1943, she's a corporal, so that's all we got there, with a picture on the back. I thought, well that's interesting to have [laughs].

TR: How did you receive news of what was going on while you were stationed in North Africa and in Europe?

GG: Okay. They would give us somewhat of a daily report of what was going on. So we knew pretty well what the movements were. We needed to be appraised of those anyway because in our going out, we would be looking for something that would be unusual, whatever it would be. Like when we landed on, I think it was Corsica, I think I said Sicily before but I think it was Corsica, there were troops there ready to, to go into Anzio. And so, we knew pretty well what was going on in the theater, because they kept us informed. The other was the Stars and Stripes, which I've got some copies of. I was reading– I was looking at one just a little before you came, and it was talking about the– and this is what brings it to mind, this is just a copy. When, when we flew our mission to the Cassino, which is an old, old monastery up on the hill, we dropped leaflets before we hit that place, told them to get out of there. So I've never had this translated but I know what it was because I've got it written in here that we did that particular thing. So the Stars and Stripes was published and that was the news that we got along with. And sometimes of course it would be an advance to a–  before it was released to the newspapers. So the Stars and Stripes was our information we received about what was going on. And then of course the other news would be from home, but it would be old stuff by the time it got to us.

TR: Maybe just two things about that. First, just to get it on tape, that's a, it looks like a photocopy of a leaflet.

GG: Yeah, that's the photocopy, I have.

TR: And it's written in Italian.

GG: Yeah, and this is just one side. It was on both sides.

TR: So even though neither of us speak Italian, you're pretty confident that this is // something [unintelligible] telling that...//

GG: // I probably never read it // so I don't know, but I did see Cassino on it, that was like Cassino, so I knew that's what it was when– and I had several of them. In fact, I've probably got several right now which be good souvenirs, wouldn't it?

TR: It certainly would.

GG: Yeah, they're right here in one of these folders.

TR: The other question about that is, reading through your flight log book, you wrote in there at some point that you bought a radio.

GG: Yes, 140 dollars. You know how much 140 dollars was back in those days? See, we were getting flight pay so we were given even more than the average soldier was. The average soldier was only getting 50 dollars a month. Look, some of them bought cars and motorcycles and guns [laughs], and what have you. The radio– it's interesting, there was Axis Sally, we used to hear about. If you read the history you'll find out about her, I think she was tried after the war. Axis Sally, we used to listen to as we made our flights. We'd turn the radio on when we didn't need it for other reasons. We'd turn it on and listen to Axis Sally, and their theme song was– the tune's bouncing around my head right now– became a very popular song in America. It was a German song about sweethearts, and then she'd go into this thing– you left your girlfriends at home, your eyes at home, and you don't know what they're doing–  and all of these things to try to break down the morale of the, of the GIs. So yeah, we did listen to the radio. This particular one, I think a little while later I said it didn't work very well [laughs]. No it didn't, it was old and anyway, we tried to keep in contact that way too. So if you did have a radio, you could pick up a lot of things. But what are you going to hook it up to for power? We were sitting out here in tents that were 150 feet apart, and you didn't have lights. We had dirt floors most of the time in those tents. We did have a floor that we'd put some tile on it once, and I'll tell you, it was high, high living. We had those folding cots with a blanket or two to put on us, and we had a conical stove that would set up, GI issue, but what do you burn in them? Nothing around there to burn. So we devised the idea, hey we can get some of the gasoline, and bring it back here, and we'll just take a, a piece of copper tubing, and run from the gasoline tank into the sand and light it. It worked pretty good, if you kept it under control [laughs]. So you had to watch that. We lost several tents that way, but it did keep us warm. That's how we kept warm in the wintertime. Hey it gets cold at night there. See, those are some of the interesting little things on, as a sidelight. Yeah, we improvised for a lot of things. When we were in North Africa, we wanted some fresh eggs. Now I don't know whether you've eaten powdered eggs. That's what they are, powdered. That was for breakfast, mixed up with a little bit of Spam. That's a word they use on computers now, spam. Anyway, we thought, well we'll buy these eggs from the Arabs. And the Arabs were good to us, they'd do our clothing for a bar of soap, or whatever. We never lost anything to them. Well, we bought the eggs from the Arabs, and now the next thing was something to fry them in. Course, we could use our kit for that, so that was our eating kit. Those were our utensils, you know. We'd carry them with us, we went put the food in them and when we were through we'd slosh them in some hot water at the end and wipe them off. And sometimes the soldiers got a lot of diarrhea over there, because it wasn't clean. Or at the end of the line you'd find some of these Arab kids, or some of the other kids, begging for food. And I've seen many a time where they just turned everything over the kid. Well anyway, back to the eggs [laughs]. And one guy says, I can go up to the– what'd we call it? Not a cafe, but– I can go up and get some butter from one of the cooks, then we can fry those eggs in butter. So he came back with this block of so-called butter that we used. We thought maybe we could melt it. We put it in a pan, and all it did is sit there and not even melt. So that took care of the shortening to fry the eggs in, we finally figured out a way to do that. I don't remember whether we put some water in the pan and put a lid on it and...Okay. There's a lot of things like that. The ingenuity of the G.I. and some of the things that he did was fascinating. They invented a lot of things, and that was the comforts that we had.

TR: So, besides the powdered eggs and the Spam, how was the food?

GG: They– Thanksgiving, Christmas rolled around, Easter, places like that, the service made special effort to give us good food as fresh as they could. So I, overall, we had a lot of simplots, potatoes, and they tasted like they still do to me. I could tell you whether or not the restaurant is serving me potatoes or when they're serving me powdered potatoes. But anyway, yeah, and then they made a special effort to see that we got candy and gum. And that, that's interesting because once my brother, through the mail, sent me two pieces of gum because he didn't think we were getting any over there [laughs]. And you know, I still have those. It's kind of a symbolic thing, here's a special treat. So about once a week, or twice, or a month, something like whenever they could, they got candy bars and things like that that they would pass out, when we in fact we bought them. I think most of that came through the Red Cross, I'm not exactly positive of that, but we could go down to the Red Cross and they served coffee all the time, and every once in a while they had some specials on ice cream, donuts, the Red Cross always did that. And after our flights, we were always served donuts and coffee. Now I don't, didn't drink coffee so I had to do something else [laughs]. And also after our flights– this might be adventurous– they gave each of them a shot of whiskey. Boy I was popular [laughs].

TR: Did you trade your shot of whiskey for something, or did you just give it to them?

GG: I just gave it. Now there was some of the LDS fellows– this might interest you too– that built a, had a little chapel, probably about the size of this room, that was built over there for some members that they found over in Italy. And they used their cigarette rations. That's when they did sell them, boy you could get a price out of that stuff. Everybody smoked. Everything you looked at, they were everywhere. I always knew when we were below 10,000 feet because my pilot would light up. Then I wouldn't have to look at the gauges, I just knew [laughs].

TR: Did you, did you get a cigarette ration?

GG: Yeah.

TR: Did you trade it, or...?

GG: In our, well I just didn't use them. In our little K-ration, they had, you know a little can, I've got one some place around here, but it's beat up. I haven't unpacked yet, from our move. That's why things are such a disarray around here right now. But there was always a package of four cigarettes in with that dinner. So there was the K ration, the C ration, and other various kinds of ration, and they were usually condensed fig bars or condensed cookie of some sort, things like that. The cans would have some cheese, or it might have some Spam in it, or, or something like that. And this was our issue, for when we went on our flight, to have something to eat. Flights were long. They, they did well. We did better than the ground troops because the ground troops outrun their supplies a  lot of times. We didn't, we were stationary, we weren't that close to the front lines. Now there, there was such a thing that was taking place all the time, is, the rations got shorted [lauaghs] by the supply people. Which was, and the black market found some of that stuff. So there was a black market over there, and the fellows did do some trading, you know, with the cigarettes, they'd get the cigarettes for favors, whatever. Well, that's enough of that I guess because the rations for the most part, in fact I remember now, of being in one place where they had served us a big, beautiful steak. Everybody had a steak and all the trimmings that went with it, and there was some guy there just sitting there growling and complaining about that steak, it wasn't like his mother cooked it. And I said for heaven's sake, shut up and eat it. The rest of us have never seen one before [both laugh]! [skip in recording] our plate. Then after we'd eat it, we'd douse through some different barrels, the boiling water, and then the next boiling water, and the last to clean it up and wipe it, wipe off your, oh what do we call those? Not canteen, that's the water. See, I've forgotten already [laughs]. But anyway the utensils that we used to eat with. And, and sometimes they on occasion were able to buy some stuff on the local market there in Africa. If you went to town, they told you not to eat anything except some maybe fresh vegetables and, and bread, and to be careful with the fresh vegetables. So that, that was off base in North Africa.

TR: Can I stop you right here for just a second?

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Interviewee: George C. R. Galloway (GG)
Interviewer: Unknown (I)
Date: Sept. 4, 2002
Location: Galloway residence, Meridian, ID, USA

I: You were just talking about the base in North Africa, and I was wondering if you, reflecting on it, saw any difference or similarity between that and when you relocated the base to Italy.

GG: Okay, the base proper itself usually was one that the enemy had already built, which might– may have been the civilian airport at an earlier time, but as I remember in Africa we were right in the middle of a vineyard. And there had previous been some fields that had grain in them, and the wind blew, the wind blew all the time, you'd see this straw blow across the, the place. So, and that's, in fact both places was much that way. But we didn't have– alright, to take your shower, they had a big old tank sitting there and they'd fill that with water and you'd go up there and pull a deal and, and get some water doused on you, and take your shower. Then, then that was it. No privacy. The same with the latrines, there was very little privacy. We lived in the tent as I mentioned before. In Africa we had foxholes that had been previously dug by those who were there ahead of us. You know, there's a lot that I don't remember about it. I remember going into the Kasbahs with the Red Cross, and making tours of the Kasbahs, and learning about their markets, and the interesting, interesting way they had of doing all those things. For example, there'd be a stall about the size of this room and all there'd be in it is candles. Candles a couple of feet across, small candles, candles for everything. That's the way they live. They didn't have the modern means there at all in North Africa. The one base that we're in, I don't remember whether it was Algeria or Tunisia, I'd have to look it up. But the Romans had built aqueducts, get water across the desert area there, and they were still standing. And that's one of the places we went down to, and one of the areas where we did some fishing. I don't know why we called it fishing because really we didn't catch anything but– we didn't have fishing poles or such, everything was make-to-do. We did go swimming in the Mediterranean. Golly I can't remember whether we jumped in that water there in North Africa or not, or whether there was any water at all. It was a dry arid area. But not, not too bad considering that it was near the Mediterranean and had good climate, and if they could get water on things they'd grow. We'd get the winds off the Sahara. So the, the runways were made out of mats, steel mats, that were quite flush when tied together. And that had its problems because you didn't have a perfectly flat runway all the time, you'd get a little bit of ups and downs on it. And that's exciting, when you've got a full load of bombs and a full load of gasoline, and you have to get up in the air before you get to the end of that runway. That's quite exciting. I, I remember there in Africa it was real exciting one day, because they had some German prisoners had been caught that night. I mentioned that in there, I'm sure I wrote it down someplace. And we didn't know what they'd been doing, so they were up, lined up out there, with a firing squad in front of them as we took off, and said if any of those planes get in trouble you're goner. I guess that was to get an indication from them whether or not they were just actually lost or, but they were, they were caught trying to get in one of the airplanes. So we did have those mats, and as I recall, there was just the one runway there in Africa. So you took off one at a time, you had big wide aprons. One thing that we had to be careful with is sometimes rocks would get on the, on the runway. Well if you flipped those up into the wing you could get the aluminum shell or, but with the controls, the ailerons, it's possible to put a hole in them with a rock. So we had to be careful there, and we had to reduce our speed sometime in coming in, or by just letting it run out rather than using our flaps. So we'd put our flaps up early sometimes. So that's some of the other dangers that come with an improvised field. But they did well with– we didn't have anything like England had. They were pretty nice compared to what we had, at least from what I read and see and what my brother told me. And a phobia of, we had bomb phobia several times. I think I put in there that one of the places was going to be our future airfield. So there had been holes that had been filled in and, and repairs that needed to be made and phobia was a little better prepared as far as a nice place. But as far as living conditions, we still lived in tents, they– labor was pretty cheap over there and they could get them to build those stone mess halls quickly and they were quite nice. You see mess halls we had been given a gun before we went over there and it was a little carbon, and one of the guys got drunk one night and went up there with his gun and shot up the mess hall. So here we were not too far from the front lines, with– and they picked up all the guns, no one had any guns on the base [laughter]. They had us and they didn't know it [laughter]. Dropped some parachuters in there.

I: You had just mentioned how things, you heard that things were better in England than they were in North Africa or Italy. My question is, do you know why the, the people who flew out of England only had to fly 25 missions, I believe, while you—

GG: Did what? My hearing is bad today.

I: Why they had to fly only 25 missions and why you in Northern Africa—

GG: The difference was, they were under– every flight that they made, they had enemy fighters, because they weren't long distance. So we had fighters that could go with them to protect them. See the fighter plane didn't have the range that the bomber had. And so the fighter, they were limited. Sometimes we– they would go so far out with us and then turn around and leave us, well that give you an odd feeling. They're out there to protect you and when things get dangerous they leave [laughter]. I remember that we had a practice once with some fighters, over there in North Africa. Our own fighters, P-40s, this was the black squadron of P-40 fighters. And we had some training exercises, coming up there and seeing them on that, it was a good training for them too. In fact that's what I did when I came back here to Gowen, is we had fighters come in and come in on these planes. Fact I got a reel there of some of the bad marksmanship of those guys, that I still have with me. 35 millimeter, if you know someone has– you'll see some of our own of fighters out here, coming in on those B-24s. So the, the 25 missions then, they– it was more dangerous for them because they had fighters coming in on them. By the same token they also had fighter planes go with them, which kind of neutralized it. But if a plane ever fell out of formation, like we did several times, like on the– when the laf– raft broke loose, you're out there all alone. They can come from any direction they want, there's– the number of guns trained on them is very limited, because if they come in on the tail, they just got the tail gunner to– so they can, you know, move out of range of him fast, come in, make their fire and away they go and make the circle and come back again. That would be the big reason. We had a, we went past a sorting line, we call it, so they drew kind of a line in the sand saying, beyond that point you have no fire protection. You're on your own. And so when you went over the sorting line on the mission, or had to turn back for any reason, sometimes they gave you credit for being on the mission, because you was out there alone. When you're alone, you're fair, fair game.

I: Did you have more fighter support when you were based in Italy than when you were based in North Africa?

GG: Yeah. Because you had to cross the Mediterranean before you ever got to a target. Mediterranean is a pretty good-sized pond. Beautiful blue, beautiful blue.

I: You mentioned some of the things that you did, when you had some time, like you tried to fish, tried to swim. Can you think of any other things that you would do?

GG: Yeah, we would have leave, because you needed to. Some of them couldn't stand the, the rigors and the closeness of being in camp all the time. Sometimes you didn't have activity for several days, although you were on alert. I wrote on there the number of times that the mission was cancelled and so on, it may have been because of weather conditions where you were, or weather conditions over the target area that had been picked out. So,–gosh I lost my train then–

I: Things that you'd do for, when you have some time off.

GG: Oh. Time off, yeah. They would give us time off, maybe two or three days at a time. Some of the fellows liked to go in town and cut loose. I wasn't too interested in that, because I'd go to the Red Cross a lot. The Red Cross building. A lot of us did do that. Where they'd have games, and the Red Cross did a good job there, of furnishing us with a place away from home, and also occasionally we had USO come over. I remember especially Bob Hope was there, and as I looked out over that crowd and saw all the G.I.s who were around, and I thought, oh boy if they ever knew about this. But anyway yeah we were given some entertainment that way, and the Red Cross always furnished us with red, entertainment there. In North Africa especially I remember that the local people would get together some entertainment and bring to us. So there was everyone trying to keep us happy and keep us from going stir-crazy and, I remember one of the cartoons, it was in the Stars and Stripes, and these were famous. I wish somebody had run them sometime in our newspapers, because you'd get a big kick out of them. But it's– the guys on the ground had it a lot rougher than what we did. And ours wasn't perfect, but they had it a lot rough because they were always on the move, and they had to pick up and go and they had their own individual tents, and when it was cold you had all the heavy clothing. Well we had to wear a lot of heavy clothing too. But, they were good that way. The local people were good, for the entertainment. So the Red Cross was kind of a central place for us to go. The others– and as I say they would take us in North Africa to the Kasbahs, marketplaces, and show us around, so that was interesting that way. There was the language barrier because there wasn't any of us that spoke any of those languages, hardly. Very very few that would speak any of the languages. We did have a few key sentences or words that were given to us, as we went over, these are some of the words, you know, that kind of a thing. You say, good morning, good afternoon, so on, but I remember on the language barrier that when I was in Casablanca on my way home, I was there for about ten days I'd go into town and about the same time that a young boy was getting there waiting for his bus from school or to school. And so we'd strike up a conversation. He was learning English. This was his fifth language he was working with. So a lot of those people are bilingual in one, two, three, other languages. They have to because of the intercourse with the different nations that's been in the area. They gave us a little bit of information on that, introduction that– the first we had was an introduction to Britain. Well we were originally assigned to go there, but we went the other direction instead, so if I had some 'jpecifics other than what I have in that box there why it isn't much. So time off, yes, we were to go to the Isle of Capri once. We got as far as Capri, and found out we couldn't go to the island because they had some typhus there. Okay, so we didn't get to go. And that was a ten-day [pause] deal in the best hotels. So we missed out on something like that. So there was other things. Usually they made up what they wanted to do. And sometimes, I don't know how to say it, because I'm, I'm not finding fault with them. If you don't know, you don't believe– I [pause] well today, you'd say, okay if you want the AIDS, you know how to get it. And venereal disease was a enemy to the service. My brother says he used to haul truckloads of those guys around that had gotten venereal disease, to the hospital. So on their– Fort Douglas, they'd bring them all in, they'd haul them off to the hospital. So there was a lot of venereal disease, and once a month it was mandatory that they show us some films and some– give us some information on venereal diseases. So this is an area I haven't even spoken about, because the fellows, it didn't matter to them the– there were harlots, there were prostitutes. One of the first things we heard when we got in Italy is that a guy be down there saying he had a sister that could take care of any of them. So yeah, that was prevalent. A lot of guys who've been sorry about it since, but it was– sometimes being married didn't make much difference to them. So that's why a lot of them went to town. Because there was always a place there for them to find. My own crew was guilty of it all the way through from the time that we were in Boise on. I was the watchdog, I was the one that had to go out and get them and get them back to base on time if I could find them. That, that's when I became reverent. So there, there was that part of it. And, what do you say in this world where one standard is different from another? The LDS says no sex relationship before marriage. The others, well you've got to learn how to– I've been on some courts here in Boise. It'd be interesting, some of the information that comes out when these guys are in there for molesting little girls. Well they've got to be taught, they said, somebody has to teach them, that kind of a philosophy. So much for that. That was part and partial, and some of the things that was– there were those who remembered the vows that they made and I– and for the most part all of them were very outstanding individuals. I did not find fault with my crew. Hey, they saved my life, number of occasions. When I say that this guy in this position was there, and he shot down a fighter. Hey, that fighter was after me, as well as him. And so everyone had to be on the ball and had to look out for each other. And we did.

I: I have maybe just two more questions, and I think we'll save the specific mission questions for another interview. Everybody deals with stressful situations, and for every person there's a way to deal with a stressful situation. I'm wondering how you would deal with being in the plane with people with their guns pointed at you, and their job was to shoot you down.

GG: You know, I think you tried to play fair too [laughter]. I recall my brother saying, I was hauling down this German flag, I've got it in, in there in a drawer. Big one. A German sergeant walked up behind him with the gun trained on him, and then dropped it and surrendered. My brother never did tell me how he dealt with that. He, he'd been a position of where he'd said, Dick, I was there when I got wounded, and they found us with our mortar fire, and we were out of the tank. The mortar hit my companion square. He's no more. He had the flesh torn off his hip but he saved my life. So how do you, you shoot at them. You know that it's either you or me. He thinks his cause is just and we think that our cause is just. So I, I guess it's who has the greatest will, and, I don't know. When a nation wins a war, have they justly won it or was it out to get gain, or was it in protection of their families? So I think in the state of where you're protecting that which you love, your families, your country, your everything that you've got, that you have to take action, and the action is you've got to take advantage of the situation, use it. Now I ne– yeah I was face-to-face with those guys but I never seen them as an individual except one day, very definitely, he flew in formation with us. His guns were frozen, ours weren't working. It was cold, 60 degrees below centigrade, he flew there for a while. We could take his serial number, I think we did take it down. When 20 broke away [pause] there's a lot of stories. A lot of stories about being face-to-face and what they did with it. And especially in the eastern, or the pacific part of the war. I have a friend, who was born in Sweden. He lived there his teenage years. He was there when the German people had occupation of Sweden. And he tells me about– he'd be interested to interview sometime. He tells me about how they would go out to find berries to pick, and how they would hide things sometimes in those baskets, some food instead of the berries. And how they'd come back and how they'd beat the occupied German soldiers. He said, Dick, when we'd hold services on Sunday, there were some LDS soldiers there, and they would come and go to church with us. Hang their guns out in the hall, come in, sit down with us and have services. So as far as the enemy being that close, I was never that close. So it became a very impersonal thing in a sense. Even with our own crews, we didn't become very close. All the crews. We had 29 planes go over, this was a squadron. And that's with the, that'd be two squadrons, actually, 'cause there's 12 planes in a squadron, and we usually flew with just six. When you come close to another crew and you lose them, it's a personal loss. So when, when the various groups come together, as we come together, and we lost just one member from our LDS group that we knew about it, it was a loss. So sometimes there was a lot of close friendships formed and I think it wasn't on purpose, but that we weren't that close sometimes. It was difficult to lose somebody. Difficult to, to see your friends pulled out of a plane injured. Just because the plane got back doesn't mean it come back whole. I've got a– that one flight on Regisburg, you ought to see sometime. I'll show it to you if you have time, it takes I think about a half hour. It gives you an idea of, a lot of good solid friendships were formed. Good ones, and I'm not talking just about Latter-day Saints, but I'm talking about everybody. I would love [pause] to see my crew again, and they've had reunions. The 8th Air Force does all the time. I've never received word of the 15th Air Force having a reunion, they have a lot of get-togethers, you know they go over to Europe and have big blowouts there. In fact my brother's been over there I don't know how many times, where they have big monuments that they've built in England. My daughter just returned from a tour that they made, to England, Europe and went to the battlefields there. I've never done it, I've been too busy doing other things.

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Interviewee: George Curtis Richard Galloway
Interviewer: Troy Reeves
Date: Unknown
Place: Unknown

GG: It w–, war is horrible. War is hell. War is against anything that moves, regardless of which side you're on. It destroys—it doesn't build. All the spinoff from war's done a lot of good, yeah, but what a price to pay. That's...[pause] yet I think that, my feeling after being in it, like the last verse of the Star-Spangled Banner– which everyone ought to memorize and remember– if our cause it is just, are the words that's used. If our cause is just, then I, I would go tomorrow. And that's, I think the key to the whole thing. Is it just, or is it money that does it? And of course that's what they're saying about the United States now. It's, it's the money, it's the oil, it's the industries, it's all of these things, and that we're overpowering other nations, and they're not happy with it. And people are starving around the world, and yet instead of using the money we use for war for the starving people, we're using it to, to destroy things. Those B-17s at first cost about a half a million dollars. They got it down to where they were 300 and something thousand dollars. The price of this house. Today, I don't– they talk about one of those big birds costing how many millions? The price of war, the price of a spinoff, the– and you wonder about the justice. The Arabs are saying, well we want justice. We're saying, we want justice. How are you gonna reach it? Firing a gun, will that bring justice? So– and I know how some of them feel about it, and most of the fellows in my generation, as I say, we were civilian army defending our homeland. Well that's what the Germans had been taught too. Except the interesting thing was, they weren't in our homeland at all. They were in somebody else's backyard. And Hitler had stabilized their mark, which it would take a wheelbarrow of marks to buy a loaf of bread. I remember all that stuff before the war, because I was in school. We talked about it. He stabilized it and he made the German people feel like they were somebody. Some of the missionaries that I talked to, as they'd come back, said, you know I bought a tie over there, it's made out of goat milk. The Germans were ingenious in their way of doing things. They were ahead of us. We could change one of their engines in twenty minutes. It'd take us hours to change one of ours. Just by a simple little thing as a conduit that could screw together and all the wires would go through it. And ours were strung all over everywhere. Still are, when you look at the back of my TV in there.

TR: Well, I had one more thing I wanted to ask, but I think I'll leave it for next time. I think I've taken enough of your time today.

GG: Well, you're welcome to come back anytime.

TR: Great. Well thank you very much.

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Interviewee: George Curtis Richard Galloway (GG)
Interviewer: Troy Reed (TR)
Date: 27 September 2002
Location: Galloway residence, Meridian, ID, USA

TR: Richard, I have a couple of questions, some things I would like you to clarify from some previous interviews before we jump in. I know you had some things that you wanted to get on tape. 

GG: Okay, we can do that.

TR: Okay. Both interviews you mentioned a man named Lieutenant Ellsworth.

GG: Yes.

TR: I was wondering if you could give that gentleman's first name.

GG: I can, I can look it up. I'm trying to think of it right now.

TR: Okay. Actually we can just– after the interview if you want, we can look it up. Because I // just need it for our, for our paperwork.//

GG: // Okay, it's uh...// No I, I want to use it, because I'm going to use his name in here and I've got it in the book here.

TR: Well, let's hit pause then and you can...

GG: Yeah. 

TR: Okay so his name is...

GG: Reed F. Ellsworth. 

TR: Okay.

GG: And there's an article about him in a book called Saints at War, by Robert Freeman and Dennis A. Wright. And Lieutenant Ellsworth was shot down and was prisoner of war in Germany for the rest of his stay in Europe. This was of interest to me because we were on the same flight together. And we were close friends and did some things together, and– while we were overseas.

TR: Okay. And my next clarification question is, were you the, the old– on the crew that was put together in the States before you guys went to Northern Africa, that crew– were you the oldest member of that crew?

GG: Yes. In age I was, because I would be [counting to himself] 21, twenty...23 or 24.

TR: And did you ever think about or have any feelings about the fact that you were the, the oldest?

GG: No, it didn't bother me at all. I learned to trust them. I found out that they knew what they were doing, and that was the important thing.

TR: Okay. Did you ever fly a mission from a base in Algeria?

GG: Yes.

TR: Okay. And my last question before we jump into the– I know there are some things that you want to make sure we get on tape today. Looking back on it, do you have any specific thoughts or memories about being at Gowen Field?

GG: Yes, and I'll, I'll mention those as we go along.

TR: Alright. If you want to, I don't know, do you want me to ask about these specific missions, do you want to do it that way, or?

GG: Why don't I just go ahead with it and if, if this is what you want, okay. If it isn't, well maybe you'll have to come out again [both laugh]. Because I got an idea here and, and I think it's worthwhile. Let's see, birth dates and marriage and all of that, you've already got, or should I give a little preface on it?

TR: I think I have all of that, on the paperwork that both you and your wife have filled out. I think we have that information.

GG: Okay.

TR: But go ahead and start wherever.

GG: Why don't, I'm going to give that again because it's interesting. I was born January 28th, 1918, in Shelley, Bingham County, Idaho. We moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, when I was three years old. I attended the Onequa, Jackson Junior High School, and graduated from West High School in 1935, where I lettered in basketball and football. I married Lois LaRue Brown June the 25th 1945, in the Salt Lake Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by George Albert Smith, who was president of the church at that time. [Pause] My youngest son is now attending school again. He wrote an essay called I Never Knew and I thought I'd like to introduce this with, with some of the things that he said, not all, but it'd be interesting to have the rest of it. He said, "I was struck at how small the bird from World War II was. Here I was standing before a B-17 bomber, also known as the Flying Fortress, which I'd seen in my own mind's eye as huge. Now it stood there seemingly so small when compared to modern day passenger jets. Once in the hull of the bomber, I was poignantly conscious that the inside was cramped with only a four-inch plank on which to walk through the fuselage. In many places one slip and you'd fall through the belly to the earth below. The plane was designed for one thing, and one thing only—holding and dropping as many bombs as possible on the enemy. As I was walking along this narrow plank, I became sensitive of something that I was not prepared for. I felt the presence of the young soldiers that had flown in this plane to combat. I was suddenly overwhelmed with the knowledge that war was genuine. Young men younger than I had fought and given their lives while serving in this instrument of war. This was the last thing I expected to happen on this trip to the tarmac. I had brought my dad out to see the B-17 on this hot summer day, so he could relive part of his past. I thought that I was doing him a favor, and now I was the one who would remember this experience for the rest of my life. I was fortunate to never have known war on first-hand basis. My dad had been in World War II, yet he'd never shared with me any of his experiences of what war was like, and at this moment, I wondered why. My father has related to my children and their cousins remarkable war stories, and discussed their effect on his generation. The grandkids have invited him to their classrooms and school to share his war experiences. They've interviewed him on tape or research papers of the great war. They've learned detailed mysteries about his life that I never heard. They have awed and respected him, for his heroics and that I did not have while growing up. Over the years as I've talked with my older brothers and sisters, none of us remember at any time in our youth when he shared these same events with us. We knew that Dad was a gunner on a B-17 bomber, and that two of his brothers had served. One was wounded and lost his eye while serving on a plane as a radio man. Uncle Paul would take out his fake eye on occasion to terrify my oldest sister Susan. All I knew about his other brother Henry was that he was not quite right in the head because of the terrible things that he had seen while serving in tanks—in some cases being one of the first to go in and witness firsthand the horror of the Jewish concentration camps. And yet, I knew nothing more than this." About my family—Paul, after losing his eye, shot down two German fighters. General Lemay with whom Paul had flown ordered Paul to remain in England, and set up and supervise radio schools throughout the British isles. And there was other special assignments given to him. In fact, he was with the first group that bombed Europe by the American pilots. Among his eleven medals are the Distinguished Service cross, and the French Croix de Guerre, and the Purple Heart. Other– after his discharge Paul worked for the government of Huntsville, Alabama and Salt Lake City. His work was classified as secret, and at one time he was in charge of the Hawk Missile System in Europe. William Henry was in the third armored tank division. Every crack of a dead limb or leaf or sound kept them on the alert 24 hours a day, day after day. See the movie In Search of Private Ryan, and you'll understand. Henry was wounded. He said to me one day, Dick, do you know what it's like when a close friend is standing in front of you, he was hit by mortar fire. He just disappeared. He was dead. I was hit, my friend saved my life. Henry's leg was to be taken off at the hip, but a new doctor said, I'll save it, because the bone is okay. And he did. Henry was to be sent home. He fought it. He had a job to do and volunteered to be reunited with his old unit and his tank. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge, and for the remainder of the invasion until they reached Berlin. After the war Henry served an LDS mission, married and had a family. William Henry, Paul and I received 34 plus medals. Charles my youngest brother was not drafted, but he worked at Fort Douglas, Utah for the army as a chauffeur. For example, driving generals and others to various appointments, soldiers with V.D. to the hospital, and others to various appointments. He also chauffeured German prisoners of war to their compounds. He was needed at the home to be with a heartbroken mother whose three sons were off to war. And this wasn't unusual because in the area where I lived, three and four sons were in World War II. She was a cook at the arms plant and Dad worked on the railroad. We had many cousins serve in World War II—three brothers from Shelley survived Pearl Harbor, and finished the war and returned home. And the other cousin was killed in an airplane accident as he was training for the Air Force. And the rest returned home safe. My wife had four brothers in service. Two were bombadiers on B-17s. One was killed several years later in the National Guard out here at Gowen Field. The third brother trained as bombadier on the B-29s to drop the nuclear bomb on Japan. I was trained as a flight engineer. First, we were sent to Wichita Falls, Texas. From Wichita Falls, Texas I was– and that's where we learned all there was to know about airplane engines, hydraulics, the electrical engineering, throughout all the planes, which were very basic. From that point on we were assigned on crews to service the airplanes, or in our particular case, we volunteered to fly. So we were sent then to Seattle, Washington, to the Boeing aircraft factory, where we learned about the B-17 Flying Fortress. It was a fascinating and interesting experience, as we tore apart and put together a B-17 as part of our training. From there we were sent to Boise, Idaho, where we were assigned crews. It's of interest that I was out here at the same time that...forgot his name.

TR: Jimmy Stewart?

GG: Jimmy Stewart was out here. I almost run over him one day not knowing who he was. Anyway, that was quite interesting because the group that was formed that he was in was sent to England, and the group that I was formed in was sent to North Africa and later to Italy. There were 29 crews in our particular group and I don't know how many in England, but I think perhaps the– about the same number that went to England. So the crews were made up out here and there were some very interesting things that took place. I'll probably mention that a little later. Before arriving here, though, I did go to Wendover, Utah where I graduated as an aerial gunner. And so we were kind of prepared in a lot of things, in a lot of training, over about a year-and-a-half. And a lot of things that we learned. In fact, it's too bad that we weren't given credit– school credit– for these experiences that we had. Okay, it, it may be well at this point– and to talk a little something about some of the things that I will mention as I go along. Weather was always a problem with flying. Cloud covers over and to the target, the turbulence would throw the plane around as if it were a toy. Fighters would hide in the clouds and in the sun. And so this was another problem, and not knowing what to expect. Weather was like a roller coaster ride. Sometimes you wondered whether or not you'd ever get there and whether or not it was the flak that was hitting you or whether it was the weather bouncing you around. The runways were steel mats joined together, and very uneven at times. Sometimes rock on the runway would create a problem. These runways were laid usually in North Africa as well as later in– at Foggia, in Italy– right in, in a grape orchard, or vineyard, I should say. The ground crews were great. They would be up all night repairing, making sure the aircraft was ready to fly. So many things to do. Food to provide, air control, so on. Crews were specially trained for, as I mentioned, about two years, and now we were specialists—pilot, co-pilot, navigator, bombadier, flight engineers, radio, and armament. There were ten of us on each crew. Any error in the execution in the area that these men were capable of taking care of would be dangerous, from takeoff to landing. And every member of the crew was trained and cross-trained to handle emergencies. We were one for all and all for one. We had to trust and believe in one another. Security at the base was always and in all ways something to consider. Landmines. We remembered that these bases that we stayed at had once been used by the enemy. And so there were landmines and booby traps of many kinds. Even a pencil could be a booby trap. We always had to consider that guards were necessary to stay around the airplanes for any stray enemy soldier that, that would be around. In fact, seven were caught one night boarding a Fortress. They were lined up the next morning facing the firing squad, squad, if there were any accidents when we took off. It was a serious thing. Flak makes reference to exploding shells fired by .88 or .105 millimeter guns that were stationed on the ground, and they used radar to track your direction and ascertain your exact heighth. The concussion from the explosion sent out fragmentated pieces of steel, and a large mushroom of black smoke. Hence the common statement, "flak so thick that you could walk on it." The IP has reference to the initiatory point. When the control of air– this is when the control of the airplane is turned over to the bombadier and his Norden bombsight. During this time the flight, the 17 was guided straight to the target. No evasive action could be taken, and it was all the way from five to twenty minutes. In other words, we were setting ducks to the German guns during that period of time. That's interesting that it was my brother's pilot that came upon this idea of the initiatory point for bombing. He was the first in Europe to do that. It was always during that five to twenty minutes, seemed an eternity, it seemed like it was forever. There wasn't anything you could do. And then the bombadier would announce, bombs away. The pilot would pull back on the controls, make an abrupt turn to the rider of the left, and we were going to get out of there just as quickly as we could, while the crew members from their various points in the plane would give reports back to whether or not the target had been hit, and what they observed, and all of those things which is quite fascinating during that period of time. The success of the mission very often depended upon them picking up clues as they saw the bombs drop and explode. Well this pulling out was through flak and enemy fighters that would be waiting for us. Well, war is mankind at its lowest level of civilization. Even hatred grew so great as war crimes were committed. Both the enemy and Americans. I have no hate, only love for my fellow man and a purr in my heart that we could be brothers again. And that one day, and that one day long ago when a German ME 109 fighter joined our formation. No shots were fired. He saluted, we saluted, and flew away back to our home base. Just a fascinating part of one of our flights. I believe that all mankind have somehow or in some way when in time of trouble prayed in their hearts for help and understanding. The special prayers of families, especially mothers, friends and all mankind gave us hope, safety and peace. To my soul I was not afraid of whatever might be. War is hell. 60 million lost their lives in World War II. Hundreds of beautiful cities destroyed, many horribly wounded for life, physically and mentally. More civilians than soldiers were killed. Orphans were made, mankind lost his dignity, and war crimes were committed. We volunteered to fly and asked for nothing in return. It was a duty and a trust to defend our great land, our wives, our children and all mankind. We do not ask for honors or special compensation, only to be loved, to love, in peace and comfort at home. Prayer and living my moral code was a daily routine in my life and in every sense reflected in the peace I always felt and in always found in my life. I was called Sunshine and Reverend by my crew. That may require another explanation, but it was fascinating. In fact, I have a letter that was written home about it. I have served two years on a mission– I had served two years on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I was released on Pearl Harbor Day, December 7th 1941. The mission was one of the greatest experiences in my life. I had learned to love and respect all of our Father in Heaven's children. I knew no hate, I grew up among children of immigrants from over Europe and other nations, to whom were members of my faith, they will recognize and understand the words of my prayer when I arrived in North Africa for our first missions of destruction. This was on September 24th, 1943. It's entitled Bombadier's Prayer. "Give us the strength this restless day, our Father, teacher of the truth, to live a life and lead the way to Heaven's peace and childlike love. To those who lose their lives this day, by bombs we loose from dreaded skies, on earth and heaven along the way, let me the Gospel teach to them, in Jesus' name, I humbly pray." I have often told my children and others that I've taught that they should put on the full armor mentioned by Paul in the Bible. Well in the Air Force we had to put on the full armor too, for protection. So clothing for the site might be well to explain so that you understand all about this preparation for the battle. It's hot on the ground, well over 100 degrees, but up there at 25,000 feet it's going to be 50 degrees below zero centigrade. Fact it'd get as high as 60 below centigrade. So we wore winter underwear called long johns, given to us by the service. And believe you me the boys on the ground were appreciative of those long johns. We were too at altitude. Maybe sometimes we'd put more on—woolen army uniforms, heavy stockings, perhaps two pair, and our army boots. Next, a sweater, a sweater or a jacket depending on your station. And then, about two inches of sheepskin jackets, pants, and boots. Now that wasn't all. The next came in inflatable Mae West life vest. For those who knew about Mae West they would understand the nickname that's given to the life vest. Next, the parachute harness. And then a 15 pound flak vest, fitting over the shoulders front and back with an apron. This vest was made of metal and heavy canvas. Fact the police use it today, when they go out. Then there was fur-lined gloves were a must, and helmets with earphones and a mike, and our precious oxygen mask, which sometimes would freeze from our warm breath as we would breathe, and we would continually have to break the ice crystals that were formed on our oxygen mask. We had to check our guns, they weighed 64 pounds, they were Air Cube Browning 50 caliber machine guns. They fired 750–800 rounds at a chamber pressure of 50,000 pounds per square inch. The range of the projectile was four and a half miles. The muzzle velocity was 1,800 miles per hour. Now a brief review of my travels before we got overseas, I think is at hand now, because I was asked about Boise in particular. When we'd finished our training at, at the Boeing aircraft factory, we were then assigned here to Gowen Field. There were seven of us that were very close, while we're in the service, and I have some interesting letters. Two of us had volunteered to, to fly. And Spencer Black, the army would know him as Newell Spencer Black, he wrote, wrote a letter to me, just before I got here to Boise. And he said, I don't think you'll like it here Dick. Today two 17s run into each other and fell to the ground. Another came back with sagebrush in his bald turret. Another came back with telephone wires wrapped around his propellor. At any rate there were casualties in our training. One man at our gunnery school had been killed from a machine gun that had been laid on a bench and somehow a bullet was left in it and it hit him and killed him. We trained here, did a lot of flying. We flew all over Idaho and Washington, Oregon. It was interesting that in our cross-training, I think about our second flight, I was flying co-pilot. We'd come around and

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Interviewee: George Curtis Richard Galloway
Interviewer: Troy Reed
Date: unknown
Location: Galloway residence, Meridian, ID, USA

GG: ...ted up for the pilot to finish the landing. But we did have some fire extinguishers at each engine and we were able to put the flame out before we landed. Well, those are some of the thrills that you get that you're not looking for. We were then assigned to Walla Walla, Washington. And we did flight, flight training up there and did some very silly things sometimes. We flew back up into hills, up through the valleys, saw those beautiful forest green country up there. We would come down and then fly over the wheat fields. I was going to say treetop level but that's not right, it was wheat-top level. One day in doing that, we came up over a hill and right at the top of it was a grain elevator. And all three of us grabbed those controls and it's a good thing we all pulled the same direction. Any rate, we did other crazy things. We saw a farmer down there parking his car, we buzzed the car. That isn't fair but it happened. From, from Walla Walla we were given a special mission to fly out over the Pacific Ocean. It was a triangle flight. It was quite interesting because a lot of preparation was made for that flight and here we would be on our own, really on our own. The navigator would have to know what he was doing, or we'd probably find ourselves in Hawaii or someplace else, in Alaska. At any rate, in getting the plane ready we have what we call the pre-fly—we go around and check everything before we'd even get in the cockpit. In doing so, you turn the propellors over, and that's to get the oil out of the lower cylinders so that when you start the engines up it won't blow a cylinder off because of the compression. One of the co-pilots walked into that prop as it turned around and it hit him in the head, and they had to take him to the hospital. So this, this was another case—war is ugly. Even in the training accidents happen. We took this flight out over the ocean. It was a night flight. So we didn't have the, the sun to go by. We got out over the ocean flying along pretty good at altitude and then we noticed that the ice was forming on the wings of the airplane. Now, they have what they call ice, de-icers. It's a rubber band that goes in front of the leading edge of the wing. The idea was to break up the ice, but what it did, it broke up the ice alright, but it also broke up the airflow on the wings, which you lost lift. So, the plane's getting heavier and heavier with ice, and so we'd come down then through the clouds into the rainstorm underneath where it was warmer so that the ice would melt. We got down there and took a look at the ocean and the wild waves and we decided that it was better to go back up where the ice was. So, that was an all night trip, up and down during that period of time. Along about daybreak we headed back towards land, and that was the most beautiful sight I've ever seen. The clouds that we had fought all night long were now dissipating, and you could see right straight down to the white sandy shores in California. And looking off toward the sunrise as we come up over the mountain, were the beautiful blooms of fruit trees that just set a picturesque setting for us. The pilot turned to me and said, Dick, how much gas do we have? Well, I'd been transferring gas all night from one end to the other so we wouldn't run out on any particular one engine. I calculated, well I said, maybe we got enough to get us to Denver. He says, we're not going to Denver. We're going to land the first airport we see. So we did, we landed there, gassed up and then went back to Walla Walla, Washington. From Walla Walla, Washington we were sent back to Boise, where we received our assignment to the crews, and from here we were sent to Salina, Kansas. Now Salina, Kansas is where they were producing B-17s, and so we were assigned a brand new B-17 there. First thing we did to had to break it in, we went and buzzed the capitol building, put the wing down and made a 360 degree circle around it, then went back to our base. We got back there, we'd had a little bit of engine trouble with one of the engines. And I told the ground crew, I think I know what it is, and told them. I don't remember the particular item right now. And so they went ahead and found out that that's what it was. So I felt pretty good. Now I was a flight engineer, my first test came and I passed it. From Salina, Kansas we, we had been assigned to go to, to North Africa. And so the route we took from Salina, Kansas was to Golf Port, West Palm Beach, I guess is where that field was. And while there, our pilot Captain Andrews had a friend that was flying B-26s, and there was a B-26 field on the other side of Florida. So we decided to go over there and visit his friend. We put his friend on the B-17 and thought, well we'll show him how, what a good plane this is. We, we'd take off and then chandelled off to the left or the right, a steep steep climb, and pretty soon the tower called us and said, you can't do that. You're unnerving everyone here. Well, the B-26 is a beautiful airplane—fast, powerful—the most powerful twin engine that we had. The problem with it was that they were losing a lot of them because of the power and in fact, they'd lost several a few days before we got there. And while we were there, I was looking out on the runway and the runway had a, a cross. There were two runways that crossed each other. Two 26s come together on that and airplanes just flew all over the place. It was a horrible sight to, to see. But in that particular flight we did something else that we probably shouldn't have, is that we got the attention of our guest pilot. And while they did, we feathered both engines on one side, so we were flying on two on the, on the other side. And then we pointed out to him that, hey, our engines are out. We just about lost a B-26 pilot. But anyway, those are some of the things that we learned to do. We would climb to altitude and then let the plane stall out. We'd pull back on the throttle, let it just drop, and you'd go into a slow roll. You had to learn how to do those things. Alright. From Salina we flew out of the– let's see, we went down– I might mention this. In going down to West Palm Beach, we did fly down the Mississippi River. Not at altitude. And when we got down to Louisiana, we ended up with a beautiful campus there, a University campus. And we decided that needed to be buzzed. Well anyway, these are– look, we're dealing with kids. We're dealing with 18, 19, 20-year old kids. And I guess you kind of had to get some of that out of your system. From West Palm Beach they told us– sent us up to Robin's Field in, in Alabama, to have some Tokyo tanks—we termed them—put in the wings. It's additional gas tanks to increase the range of the B-17F. The new Gs, which would come out later and which I talk about, already had those in it. So, we flew up to Robin's Field, and when we got there it was a race. We got there early, landed, and then the planes stacked up behind us. Remember there's 29 of them, stacked up behind us. And they took care of those first, and that gave me time to decide to take a trip– go up to South Carolina to visit some of my friends that were up there. So, that was an interesting thing. And when we got back and was ready to take off back to Florida, when we got there, they asked our crew if we would stick around. They needed some training film made of B-17s and fighters and so on, and that they would like to have. So we remained there for another ten days flying just around the country. It's interesting there because you could take off with the sun shining bright and by the time you got halfway down the runway it'd be raining. We were then delayed behind our crew. We flew from there on down to Puerto Rico and spent the night there. Went on down to Venezuela, spent the night there. And then went on down to British Guiana right on the Equator. When we got down there to British Guiana– when we went out in the morning to pre-flight the plane, I took the other engineer with me and we didn't look behind us. And there was some GI portable latrines sitting back there. And we started blowing them over after we started the engines up. The jungle is thick. My, if you took what, ten foot off the runway, you'd be deep in the jungle, and you'd be lost if you didn't know which direction you were going in. We crossed the Amazon River. I didn't think we'd ever get across that river—it's huge. The flow of the river goes out in the ocean. You can see it for miles and miles where the ocean waters merge with the Amazon River. From British Guiana we went down to Natal, Brazil, and I have to mention this here—we picked up a, a dog when we were in Boise. A– gosh, I've had those dogs myself– he was a black little guy and we called him Bombsight. And so he was with us on some of these flights. The crew decided they wanted a monkey. So they picked up a monkey in Natal, Brazil, and our next flight out of Natal– we spent a couple of nights there– was out over the South Pacific. It'd be an eleven-hour flight, which was a pretty good flight– to Dakar, South Afri– er, North Africa. At Dakar, we saw some planes there being guarded by some black people. Most of them were about seven foot tall, and they had with them the old British musket, which probably six-foot tall, and that was quite an interesting sight. I never got pictures of that, and I wished I had. We took off from Dakar. At the end of the runway a B-26 had taken off just ahead of us. When he got to the end of the runway and started getting altitude he nosed over and caught fire, and we took off over the top of that B-26. We went to Marrakesh. From Marrakesh we went to Casablanca and Salé several times, flights all over that area so that, so Algeria and Tunisia, and Morocco were all– we seen it very well from the air. We went then to [---], or Tunis and Tunisia, and there we had our first taste of a little something about war. We saw a fireworks display that you wouldn't believe. The Germans decided to bomb Tunis. Now the air– our air base was a little out from Tunis but we could see everything that was taking place. We could hear the planes, and hear the bombs go off, and believe you me, we weren't standing up. We were in the foxholes looking out, because we figured that we'd be next. While there in Tunis– and, and a lot of the flights that I'll mention were out of Tunis and out of Algeria both– was a sight that wasn't pleasant. I was walking down the street of Tunis one day and here was a big hangar. And everything was quiet around there. The Navy was using the hangar. One of the sailors had been up in the attic of it for some reason, had fallen, hit on his head on a concrete floor. And of course he was killed and that, that wasn't pleasant to see a human being in a pool of blood. He wouldn't go home to his folks and he hadn't been in war yet. Okay, I think what I'd better do now is get, get here to my diary a little bit and tell you a little bit about the experiences. And I, I think you'll find it quite interesting and I'll, I'll hurry it up here because then it– later on we can talk about anything particular. Here was a mission, Friday August the 6th, 1943. The H-hour was at six a.m. You know, that's exciting to get up four and five and six in the morning. The takeoff schedule was for 9:15, the destination was Messina, Italy. The target was the Messina Harbor and the warehouse. We had number two position in second-echelon and that can be explained later, but that was your position in the flight. There were six planes in a squadron and four squadrons to a bomb group. We started climbing to altitude immediately, flying along the north side of Sicily. Our bombing altitude was 29,100 feet and we dropped twelve 500-pound bombs. Great amount of flak we encountered, very– it was very accurate. The number three plane in our echelon was shot down. Two engines, same side was shot out, and also a gas tank by flak. Several of the men were hit and injured. The pilot landed the plane safe in Sicily. Two other 17s followed it down to offer protection. The target was reached about 11:30. We made the trip without any trouble. Without any trouble [laughs]– what I mean, we were all right thus far. And I even put down the name of the plane—it was called Wolf Pack. But I usually put down just what the plane number was. Alright. The next one that I'd like to tell about was– the takeoff was at 7:00, is Wednesday, the 9th, or Wednesday September the 25th, 1943. Hey, that's kind of a date like today, isn't it? This is interesting. I'm telling it because Lieutenant Andrews was sick, and we decided we better turn back. We lost one Fortress that flight to fighters, and I think they're the ones that flew our position when we pulled out of formation. One radio operator was killed by a .50 caliber projectile, and our squadron 346th was shot up pretty bad. Foggia was bombed—this was to be our future home. The next flight is Friday, August 27th– now I've got a wrong date there. Well, that's right. So it should be Friday, September the 27th. The destination was Samana, Italy. The target was Samana railroad yards and armament. We flew right wing, first element, to major [---]. The bombing altitude 22,100 feet. Target was reached at 11:30. We had– we were escorted by twelve P-39s. No enemy fighters encountered, no flak over the target, and after turning from the target we passed over an airfield, got some flak in our left wing. That makes things exciting. And we hadn't dropped our bombs. Something was wrong with the release mechanism. We could see both sides of the coasts of Italy. It's a very beautiful place. Okay. August 31st. Takeoff 8:30, destination Pisa, Italy, the marshalling yards. We were left wing, second element, first squadron, first group to go over the element. Bombing altitude 19,600 feet. We had no escort, flew by Sardinia and Corsica making a U-circle around Leghorn to bomb Pisa. Bombing was accurate, flak wasn't very accurate. Three fighters were sighted, we scared them away. That's an interesting statement to make. I was the first to sight them. Aerial bombs were dropped. All planes returned. Leghorn appeared to be on fire. September 5th, Sunday. Briefing at 8:30, takeoff 10:30. Target—Viterbo Aerodrome, mission was complete. Carried fragmentary bombs. It was a very cloudy, and it's a question as to the damage done. Flak was heavy and accurate. About seven fighters attacked our formation coming in as much as three and four times. I shot about 700 rounds of ammunition. I thought the barrel of my gun was burned out but it didn't appear that way. Later on I found out, yes, it was burned out. I'm sure that I hit the fighter. Or at least scared him kind of bad [laughs]. That's a strange way of saying it, but Pauling and Hoffman and Larson who were three of our gunners, one at the tail, one at the ball turret and one at the radio, said they put tracers through one of the fighters and [---] was given that fighter to claim. On Monday, September 6th, target aerodrome near– I can't make that out now– oh Naples. Carried 250-pound demolition bombs. Delayed action. They– we flew the same ship position as yesterday—lead ship. We were the first group over yesterday, the second over today. So just clarifying this, we didn't always fly the same position. We flew around Naples for a while and then home. This made either our eighth or ninth mission. They hadn't decided yet. Tuesday September 7th, 1943, took off at 8:00, over target at 12:30, dropped fragmentation bombs. These, these fragmentation bombs are anti-personnel bombs. We flew the lead ship, flew over the target at 25,000 feet. The target was Foggio satellite number one. The airbase had a 40-minute air battle. Let's see, yeah the satellite number one airbase. We had a 40-minute air battle, with twenty-five to thirty-five ME 109s. We received eight large flak holes. On our way back home we flew formation to a cripple plane, number three propellor was feathered. We landed near Bizerte at Mateur, the pilot was Lieutenant Bankhead. As I remember, Lieutenant Bankhead, and Ellsworth was his navigator. They'd been hit about the– been hit in the bombadier section of the plane, and so we flew in with, with the plane to offer them protection from the fighters and get our wounded taken care of. Lieutenant Bankhead was another close friend. His bombadier had been hit in the face with a 20-millimeter shell. Okay. What we observed was that there were thousands and thousands of tanks and troops on the island. In fact, they had to clear the runway so we could, could come in [pause]. So they cleared the runway and we came in, with, with the injured ship and the injured crew. These crews– not only was there a lot of tanks, but there were C-47s. That's the twin engine plane that was used as the air carrier then, and in fact it was used in the States. It was the DC-3 in the States. They were filled with paratroopers, and boy could they ask questions. The thought that run through my mind, seeing the tanks, I wonder if my brother is here. These men would– be in the next few hours– storm the beaches of Anzio. And also down around, well Anzio was down around close to Rome. The next one is interesting because we were sent to bomb a target in [---] city proper. The Germans had taken over this little city as their headquarters. We flew at 18,000 feet, which isn't very high for...perfect bombing. The city was wiped out. Another time it was hit by mistake by another group and it was wiped out. The general that flew with us radioed back to headquarters—Mission completed, one town missing. We flew right wing, second-echelon, more flak than yesterday. We got eleven holes this time. Saw three fighters go out after the wave behind us, so they missed us for the most part. Okay. Wednesday, September 13th. Lieutenant Ellsworth and I were going to Carthage. Now this is one of the side trips that we took, but I think it's worthwhile to mention because of the experience that we had. Lieutenant Ellsworth is mentioned earlier as one that we had formed a good friendship. We were going to Carthage, but we went to Sicily to see Elmer Grant Sessions, a member of our faith that was from California. He was a radio operator, he was wounded severely in five places, and was in the hospital. Besides, his arm was pretty bad shape. When, when we got to Sicily we'd flown up out of North Africa for this. We all got on a Jeep. There's about, you know, half a dozen or a dozen on that Jeep, weighed it down pretty good. Sicily'd just been taken by our troops, before they invaded Italy. And people greeted us, all dressed in black. The women with their black veils, they would have children who had been injured with a leg or an arm missing, sitting on the front porch, and letting us know that our bombs [pause] were there. We took– administered to our sick companion so he could be sent back to the States. And then this, this is interesting because we– I named the people that was with us—there was Lieutenant Hansen, and Ellsworth and Bankhead, and Sanders, and Clark, and me, and two or three others that we'd picked up along the way, that made this trip. We went swimming in the Mediterranean. Okay.

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Interviewee: George Curtis Richard Galloway (GG)
Interviewer: Troy Reeves (TR)
Date: 27 September 2002
Location: Galloway residence, Meridian, ID, USA

TR: Okay, this is take two with Richard Galloway on September 27, 2002.

GG: Okay, I might mention here that in this, there isn't many details. Battles that lasted forty to fifty minutes was just a small portion of the flight. Because we had flak and other things along the way to, to bother us as well as sometimes the enemy had– one time had captured a B-17 intact, and they were sending it up. And then they would act like they were a crippled airplane wanting to get in with your flight. And then they'd pull up in your group and they were just loaded with guns, and they'd shoot down one or two planes. And so we were on a constant watchout for things of that sort that was pulled. Lot of other– we were entitled every once in a while to have a rest period. We had two rest periods and neither one of them did we enjoy. One was to the Isle of Capri, and we got there and they had had an outbreak of typhus. The other place was down around Naples. When we got there, the water system was not functioning, and so we had to go back to our field and there wait. So war is waiting, waiting, waiting. The– there's a lot of stress in that waiting, because the unknown. Operational– then you can get prepared and ready to go. Well on this day, February, or Friday it is, Friday, October 29th, briefing was early, the takeoff was 8:25. We were the lead plane, the second element. Bomb load was twelve 500-pounders. The target was Turin, Italy. The alternate, Genoa. Bombing altitude 24,400 feet. There was always an alternate target that we had in mind. Turin was covered with clouds, so we bombed Genoa. Good hits, little flak as we were making our bomb run. The second group was also making one at the right angle to us. One of the planes must have been hit by flak directly in the, in the fuel tank or in the bomb bay, because a flame completely enveloped the plane from the wing back for several hundred feet. Then it nosed over turning over on its back, at which time the wing broke off and the remainder of a plane went into a spin. Then I lost track of it. Lieutenant Carlson said that it exploded on its way down. That, that reminds me that on our way back, on our very first flight as we were crossing the Mediterranean, we spotted a Catalina down in the water. There was also a, a British plane that had spotted it, and so they were in, in the process of rescuing the, the people on that. We then– the next day we went to Turin again, and it was the same procedure as the day before. Bad weather all the way up the coast. To our great surprise, no flak. We encountered no fighters although several were seen. Good bombing. Alright. I'm skipping some here. This one was another flight to Turin, ball-bearing factory. The weather was rough and so closed in we had to fly around 1,300 feet most all the way. It was a seventeen minute bomb run. The target was hit, flak was very accurate but not very much, received about five holes. Our oxygen for the left side of the plane was shot away, so I was without it from the target on down to 10,000 feet. No enemy fighters encountered. Our gas was very low, so we had to land at Corsica to get some gas. About fifteen other 17s landed, and one landed with his full bomb load and got stuck on the runway. So we had to spend the night there. It was between Hoffman and me to stand guard. Hoffman lost, he stood guard but I still had to gas the plane up and take care of it. But here's the interesting thing about this—this had just been evacuated by the Germans. There were landmines all over the place. Several trucks had already been blown over, blown up. Well, let me read here. They, all the civilians for fifteen miles around had been evacuated from the area. So no civilians around. The British were cleaning up the airfield of mines and they'd already dug up around fifty landmines. And only this morning a truck ran over one and blew up. The disposal area is still full of mines. We spent the night in one of the apartment houses, sleeping on the floor with a fire in the fireplace, and it was cold. The British are very nice to us. Okay, the next day, the 17 that was stuck was finally pulled out and we took off around 10:00 or 11:00 for Sardinia with 500 gallons of gas. That's not much for four engines. We gassed up at Mona, Mona Neta and came on home. By the way I'm, I'm started flying now with different crews. They picked out some of us to, to fly in these special crews so that I did not finish all my missions with the crew that I went over with. This is interesting, down here we– in coming back we had to land for gas at Foggia, which would be our future home. In fact, we stayed there for the night, slept in the airplane. Then we went on back to North Africa and flew back up this time with the tents in our plane and all the other gear that we needed to set up housekeeping in Foggia. There are those that complained that at one time that they had tarpaper houses to live in, because they were, well sort of incarcerated, yes. Look, we lived in tarpaper houses out to Wendover, about froze to death. The ice would melt and come on down into the tarpaper shack. We lived in tents all the time we were overseas. Those fellows on the ground had maybe a pup tent that they could throw over them. Sometimes they had nothing. So we were fortunate enough to have a place to stay at night. It's interesting, I have a note here that Baker and I, who was the other engineer, went to town to find a place to take a bath. Taking a bath was a premium, and when we did have one, they usually had a tank set up, and you go pull a, pull a rope and down would come the water. So you'd get your bath that way. Other interesting things about living in those places that we can, well, pass over them right now. It's interesting here that on December 25th it was operational. We didn't fly. This, this might come to one of the questions you had a while back, spent most of the night playing the radio. Now we had purchased a radio for 140 dollars and I was opposed to it. The reason? The black market. It was on the black market and we were patronizing the black market and I didn't approve of it. Neither did Uncle Sam approve of it and yet GIs were dealing the black market with cigarettes or whatever. Sometimes supplies were stopped along the way before they ever got to us. We call it shorting. And they would be sold on the black market. So there was a black market going on and some of our GIs were not very– that was my opposition of buying the radio. We used to play the radio on the airplane, as we'd fly to the target, and we would listen to Axis Sally. Axis Sally was later tried in the war crime courts, and they would play beautiful American music as always that we used to love so much. And then there was a German song. Can't think of the name of it right now, but it became very popular in America, and they would play that. And then after playing that they would say, well the song talks about that she's waiting for you at the garden gate. Then she would come on and tell us, well, your sweetheart back there, your wife back there, she's meeting someone else at the garden gate. And this happened on occasion. And one of the saddest times that I saw was a, a man who sit down on an ammunition box, and he was just sobbing, and I came to him and asked him what the problem, this was right after mail call. He says, I just got a letter from my wife and she's left me for another guy. So there were those things that, that took place. In listening to the radio, it was hard anyway to get most– because of the American and the British stations were blocked out by the Germans by radar. Well, here's one. The target was Carona, we had escorts of P-47s and P-38s. That's pretty good. That takes us halfway to the target. They don't have the fuel to go any farther. There was no flak, no fighters encountered. Polling, who's a tailgunner, found what he thought was a German high-altitude bomb in the plane this morning. And then I got a notation here, broke in and said, well the plane that we brought over from the States was shot down the other day. A Colonel was flying it from Squad 301. Okay, then back to this. Just found out that the so-called German high-altitude bomb was American IFF detonator. Then anyway, that's– you're on edge on a lot of things. This, this is interesting, because we got here, spent the morning. Now see, we're in Italy now. Spent the morning with the crew helping on the new mess hall. So they were building a new mess hall for us to use. And then I've got a note here, this afternoon we moved our tent. Now we have a tile floor. I, I [laughs] really don't remember that because we had dirt all the time. We had a tile floor. It means somebody found some tile and we laid it down and had a tile floor. We also had a little fireplace, a conical stove that was down and went up through the, the tent to the outside. We went down to the– got some gasoline, put it in a tank, then we got some copper tubing with a valve on it, and we'd run that copper tubing down into under the, the conical stove, and let the gas run into the soil. Then we'd light it and we'd have fire. We lost several tents that way. Not, not our particular crew but in the group, yes. This afternoon we moved our tents, now we have a tile floor. Alright. We had some excitement last night, a Wimpy taking off caught fire. A Wimpy is a twin engine British bomber that carried about the same bomb load as we did. Usually about a couple of 100, or a 1,000-pound bombs. It was taking off, caught fire, and ran into another one. The bombs went off. A few minutes of intense fires were thoroughly burning the metal and hundreds of feet in all directions. A very large cone effect. Four of our squadron planes were damaged severely. Two won't fly again. One of them, including a new B-17G. Never been in the air over there except to come in. I was out on the flight line at that time and I saw the, the Wimpy lose control, hit the other one, and then head straight to me. And the only thing that saved my life was that B-17 between me and it. And the explosion of course, I got down– got– my life was, was saved on that occasion. So the next day was operational but our squadron couldn't take off because we didn't have the planes to fly. Alright, January 3rd 1941. The bomb load's five 100-pound bombs, P-38, 47 escort. The group next to us were jumped by fighters near Rome. A good many enemy fighters encountered over target. None came in our range. Saw ME 109 get on the tail of a P-38, the 38 was either shot down– anyway, the MI, P-38 was shot down or dived straight down, is what he did. The ME didn't follow. There's lots of flak, some of the white stuff I'd mentioned here. The target was well hit and two other groups bombed Turin same time. On this flight we had the malfunction of the bomb doors. Lots of things can happen. This particular time it was the malfunction of the bomb doors. I went back to see what I could do to repair them. I could have had trouble, I just about got my arm broke. Flipped up and hit me across the arm. I finally got the bomb bay doors unlocked, and three of the screw arms broke off. So that was exciting for a moment to be back there with all of that. This particular mission was– we went up by way of the Adriatic. And we were flying the new B-17Gs. So that, that was interesting, to have a brand new plane out there and having trouble with it the first time. My crew, previous crew, reported on a misson on September, or on Saturday, January 22nd, that Rome had been invaded. Okay. Here's one that we went to, France. Salon de Provence, France. Lead ship, Colonel Thurman flew as co-pilot, P-38 escort. Plenty of flak, accurate, about 35 enemy fighters, some say there's fifty or sixty. Polling shot down two, I shot about 100 rounds. The fighters usually stayed even or below our formation due to our escort. Stopped at Naples for gas on the way back. My last flight with my old crew. This one is interesting because our target was Udine and I don't know what this other Italian name is, Campoformido, something of that sort. We had– flew with Squadron 482. Bomb load was six 1000-pound bombs. About P-47 escort, about fifteen enemy fighters, as I was firing back toward 5:30. We used the clock system, so we'd call 5:30 would be almost directly back, 6:00 would be straight back. Our life– now, we were the lead plane for the whole group, not just the squadron this time, the whole group. They write, let's see– as I was firing back toward 5:30, our life raft was jarred open. It inflated falling across the horizontal stabilizer, and we began to fall out of formation. Something like five, six, seven thousand feet we fell. I looked up and there was our group way out there, they were now specks in the sky. Here we were down here by ourself and just been attacked by fighters. The right waist gunner shot it off. I, I phoned up to him, told him to get a shot through that thing, get the air out of it. But he, he went right on up through the wing. The plane vibrated something terrible. Vlaxon almost jumped out, he was the tail gunner. We landed okay. The stabilizer was full of .50 caliber holes and the elevator was torn out about four feet across. And I have a picture of that. Okay, this one is February 14th. Flew with Lieutenant Haydn. The target was Verona. We didn't drop on Verona so we made another bomb run, dropped it on the N[---] yards at Modena. My windows frosted, and we had about twenty to twenty-five fighters come up, and my turret motor was smoking and not working, and most of the guns in the formation were frozen. Temperature was -47 degrees centigrade. A little flak. One of the German fighters  came so close on our tail that the wing ship read the serial number on its tail. He didn't fire, but we did have a hot battle for a while with the other planes. Just as the fighter left us, my turret went completely out. So that's the, the life raft story. This one's interesting because I, I was flying out with another lieutenant. The target was Rome area near a lake, and there was a troop concentration on the beach head near the lake. There was no fighters, flak was intense, just about as rough as we have had, both 88s and 105 guns. We got one little hole. I don't know what we call little. Two planes went down. Okay, this one is one that the Associated Press talked to us about afterwards. The target here was Regensburg, Germany. The alternate Osburg, Munich and Innsbruck. Six planes in the squadron. Weather was rough almost to Germany. Vapor trails were persistent. Our G ships were flying second wave to the second group. The Fs are supposed to go to another target. The bomb load was twelve 500-pound bombs, the altitude 22,000 feet. Our course was up the Adriatic across the northern Yugoslavia between Gaza and Klagenfurt and then to the initial point. We were having trouble staying with the formation. Two of the engines were running a little rough. The planes behind us were having a difficult time with their engines, and just after we got over Germany, we saw a little flak to our left, probably from Klagenfurt or an airport nearby. Soon afterwards Beaman, the ball turret operator, said there were planes taking off from the airport below us. By this time, three of our squadron had turned back. They had engine trouble. If you don't turn over the right RPMs, you just don't have the speed to keep up with the group. So they turned back, and that left at least three of us alone in the squadron. So our three planes pull cruising or better. You're only allowed cruising for five minutes, that's 2900 RPMs a minute. Or it could damage the engine. As we neared the target, we caught up, and just about this time flak was coming up pretty intense. But as we got to the edge of the group, to the edge of the, of the flak, the group leader made a left turn just missing the flak. The target was partly covered over by clouds. We don't know why, but he made a three, complete 360-degree turn. And then he turned away and started for an alternate target. The target was hit by other groups. And it was fortunate for us that he did make the first turn, because it was on this turn that we caught up with the group and got into position. Then I saw the fighters pull up behind the formation. The extreme right. We called them out, encountered twelve to fifteen twin engine fighters, either ME 210s or ME 410s. These were the latest up-to-date fighters that the Germans had. They were twin engine planes. They had seven cannons in the wings. And when they lit up it looked like the fireworks had been let loose. Then they broke their formation, and for the next hour it seemed as if it was our three planes on the extreme left of the group against the [---]. Other fighters, ME 109s, joined them after about 30 minutes, making a total of thirty or forty fighters, mostly concentrating on our end. Their system attack was mainly eleven o'clock high, six o'clock on the level, five o'clock high and three o'clock way high, and most attacks came in at five o'clock above our level. There was no letup of their attack during the entire time. They stayed with us coming back as we went through some moderate flak but we hardly saw it, we were so busy. I saw some of the red flak. Our navigator timed the flight at 52 minutes, and I think we just had just about that many passes made at our plane. Lieutenant McGee flying on our left wing was hit by 20-millimeter shells in his right wing and his Tokyo tank. They caught fire, and the concession, or concussion forced him out of formation above us, almost crashing on top of us. If I could have reached out, I could have touched the wing. He then pulled it over to the side and started to lose altitude. It exploded 2 or 3,000 feet below, and some of my, some say eight chutes were seen to get out before it exploded. Lieutenant Perry, flying our left wing, was hit near the end of the battle and started falling behind, having to feather number three prop. The last I could see, a fighter was still attacking him and he was headed towards Switzerland. Beaman and Hinckley shot down one ME 210 each. McKinney and I each got one ME 109, and I'm sure that we shot down more, but we didn't have time to watch and know that they were destroyed. During the flight, I saw that our, that we were hit four places in the left wing, one appearing to be in the Tokyo tank area. But our gas had transferred okay, and after we descended from altitude, I checked from one end of the plane to the other for damages and found every one in the plane okay. That is, okay as far as I could tell [laughs]. I came to the bomb bay—I felt that something was wrong, and found that the aileron cable had been cut in two. Well, after a beautiful landing we did find a bullet hole in the gas tank, well, bullet hole is a big bullet hole in the gas tank. And the, the wing spar was cut almost in two. It had to be removed. A greater power, not earthly, flew with us today.

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Interviewee: Lois LaRue Brown Galloway (LG)
Interviewer: Troy Reeves (TR)
Date: November 4th, 2002
Location: Galloway residence, Meridian, ID, USA

TR: Alright, today is November 4th, 2002. This is an interview with Lois Galloway, who was a civilian during World War II. This interview is being conducted at their home, which is near Meridian, Idaho. The interviewer is Troy Reeves. This is being done for the Veteran's History Project and for the Idaho State Historical Society. Okay Lois, you have an unpublished manuscript here that you'd like to read. If you would first explain what it is and then start reading it, and we'll just go from there.

LG: This is a little sketch of my life that I had written and that I thought would be of interest for this period of time. I Lois, LaRue Brown Galloway, was born the 12th of February, 1927, at the home of Mrs. Aussa, a nurse, in Weiser, Washington County, Idaho. I am the daughter of Scott B. Brown and Edith Elvira Hill. My father was born 22nd of June, 1885 in Salt Lake City, Utah. He is the son of Homer Manley Brown and Lydia Jane Brown. My mother is the daughter of Joseph John Hill and Martha Stoll. Mother was born 9th of April, 1885 in West Weber Utah. I was blessed in– on the 3rd of April, 1927 by my father Scott B. Brown in Weiser, Idaho. I was baptized into the Latter-day Saints church the 3rd of March, 1935 by Verland French at Weiser Idaho, in the Weiser Ward in the Boise Stake. These records are in the Weiser Ward records. My Patriarchal Blessing was given by my father Scott B. Brown on the 23rd of June, 1945 in Boise, Idaho. I attended the West Grade School in Weiser starting school in September of 1933. I attended Weiser and Boise High School. Some of my outstanding teacher were Ms. Lemaster, the 1st grade, Ms. Young, 2nd grade, Ms. Francis, 4th grade, Ms. Woods, 6th grade, Mr. Riggs, 7th grade, Mr. Cooper, high school, and Mr. Hartman, Glee Club. I enjoyed piano and took lessons for several years, attaining high honors from the national piano guild. I graduated in the highest ten scholastic hon—scholastically from Boise High School. I sang in the girls Glee Club and was active in the Scarlet Skirts. I was born into a happy loving family, and as a little girl everything seemed sunny and full of adventure. I was lucky enough to have an older sister and four older brothers. My sister Helen, being the oldest, had wished passionately for a little sister through the arrival of each of the four brothers, and when the fourth, Lloyd, was born, she stamped her foot and said, "I'll put a dress on him and make him a girl." So as you can see, I felt wanted and well-loved from the moment I arrived. I was born in the home of Mrs. Aussa, who had nursed new mothers with their babies. Our family lived in a small two-bedroom home on West Third Street, which was quite close to town, and within easy walking distance to stores, school and church. But there was not very much room for the growing family as the yard was small, so when I was three years old in 1930 the family moved to a large, two-story home, on an acre or so of ground out at Five One County Road, later called Pioneer Road. I remember, though only three, how delighted we were with the spaciousness of the house and yard. I vividly recall running the length of the upstairs hall and peering into the many bedrooms and attics, and thinking how large everything was. The yard was beautiful, surrounded by a lovely fence with wrought iron gates, both at the walkway and the drive. There was a large barn, chickenhouse, sheds, milk cows, garage, and two big pastures out in back. And the main yard had lovely lawns and cement sidewalks and pretty hedges, trees and shrubs and flowers, so it was an ideal place to raise a family. I must have been a tomboy at heart, for I remember climbing to the hayloft above the big yarn and sitting in the window swinging my feet at an early age, and mother said she was horrified to look out and see me nonchalantly walking around the ledge around the top of the barn, and into the little pigeon house at the very top roof. I loved to climb the many trees. The globe cocust trees in the front yard, or the big maple trees in the back, or perhaps the cherry or apple tree. As the years passed I could often be found reading for hours, perched on the limbs of the big maple trees. Is this okay? Memories of my childhood are happy ones, bringing feelings of warmth and love and close companionship with each member of our family. I distinctly remember when our baby sister, Julia Marie, nicknamed Judy, was born. It was June 26th, 1930, the summer that we moved to the big house. We children were sitting under the sour cherry tree in the backyard when Hazel, our hired lady, came out to tell us we had a new baby sister. We were all so surprised, except big brother Kenneth, who said he knew all along we were gonig to get a new baby. Well Judy, as she was named, became the joy of our lives. I loved having a baby sister, and still recall the good sounds of hearing her coo and later sing in her little bed in our parents bedroom, and hearing mother sing and talk to her. Their room was just down the hall from ours, and I'd often run into their bedroom to play with the baby, and Mother and Daddy would draw us into the big bed and we would play. How fun to sit on Daddy's knees as he doubled them up and then fall delightedly as he let his legs down. Dear Daddy, how I adored him. As Judy grew it was the children's responsibility to watch after her. Many is the time I would walk around the big house carefully seeing that she did not fall as she was learning to toddle, and then having to pick up the bottle that she would deliberately throw onto the sidewalk, just to watch us get scolded for getting, letting her break her bottle. She broke so many that Mother started putting her milk an old ski– old certol bottles, so she wouldn't have to buy more new ones. Judy also loved to eat sand, and we were commissioned to stay with her in the sand pile and try to prevent the huge consumption of sand. She would sit their twirling a strand of her hair innocently in one hand, and quickly pop sand into her mouth with the other hand if she thought we weren't looking. I'm sure this opportunity help, of helping with a beloved baby sister was a stepping stone in my learning to love little children. As I grew up I spent many many hours sitting neighborhood children, and then throughout school I was in constant demand in the town as a sitter, and earned all my spending money and money for clothes in this manner, and it surely helped for my desire for children of my own, and little children continue to be a joy to me this day. Our big family always did things together, but still felt a close individual relationship with our parents. I dearly loved my father and welcomed every opportunity to do something special with him. Often he'd knock softly on my door early in the morning and invite me to go for an early ride on the horses with him, or take the dogs for a hike. Most of all I enjoyed being his caddy as he played golf on the small course in the foothills north of Weiser. I felt very important plodding up and down the hills after the golf ball. Our parents made it a point to celebrate holidays with the family and annual outings were looked forward to with great anticipation. At Easter time mother boiled eggs and helped us dye them and we had an egg hunt in the yard, and we also participated in the egg rolls held by the townspeople in the foothills north of Weiser. By Memorial Day it was usually warm enough for a fishing trip, and the whole crew would pile into the car and head for the hills and streams, perhaps alone or with another family. There were usually several outings in the hills during the Summer and always on the 4th of July, complete with firecrackers and flags on the front of the car. Then in the evenings we often had fireworks, sparklers and so forth, in our yard at home. Then there were picnics and family dinners with friends. Our folks had many friends and we always got together as families with all children included. I remember well sitting on top of the old ice cream freezer to help steady it, as my brothers took turns cranking the handle till the ice cream was firm and set enough, and then all of us standing around in awe as Mother opened the freezer, scraped the luscious cold dessert off the dasher, and repacked the freezer to serve when we were ready. It seems that every Sunday we either had guests, or were guests at someone's home for dinner. Names such as Chadwicks, Chandlers, Browns, Ivy, Allreds, Andersons all rush to mind as I think of the many families that played a part in our family life. And then the swimming. Every Thursday Daddy and Mother took us to the hot springs west of Weiser, where we could all enjoy the warm water to our hearts' content. This swimming pool was from a natural hot springs, and was surrounded with a tall wooden fence. When I was eight years old and ready to be baptized, my close friends Carol Allred and Thelma Chandler and I excitedly rode out to the pool with our families, and were baptized in the familiar warm water, and then confirmed at the side of the pool. We did not have a baptismal font in our church house as we do now. In fact our little ward didn't even have a chapel. We used to meet in a little white building similar to an Elks Hall. It served our purpose, but was inadequate in many ways. Curtains had to be drawn to divide off the hall for classrooms and so forth. But I remember well my beloved teachers in Sunday School and Primary. Sister Franks, Sister Allred, Sister Compton and so forth. They played an important role in shaping my values and helping me to learn the gospel. But, back to our fun times with family and friends. The mothers of the children I knew often got together to make quilts, and what fun we had playing under the quilts held up on the frames. They served as tents, dens, castles, all kinds of imaginary dwellings, and we children loved quilting days at one hosue or another. Music played an important part in our lives. Our father had a beautiful tenor voice and often sang at various functions. Mother was an excellent pianist and often accompanied him. So their was music in our home. And how blessed we were to hear them sing and play for us. I can still feel the peace and enveloping warmth as I lay in bed at night, and listened to Mother play the piano as I drifted off to sleep. And then each of us had the opportunity to take lessons and develop our talents. Helen played the piano very well, and each of the boys played an instrument. Clarinet, trumpet, piano, harmonica, etc. I thought Daddy and then Lloyd played the harmonica exceptionally well, and I envied their ability. I took music lessons for about 12 years, and had several good teachers that I recall. Mrs. Brashiers, Mrs. Turner and others, and we always had recitals in the homes of the different students, and they were exciting times though I always had a terrible fright in the pit of my stomach when I had to perform. I also took voice lessons from Mrs. Benning. I look back now and wonder how the folks ever afforded all these things they did for us, for it certainly wasn't easy with such a large family. In fact, many of the lessons were paid for with produce. I remember carrying a little bucket with a dozen eggs, or a gallon of rasperries to my teacher in exchange for the lessons. But how grateful I am for the gift of music in our home. There were eight children in our family: Helen, Kenneth, LeGrand, Ellsworth, Lloyd, Lois, Ralph and Julia. As is normal I guess, each one played a different role in my life. Helen, being nine years older than I seemed to be always doing things that I was not old enough to do– included in– as I was not old enough to be included in. So I was more companionable with my brothers, who were closest to my age. I did many things the boys did, I learned to fish, ride bikes and horses, climbed fences, herded cows, played their games and always thought it was great to have so many brothers. They took me everywhere, hiking, riding, dancing, to Saturday afternoon show, skating, and it was all fun. We also shared in the chores. Although there were two pastures behind our place, the cows needed more feed, and we were commissioned to take– so we were commissioned to take turns herding the cows. We'd go out along the roadside and ditch banks where they could graze on the abundant grasses. It wasn't always easy as they could be stubborn on occasion. Each cow had a name: Queen, Bonnie, Pet, and so forth, and learned to come on call. Sometimes one would stray and we would have to watch carefully. Sometimes our boys got mischievous and played tricks on us, like the time Ralph found a little snake and put it down Judy's neck, and she went crying home. Well, Daddy didn't look kindly on that sort of thing, so Ralph was duly punished with a switch. But on the whole we worked well together I think. We played well too, and often we girls would sit on the si—high seat of the old wooden wagon or butt board while the brother pulled and pushed us all over the pastures and we took turns driving it. We climbed fences, slid down the roof of the chicken house and pig pen, climbed trees, rode the calves or cows when Daddy was gone, played Kick the Can or hide and go seek in the evenings long after dark. Sometimes we roller skated on the sidewalks around the house for hours. These were fun days. I learned to bat the ball, shoot marbles, ride boys' bikes, shoot BB guns. I could shoot a can right off the fencepost, and spent hours helping the boys build models of airplanes and forts and so forth. One time they labored tediously digging a huge cave. They cut the steps down into it and had a sizeable room to play in, but one day when we were herding cows, old Bonnie the cow walked right over it and fell in, and that was the end of the cave. Another time Lloyd and Ellsworth, who were avid scouters, built an excellent brick oven so they could cook outsi—doors. But little Ralph reached into the oven to take out a hot pan and burned his hand severely, so they didn't use the oven very long. One winter when we had a particularly heavy snowfall, the boys laboriously formed big snow blocks, and built an igloo or snow house to the side of the garage. The roof of it was as high as the garage. After bending down to get into the large room-like interior, we could stand up straight. It was a fun, warm place to play and lasted quite a while. We were all proud of that masterpiece. Okay. 

TR: All right.

LG: My teen years seemed to go by so fast that I can't recall to mind many of the things that I'd like to. My first two years of high school were at Weiser High and I was happy and active in school affairs there. Shall I skip some of that about–

TR: No, go ahead.

LG: We had some very close friends and although it was exciting to move to the big city of Boise, it was difficult to leave my friends and try to begin life in a new, bigger school. The people in our new ward were friendly but there were not too many of my age, so I felt quite alone for awhile. Some of the friends that I did fall in with were not– really not as true to church standards as they should have been, and I foolishly allowed them to guide some of my actions which I have a great– regretted since. During those two years I could easily have gotten into serious trouble if I had continued with them, but I feel that someone was looking after me and protecting me from harm. Those years were very hard on everyone as we were at war. Since Gowen Field was very near Boise, all of us girls dated soldiers stationed there. Some of them were very fine, but the motives of others were questionable and I've since wondered how wise it was to date many of these fellows. I'm sure these years were hard on Mother and Daddy with their boys, all but LeGrand, in the service. The constant worry was a real strain on the whole family. Fortunately all of the boys returned safely after serving their country many months and years, in different areas of the world. Kenneth, Ellsworth and Lloyd were in the Air Force and Bombardiers at the same time, and Ellsworth and Lloyd were in Europe together for a short time while Kenneth flew a B-29 in the South Pacific. Ralph served in Japan part of this time. After Lloyd returned from war and was married and with three children, he lived in Weiser where he taught Chemistry in the high school. He joined the National Guard and came to Gowen Field in Boise to fly in the training jets here. One Sunday his jet crashed, killing him and the other guard with him. This was a tragic time for all of us, and we all miss him terribly. [pause] Trying to get down to war... about down to courting and marriage.

TR: If you want to just keep going on from the //top there, there's a–//

LG: //Okay//, I just keep feeling like I'm tell– giving you too much. When I was 17 and a senior in high school I dated a lot and had many friends. That fall Dick Galloway was stationed at Gowen Field having returned from serving overseas in the Air Force. He and his good friend Wayne Autley came to the third ward to church, and all of us girls were attracted to that single, red-haired soldier, so handsome in his uniform. He was soon assigned to teach our Sunday School class, and since I was president of the class we were well-acquainted. My father was impressed with Dick and invited him to Thanksgiving dinner at our home. I was a little vexed to find that he also had Thanksgiving dinner at Opal Hughes home on a different day. Soon we dated, and by Christmas time a month later we were falling in love. I was so sure Dick was the one that I didn't wait– date another fellow from that time on. We exchanged pictures and in February he gave me his sergeants pin and pearls for my birthday. His very close friends Wayne and Marie Autley were special to us at that time and helped us to get towels, sheets and other scarce commodities at the PX at Gowen Field. We had fun times with them and went movies, dances and so forth on the base as well as visiting their home. April 1st, 1945 was Easter, and after having asked my parents permission, Dick gave me a beautiful diamond which he and mother had picked out. So we were officially engaged, what a fun time, to be in love and planning our wedding. All else, including school and graduation, dimmed in comparison. Dick bought a small furnished house at 1611 Broadway, and we had fun getting it all fixed up. For a wedding present, Wayne and Marie completely stripped and refinished the beautiful hardwood floors for us. The house was spotless, and a darling honeymoon house. We were married in the Salt Lake Temple June 25th, 1945 with both sets of parents attending. What a glorious, special time. Daddy and Mother turned their room in Temple Square over to us so no one would know where we were. Dick's mother had a scrumptious wedding dinner at the Galloway home at six o'clock. Then a reception was held in the 29th Ward building in Salt Lake City so it was a long day. We didn't have our own attendants so Dick's cousin Lois Maple stood in the line with us and our parents. We honeymooned in Salt Lake and came home by train in time for another reception in Boise. People were so generous and wonderful, in that they gave us so many lovely gifts, which– many of which were hard to buy because ratioining and shortages due to the war. Since Dick had bought and furnished our house as a wedding present, we had a nice home to move right into. We enjoyed our first pretty little house and had room enough to entertain. One of the funny gifts I remember was a gift of two live chickens which we had to kill and dress since we had no place to keep them. We stayed up until one o'clock trying to learn how to fix them: our first of many experiences in preparing chicken. We had a coal stove in the kitchen and so I learned to cook on that, and we had a big coal heater in the living room. Dick was still in the service at the time we were married, and was discharged in August of 1945, the first time we had been separated, as he had to go to Salt Lake to be discharged. After Dick's discharge from the service he worked at KFXD radio station as an announcer about ten months, and at the fair grounds cannery during the summer. Then he worked at the OPA government offices. In 1947 he started working for First Security Bank on the training program and has continued working there ever since. Now should I forget the rest of that?

TR: What is that?

LG: It's just telling about our early married life, building our homes and things like that.

TR: Maybe if we get a chance towards the end you might be able to–

LG: We'll skip that. Maybe I can go to this, what I remembered of the war times.
TR: Okay, and so now you're just reading from some handwriting, a couple of pages you've made.

LG: Yes.

TR: Okay, go ahead.

LG: When I was fifteen years old on December 7th, 1941, we came home from church on Sunday and heard on the radio that Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor. I remember the concern and worry all around us. Four of my brothers served in the war, as well as my two brothers in law. Most of the coorespondence from our soldiers was sent by V-mail, small, thin papers that brief letters were written on. Those letters were subject to scrutiny by the center– censors, as often lines, one or many, would be cut out by the time the letters reached us, because everything that might be of use to the enemy had to be destroyed. Our brothers were willing to fight for our country, and three of them enlisted in the Air Corps. The fourth, Ralph, served as an– oh my goodness– as an infantry man in Japan, and we all hoped the war would be over soon, but it lasted for several years. We girls wanted to do out part. We served at the USO canteen, danced with the soldiers, and even dated them. All of the women left at home learned to be independent. Many wanted to work in various factories to help the war effort, making parachutes, working in ball-bearing factories and so-forth. That's where the name Rosie the Riveter was first coined, as the women took their places as mechanics and held other jobs so the men could leave for war. It was hard to see our brothers and friends leave. Many of my school friends were in the service, and some never came back. Many of the young couples hurried to get married when the men came home on furloughs. Often new babies arrived while the fathers were away. My sister, as with so many others, was married, and she followed her husband from one base to another while he was in the states. When he went overseas she came home to wait and work while living with our folks. Parents and family members put a blue star for each of their service men in their windows to show how many of their men and boys were in the war. You'd often see one or two or three or even four stars in the window of each home. Often a star would be covered or changed to gold on a door– or a door draped in black when one was missing in action. When we went to the movies, the news reels made war seem so close to us, and newspapers brought everything visibly to us all. It was scary. We dreaded receiving telegrams or other bad news, but we lived with hope. The soldiers dreaded getting Dear John letters. One thing that stands out in my memory was the rationing. Every person was issued books of stamps with which we could purchase scarce items. Gas, oil, tires were all rationed [pronounced ray-tioned]. I don't know if it's rationed [pronounced ray-tioned] or rationed. [laughter]
TR: Either way.

LG: It was difficult to buy shoes, towels, sheets and pillowcases, as well as sugar, other foods like butter and flours. We often traded or shared coupons when a friend or family members needed more stamps or coupons. We had no nylons to wear then. All nylon was needed for making parachutes. Sometimes we curled our hair with bobby pins, spit curls, even toothpicks. We learned– soon learned to do without. I remember putting pieces of cardboard in my shoes as we wore holes in the soles. Instead of stockings, sometimes we had leg make-up. We'd rub it all over our legs and have someone help by using an eyebrow pencil.

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Interviewee: Lois LaRue Brown Galloway (LG)
Interviewer: Troy Reeves (TR)
Date: unknown
Location: Galloway residence, Meridian, ID, USA

LG: Many people hitchhiked from place to place to save gas. Finally we received word that Germany had surrendered. Later in 1945 the Japanese surrendered, and our men and boys came marching home. It was hard when they started the long road home. To see the many families who did not have anyone return, so many were killed or missing in action. I'm sure wives and parents and sweethearts wondered, why me? There were celebrations in the streets with parades and so forth. War is difficult for all concerned, but it did make us strong. I met Dick after he served in Europe. He was stationed here in Boise Idaho at Gowen Field. We met at church and I was smitten with this handsome red-haired soldier.  Uniforms had a way of attracting us girls. Soon in the fall of 1944 we were dating, and then married June 25th 1945. I believe that's all I have. Whether that fits the bill I don't know.

TR: It does, and I want to ask a few questions //on some// of the things you said, both in your typed out transcipt and in your, //your// written notes. First off, and this may be in the typewritten notes that you didn't get to read, but why did your family move from Weiser to Boise?

LG: //Okay.// //Alright.// My father was given a promotion. He was a veterinarian, and he, they asked him to be the state [---] commissioner in Boise, so he came here to work in the statehouse for the government.

TR: Do you recall, did you sell the, //the// big house in Weiser? Let's see. I think you were probably, well you were definitely a teenager at that point—

LG: //We did. Mhm.//—Fifteen. Uh-huh.

TR: What were your thoughts about moving from Weiser to Boise and also giving up that, //the house?//

LG: //I was excited// because it seemed like a bigger, more exciting place to move to. I had very close friends in Weiser, and that was my only challenge I think as a teenager, was leaving those friends. I don't remember missing the home that much, because by that time as a teenager it didn't matter that we moved to a nice home in Boise. So I don't recall having thoughts of, of distress at leaving, except for friends.

TR: Did you ever return and see the old //[---]?//

LG: //Many// many times, uh-huh.

TR: Maybe just one more question about Weiser, and that is, have you been back recently?

LG: About a year, I think.

TR: And, I guess my question is overall, living there in the 30s and early 40s, what are your thoughts about Weiser as it stands now in the...

LG: Weiser seemed to me an ideal place to live. We knew everybody, we were free to go everyplace, walking, biking, skating, you know, whatever. And I loved it. It was a small town with a wonderful homey feeling, and Weiser was a special place to raise a family, I thought.

TR: Where did you move, when you came to Boise?

LG: We moved up to Owyhee Street, on the bench. You know where Owyhee and Overland, Kootenai, in that area.

TR: How did you get to school?

LG: My father worked at the state house and I went to high school, Boise High which was just about a block through, from, and so I often went with him, otherwise we were, went by bus. 

TR: Do you recall your thoughts about having a father who worked inside the capitol building?

LG: I loved it. I thought he was important. [Laughs]

TR: And were you able to spend some time inside that, the capitol building?

LG: Yes, often. We would walk over from school to his office, and he'd take us home. My girlfriend and I did that frequently. Those days we took lunch so we didn't ever go home at lunchtime. But we would often go up to the state house and feel right at home there.

TR: You mentioned in your, in your typed manuscript that you read that there were some teachers that, that really affected you. I'm wondering if there were any at Boise High.

LG: There were a couple. I, I felt it was a big change from Boise, Weiser High to Boise High. Boise High, there were more cliques and people inclined to, some had money. We didn't see that so much in Weiser, but when we got here, as a teenager it was harder to break in to the sociality, and the bigger school. I had some good teachers. I remember Mr. Pollard was my, what, science teacher. I really liked him and I, I did have good teachers here in Boise. We took Home Ec and different things like that that I don't think they do as much now, but we enjoyed that, and I got good grades in Boise.

TR: While I'm thinking about it, you met Dick, your husband, while you were still in high school. Is that correct?

LG: Yes. Last year.

TR: Before you met him, were you thinking about any sort of vocation?

LG: No, I was not. We were planning on college, everybody in our family went to college. But when you fall in love everything else disappears. Anyway, I didn't have a particular vocation in mind, no. All I ever really wanted to do was be a homemaker and a mother, I guess. [Laughing] I didn't really have the desire that so many of them have now for careers, that wasn't the period of time when we were career-oriented.

TR: So do you have any feelings, I guess is a good term, about not being able to take advantage of a college opportunity?

LG: I didn't at that time. Many times since I've regretted it. I, I just fell in love. I don't know, that teenagers do that and everything else kind of went by the wayside. But I wish that I had gone on to college. All of my children have. And all my brothers did, and everybody did, but that war did things to us, you know, it hurried up our growing up, and our desire to be married to somebody, and our desire to, to help the war effort. We weren't really into going on to school as much then.

TR: Is there something specifically in college you think you would like to have—

LG: —I loved school. I was a good student. And whether I would have gone into teaching, like English and social studies and things like that, perhaps, but I didn't pursue it further.

TR: Yeah, that sounds like it might have been a nice fit for you—

LG: —I would—

TR: You talked about how you enjoyed children.

LG: I'm sure I would have loved things like that. But that kind of, war kind of brought schooling and things to an end. There was a period of time, seemed like you got to this point, and then war came, and then here all the sudden you were post-war, and the only thing was, was getting married. People were not yet into the college mode, it seems like to me. At least my age group wasn't. A whole group of us during that period of time didn't go on to college, which amazes me, because my parents were both highly educated and that was a big part of our life. So I just kind of missed out there, period of time.

TR: Maybe going back just a little bit, you said your father was a veterinarian, but you said, you just said that your mother was educated—

LG: They both, yes. They both had their degree. She in education, she taught school for many years and my father was, course he went, from college they went on to medical, veterinarian, they both had good educations.

TR: I don't know exactly how you can answer this question particularly the way I'm going to ask it, but I'm wondering if you, for the tape, could give an idea of what school was like during the war. And by that I mean there were certain things that you were doing that I didn't do in high school.

LG: Well, I remember things like collecting war stamps. I remember the rationing, rationing. That really stuck out in my memory. Because our trips were limited. We had always gone on trips as families, and so forth. And it seems to me that there was always a feeling of worry in our home after the war, because we had all these boys in the service, as well as my two brothers-in-law, you know, everybody. And so there was a constant feel of, you couldn't do certain things because the war was on. And so we were careful, like I mentioned, shoes, you'd wear things till they were worn out, and you'd, it seemed like everybody wanted to serve their country in some way. And so the people that were home, were particularly careful, not to the point of hoarding, I don't remember any of that, but not to waste. And I think that made a big impact on us, even though we were teenagers. We, we had that feeling for country that I don't know whether the teenagers at this period of time would have. But all the sudden you were thrown into war, you know, it was a shock to everybody. Nobody thought that would happen. And so it upset all the family lives. I remember boys that I really liked in school, you know, just good friends, all a sudden they were dead. You know, that's a real big item for teenagers to handle. But I, I do remember that one, if that answers your query I don't know.

TR: It does, and I want to follow up with, was there a, a tangible sense of patriotism, when you were inside of school, during the war?

LG: Yes, there was. We all felt it. And as girls in our high school group, we as I mentioned, went to the canteen as they called it, and we would serve sandwiches, and we would see that the soldiers were all kind of taken care of when they would come to town from the base. Then we were all there to see that they had the things they needed, like food and maybe hot coffee, maybe they just wanted to have a record to put on, you know, we didn't have TV and things like that. So we would play games, board games, serve them lunches, dance, just talk, whatever we could, we felt like that was a part of our war service. I did work in, in store. I enjoyed clerking and I worked in stores after school, you know, just for spending money. But other than that, we tried to do war, what would you say, kind of, things that had to do with the war. So I don't know whether that helps.

TR: Did you, or did, when you were at Boise High or even at Weiser High, did you participating in scrap drives?

LG: We did. Mhm.

TR: I was wondering if for the tape, I think you mentioned this a little bit, but if you could just elaborate a little bit on the, the importance of scrap drives?

LG: Yeah. We did, I remembered the stamps, and the war bonds. I didn't mention scrap, but we did collecting. Rubber was one thing that was very difficult. So you'd try, as I mentioned, tires were always rationed, and any old tires and things like that, they did collect. I can't remember what else in the way of metals, but tin cans and tires, and I don't recall what else.

TR: I don't have a teenage daughter, but I will in the future, and the thought of having my teenage daughter dating someone in the military—

LG: —Yes.

TR: Even just going out on a date—

LG: —Really, I think that was very scary. When I look back, I'm surprised that my parents allowed that. All of them did. They didn't seem to have real concerns about our safety. I don't know why that is. Because my folks were very careful about what you did, and I recognize your concern there, because they were complete strangers, and it wasn't wise. In many instances I look back and I think, how could they let me go skating with those guys, you know? And I've wondered some times if maybe it wasn't because they were so concerned about their boys being in the service, that we were just kind of left to do what we wanted, they trusted us I guess. [Laughs] They figured we had sense enough to, and fortunately I didn't ever get into trouble but I could have. So that has been an area that I've wondered about a little bit.

TR: Without getting into specifics, do you know of girls your age that did end up getting into trouble?

LG: I don't. I don't, I didn't know any person that got pregnant, anybody that had to get married. We just didn't even think of things like that. So I don't know, maybe we were just kind of naive. But we were very fortunate, we could have been in trouble. Of course we didn't drink, we didn't go to parties where they had drunken people around, or that, which I think is a big item. You know, kids get into a situation where they're having a party and everybody gets drunk. Then there could be real serious problems. But we didn't have that to contend with. However I was not in what I would call a social group, and I know a lot of the high school kids did drink and do a lot of things that I wasn't actually a part of, because we ran with a different crowd.

TR: Mhm. And was your social group when you were here in Boise, did they consist of people primarily the same faith as you?

LG: Yes. And that had a big item. My neighbors and the people I went to church with were the people I associated with. So that I think is also a protection.

TR: And now when I think of a date, I think of, you know, when I was in high school, I would go, you know, go to the girl's house and get her, and the two of us, and maybe occasionally another couple, would go see a movie or something like that. //How'd this,// how'd this work with the military?

LG: //We did that.// Well, my dad always screened them pretty close. You know, they always had to come to the house. They always had to meet them, and I think we did more double dating or group dating than too much single dating, which was a, a help too. We did go to movies, and we did a lot of skating, at that period of time. They had ice skates and they also had the roller skates, and [sighs] I don't know, the church seemed to have things going too, for the young people. Their dances, they, they invited the soldiers to come but I don't recall them being exclusive against anybody that wanted to be with them. I just remember good times. Course that's 60, 70 years ago. And I don't recall as well as I would like to.

TR: I want to see if I can get you to, to place some of these places you've been talking about. You mentioned a, a cantina—

LG: —They called it the canteen. That's a, a military term for a place, it's not a restaurant. But it's a place where soldiers can come and have refreshments, not whole dinners and things like that, but it would be a place where they could relax. What would you call it, more of a...Anyway, that was the name, because it was an army thing. And a lot of times they, the service people out here at Gowen Field would invite a whole group of girls to come out to a dance, and they had roller skating and things like that, everything on the base. And you would go as a group, just to go and entertain, not like you got to, performed, but you would just go and do things as a group, dancing and visiting, and you were all chaperoned well, and you'd go by a bus and come back, just to be friendly with the soldiers, help, help them to feel at home.

TR: Was this canteen downtown?

LG: Mhm. You know where, I think it's Bannock, down that area. About Bannock and 9th. Down and through that area. And Boise High was just through the, about three blocks. So we would come to school, we'd take shifts, and come and be there for two or three hours.

TR: So this was part of the school day for you, was to //go to the canteen//—

LG: //Uh-huh. Sometimes.// Not all the time. Because I did work after school sometimes. But that was part of our activity.

TR: You mentioned both ice skating and roller skating. Where were some of the places that you could do that in Boise?

LG: Mhm. Okay, I have to think really hard. We had a roller skating out on Overland. Maybe, out there they had big ponds and we would just go out as groups and ice skate on our own, it wasn't like a paid area. It was just where you could go and skate as groups and have fun, and it wasn't any, what's the word I want, anyway, where you go and pay. It wasn't that. Now I'm trying to think where the roller—I can see the one in Weiser, because we went there so much, but I can't tell you where the roller skating was, it was a regular one in town. The one they had, the only one that I know of that they have is the one there on Cole Road, and I don't really recall what...Oh I remember, they had one downtown, about, let's see, it was probably Maine and south of there, almost to the Boise River. They had, it was a roller skating place, and it had a dance hall there, that's where it was.

TR: You mentioned going to see news reels. Were there local theaters in Boise, that you would go and see those at?

LG: They had, what's it called, the...One was the Ada, which is still there, they had one on about 10th, and between Main and, what is the next one, Bannock? Anyway, in that area. And it started with an R, but I can't remember. They had about 3. They had the Pinney, P-I-N-N-E-Y, something by the Capitol Building—

TR: Rialto, might be?

LG: Rialto, that's what it was. They had the Rialto, and the Pinney, and I think the Ada. The Pinney I remember burning down, that theater.

TR: I know you mentioned it on the manuscript, but I'd like you to talk again, if you would, about meeting your husband.

LG: Oh, there wasn't anything big deal about it. He came to church, and of course all the girls were atwitter, because these good-looking fellows in uniform were at church. He was a little older and had been on a mission and so forth, so was well equipped and well versed in teaching, and so they asked him to teach a class, and I happened to be the president of that class, and we just got together.

TR: Was the—

LG: —He also was, my father was asked to be, I don't know if you'd call it a coordinator or something, with the men in uniform, both over in Mountain Home and in Boise. He was to kind of oversee them, to see that they were well taken care of, and he and Dick worked together doing that. He would invite Dick to go to Mountain Home with him, and see how many LDS service men were there, and kind of overlook the situation and be sure they were included in church activities, and kind of look out for them. And so my father and Dick were very friendly with each other, they enjoyed each other, and that kind of evolved into, Dad invited him to dinner, you know, and just like that.

TR: Was there ever any concern in your mind about the age difference?

LG: No. Which was stupid. You know, really, that's quite an age difference. Didn't bother me at all. And it's worked out fine.

TR: You talked a lot about—well, first, let me, did all four of your brothers return home from the war?

LG: They did, mhm.

TR: And did you personally correspond with them?

LG: Always. Uh-huh. As I mentioned, the little, [-]mails and everything.

TR: And then would they correspond back with you, //or// would you hear through the—

LG: //Yes.// No, we were very good about all of us writing wherever they were.

TR: So is that, did that, hobby isn't the right word, but that had to become a, a primary time //[--],// writing letters to...

LG: //It was. Uh-huh.// I was very close to my brothers. We all were a very close-knit family, and I don't remember ever of them, any of them missing a birthday. When they were out of town, they'd always send me a card, and, you know, it's always been easy to correspond back and forth.

TR: One more thing to clarify, and this is something that happened after you and Dick were married. You mentioned learning how to cook on a cold stove, and I was hoping you could maybe elaborate a little bit on the intricacies of the cold stove, since it's not a common thing we see anymore.

LG: That's right. My mother kind of spoiled us, in a way. I mean I didn't really have to learn and cook and do things, which I should have. But she let us take our music lessons, be involved in all the school activities, and all of those things, and consequently I was not too prepared for doing the physical work. I remember she often even cleaned my room and things like that, because even though we had a lot of family, we were allowed to participate in all the things that were going on, like I was a Scarlet Skirt, they called them, which was cheerleaders, and what's the other word. Anyway, we all attended ball games and everything, participated in Glee Club, and musical functions, and all that was going on. Anyway this little cold stove was a challenge to me because I hadn't ever had to make fire. We had wood and stove. Wood and coal. Well, I remember particularly one day, a woman had really befriended us, really nice people, and so I called her one day and I said, now don't bother about making dessert because I'm bringing dessert over to your house. Well I did know how to make banana cream pie, lemon pie, and things like that, so I made two pies, and I can't remember now if it was banana or lemon. So I put the two pies in the oven while I, I think I had to cook one at a time, put the pie in the oven. When I took it out, the rack in the oven tipped, like that, and dumped the pie all over. So I had to call, I didn't call her. I baked the other pie and took her the pie and we had no pie that night. I remember vividly how difficult it was to learn to cook that way. Anyway, that was, that was an era when you didn't all have electric stoves and so forth. I ment-

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Interviewee: Lois Galloway (LG)
Interviewer: Troy Reeves (TR)
Date: [Part two of interview with Lois Galloway]
Location: Galloway residence, Meridian, ID, USA

TR: Okay this is tape two with Lois Galloway. We're just going to finish up with a few questions here. How did you get your news about the war?

LG: Radio. I'm quite sure. I remember distinctly of coming into our home and hearing immediately that there was war. We had been to church, we came home, and I think my father turned on the radio. That's my recollection. We didn't hear it at church, we didn't hear it from people around, but when we came home, then we heard it. That was as I recall it.

TR: And were newspapers another way that you would get //information about what was going on?//

LG: //Yes, my dad always had– read// newspapers and we always had– as I mentioned, we, we went to movies it seemed like every Saturday. Then it was only ten cents you'd go to a movie, you know? And that was one of our recreations. And you'd al– they'd always have war news before anything else was shown. Like a preamble. What would it be called? Before anything else they would have the news, so it was right there in your face.

TR: You mentioned in one of your documents that you read into the tape about hearing about the end of the war, but I'm wondering how you felt, particularly having four brothers //over there.//

LG: //Oh, we were exultant.// We were all so relieved. As I mentioned it had been a time of tension, always. Because we had friends, relatives that would, as I mentioned, have the stars in the window, and we all dreaded that telegram. That's the way that news was brought to families. If a casuality or anything, it was always by telegram. And so I think it was just a huge communal relief, and I remember us going downtwon Boise here and all of us parading down the streets and it was just a communal joy, I think is what I would say. And relief.

TR: Did your brothers come back staggered?

LG: I think so. I can't remember exactly of them coming back. See that was right when we were dating and thinking of marriage and all, and they all at that time were in the war, but then all of the sudden they were all coming back. They too were dating and getting married. I think we had about three of us in one year. So we were all experiencing the same thing, but I can't– like I can't remember if going out to a railroad and seeing them get off the train, any of that, so it wasn't a personal [pause] reunion. I can't remember at all of each of them coming home.

TR: So do you recall a time when the whole family was back together //for the first time?//

LG: //Yes,// our first– I recall our first Christmas after. All of them and their girlfriends. By then each one seemed to have a girlfriend or a wife or– my sister's husband had come home, and we all had Christmas at my parent's home. In fact I have a picture or two of seeing all of us there as a whole family for the first time in three or four years, and I real– that's very distinct. But then all of my brothers went right back to school. Let's see they were, I think every one in college, or just ready to go to college. Anyway, it was that period of time so all of them were busy getting back into school and restarting the lives that had been disrupted. So I do recall that of them all being there.

TR: Do you recall, or did your family have a Victory Garden?

LG: We did, we always had a garden. And they definitely had Victory Gardens, and that's– whether ours was termed that or not I don't know, but we did have a garden.

TR: So even, even here in Boise you were having– and is that like a //vegetable garden?//

LG: //Yes.// Victory Gardens were very– they seemed very essential, because then you always had fresh produce, and things that– I don't know that that was readily available during the war. I don't recall that I remember other things being scarce, and I mentioned food and things, but what that entailed other than sugar and– butter was hard to get, things like that. But we did raise gardens to supplement whatever was available.

TR: And did you raise a garden when you lived– you and Dick lived //on Broadway?//

LG: //Always.// We've always had a garden. A very small one there, but it's interesting because Dick was raised right in the city, in Salt Lake, and yet at heart he is a gardener like you wouldn't believe. Our first, well, we've had several homes. We lived on Broadway and then we built the one on Kootenai, and we had two and a half acres. And when we bought it, it was just a field of grey, this whole thing. He turned that into a paradise. He planted 26 fruit trees, he had grapes, he had berries, he had a beautiful place. His 26 fruit trees, he planted grass all under it so the children had just like a park to play in. We always had a big beautiful garden, flowers and vegetables. He's just been a marvel at that. So from my earliest time, we had gardens even when I was a child. I didn't– I was kind of spoiled because I had four brothers that were older than I was, and so they did the gardening and the yardwork and the milking of the cows, but I remember them always having good gardens, and things like that. So whether they're termed Victory Gardens I don't know. [laughter] We were self-sufficient anyway.

TR: I want to come back to something, I'm bouncing back and forth here and I apologize for that, but there are some questions that jump out in my mind here. You talk about growing up here in Weiser in the '30s and how enjoyable it was, and I'm wondering, as a young child or a teenager, if you even realized that you were living through what we now coin as the Great Depression? 

LG: I don't recall of ever feeling that at all. //My mother was very frugal,// and she sewed for us and she canned and bottled everything, but I just figured because we had several children, that's the way everybody lived. You took care of your family, you know, I didn't feel like we were poor, if that– you know, that type of thing. I do remember frugality, but not to the point where it ever bothered us.

TR: //And do you recall–// And do you recall, and maybe looking back on in hindsight, neighbors or friends that were affected by the Great Depression?

LG: Not really, uh-uh. I don't see– I don't, as a child, ever think of there bring a depression. My mother was free to pick up the phone and call the grocer and send– and say send out a roast and send out things and they would deliver it. We always had plenty to eat. I can't remem– and we continued to have our lessons, like I mentioned sometimes they were paid for by produce and things. But to me as a child– now it could have been very devestating for my parents, I don't know, but I didn't feel that, all the time I was growing up. So I don't know whether the depression really hit us real hard. My dad, being a veterinarian, often wasn't paid for his services. You know, he'd go out and take care of everybody's livestock and often he wouldn't get paid for a long time, so they undoubtedly felt it, but as a family of children we didn't feel that at all.

TR: As a, a young wife, I'm wondering if– you talked a lot about rationing during World War II, I was wondering if there was something right after World War II, specific items that you really started to notice?

LG: Well, when I really noticed it was what I mentioned, that they gave us– we had these receptions and showers and things. People went out of their way to save sheets and towels and pillowcases, and things that were hard to get, and gave to us for our wedding. You know, people were just extremely generous, and I know, and we appreciated it at that time, that they were hard to get. A lot of the things that they– they looked out for each other.

TR: Being a teenager during the years that the U.S. was involved in World War II, and you've talked about a lot of things that you and your family had to go without, I'm wondering as a teenager, if you ever felt put out by the war?

LG: I don't really think so. I think the thing that I remember most is how it affected us was the worry of your people. Your men, whether they were in your own family, or neighbors or friends, that to me was the overlying effect that it had on us. I don't remember personally feeling the pressures of war other than that. But then I was young. My parents and the older generation were the ones that were really affected by the war by trying to keep their family together, take care of them and– where we were the recipients of their care. So I didn't feel that as much as an older person would have I think.

TR: Do you feel that living through the war prepared you to be a young bride? I mean you were fairly young when you–

LG: Yeah I was. I think that it strengthened us, really. We had a feeling of you had to take care of yourself and you had to help each other, and it probably strengthened us, because if the war hadn't come I'd have just gone on to college and been a care-free person, not concerned about things. I think. Whether that's the case, I don't know.

TR: Did growing up during the war– do you think that's given you a...better understanding isn't the right word, but maybe has kept you involved in world events?

LG: I think so. I think so. Growing up in one war you don't want to ever see it again. You want to be able to say, "that's enough, we're going to stand for our country." I think, if anything, it made us all more patriotic. We felt that this was an unjust thing, you know, to have been attacked. That was just beyond belief. And so for the future, you hated to see anything like that ever even be intimated, and yet it has been, and is right now. And you think oh no, you don't want your children to go through this, you don't want your grandchildren– see that's the big worry that people our age have right now, is that these young people might have to go to war, and war is a dreadful thing.

TR: Maybe one question about the present, and then I want to ask a couple things about right after the war. Did you see any similarities between what happened after December 7th, 1941 and what happened after September 11th, 2001?

LG: Well I felt that the nation as a whole felt that they had been violated, and I think we, this whole past year, have felt that way. Don't you? You feel how could that be, here in the United States of America? Somebody actually coming and doing that. And that's really the same feeling we had when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. How could that be? This is America. They couldn't do that. You know, and we do have those same feelings, and I think it's real scary now as you hear the talk of Iraq and war and all of those things. You just feel like you can't– you don't want to have the world, or the nation go through that. The world goes through it all the time.

TR: Have you seen any differences between how America reacted in the year– or you know, 14 months after Pearl Harbor and these 14 months after–

LG: Well I think there was a patriotism that was felt then, where everybody was willing to do their part. They were willing to go and fight for their country. I don't know if that is as prevalent in this day. People just dropped everything. I'll go fight. You know, but here we have more of a tendency now to think to think, "well, let somebody else do that, you know, I'm going to take care of what I have." Whether that's true or not, but I kind of have that feeling.

TR: I was wondering since you have this manuscript if you want to read– it looked like there was just a little bit left of your life after the war.

LG: Well let's see if I remember.

TR: I think there was maybe a back... If not I can just ask you a couple of general questions about... actually while you're looking through that, there's a question I want to ask, and– did learning to do without during the war affect the way you managed a household for the decades after the war?

LG: I think so. I think we had more of a feeling that we were responsible for this family that we have, and to be careful. Careful with what we had to the extent that we knew that if anything happened, we were now the responsible party. Like, I want to be sure that if next week there was war and things were put on hold where you couldn't get things, that I have a supply to take care of my family enough. A case in point, when our daughter– I think they had three children. They lived in Indianapolis, and they had a very severe winter, and they had snow so deep that they couldn't open their kitchen door, just really had to tunnel out to get out. Now the bishop in their ward– they lived in a complex, a lot of apartments, and so he was responsible to see that everybody in his ward was taken care of. So he called on the people that lived in that area and he said now take care of each other. If you have something to share, a casserole, be sure your neighbor has it and so on and so forth. So they did that, and when the storm was finally over, her husband was able to tunnel out. The snow was so high, it was– the trucks and things couldn't even get in. They– she was just out of everything, so she got to the store and she said the shelves were literally empty of everything that she had on her list. Well, I think that this war and their experience there teaches you as a parent to be prepared for things. They weren't. They were young people, had a young family. they were used to just going to the store and get what you need. And that was the feeling that people had during the war and afterwards, that you need to prepare yourself for the inevitable. You don't know what's going to happen.

TR: Okay. Since I'm going to make a copy of that anyway and it'll be on file, there's just one other question I want to ask and I'll let you go. Well a couple of things, but, is there one thought or one idea about what you had to go through or what your family had to go through during the war that you would like to share with whoever may listen to this?

LG: I think the biggest thing was love of country. We loved our country. We loved our familes, and we loved our neighbors and friends. There was a great feeling of– what's the word? Congeniality. And you felt for everybody around that you wanted to be sure that they knew that you cared about them. I think that's one thing the war did. You felt for the family down the street that had just lost a boy, or had heard word that he was missing, or something had happened. Maybe you didn't even know them, but you had the feelings for them that you probably wouldn't have had otherwise. I don't know if that's what you mean but I felt that there was a great love of country, where people would go and do whatever they could to preserve our way of life.

TR: Just two more things, is there anything that you've said today that you feel you'd like to elaborate on or clarify?

LG: I don't know. [Laughter]

TR: Okay, and the last thing I always try to ask: is there anything on this particular subject, which is your time as a civilian during World War II that you feel important to add to the tape before we sign off.

LG: I don't really think so, I think I've tried to cover pretty well.

TR: Okay, well I want to thank you then for your time //letting me come out and talk to you.//

LG: //Well thank you,// I hope this has been of value.

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Interviewees: George Curtis Richard Galloway (RG), Lois LaRue Brown Galloway (LG) 
Interviewer: Unknown (I)
Date: 15 December, 2002
Location: Galloway residence, Meridian, ID, USA

RG: My name is George Curtis Richard Galloway. I was born in Shelley, Bingham County Idaho, January 28th, 1918. I am a World War II veteran. Today is December 15th, 2002. I'm at home in Meridian, Idaho. This tape is a result of questions asked me during my earlier interviews. I was hesitant to give details in my answers, how do you feel about being older than most of the men around you? Would you explain more about your experience with Lieutenant Reed Ellsworth and others you've mentioned? I refer to you the Saints at War by Freeman and Wright, on page 96. [pages turning] Lieutenant Ellsworth records, while stationed in Tunisia, a number of Mormon fellows first started holding meetings together on Sundays after their arrival in the combat area. A pattern was set up at the regular time to meet and the fellows from the different units knew where they could meet, and be together for a Sunday meeting. Time passed and the word was spread from one combat group to another. As the time approached for the invasion of Sicily, the number of Mormon fellows, and perhaps non-Mormon friends increased. At this time, we were having meetings in the second strategic air command auditorium in Tunis, and for a week or two before the invasion of Sicily. The size of the group increased to where we had perhaps two or three hundred fellows meeting on Sunday afternoon. And after the invasion the numbers considerably back to 20 or 30 of us meeting together. It might be of interest also, that on page 110 Saints at War, is a picture of our damaged B-17. I'm standing at the left, our tailgunner Laxon on the right. On June, or January 31st, 1944, we were leading the squadron when we were attacked by 15 enemy fighters. I was firing the top turret when our life raft compartment was jarred open, the life raft inflated and wrapped around our right horizontal stabilizer. The vibration was horrible. Our right-wing gunner shot the raft off. We fell some 5,000 or more feet out of formation before the pilot gained control. Thanks to our P-47 escort, our enemy broke off the attack. Meanwhile, the 99th bomb group that we were with, were tiny dots in the sky. All returned safely, and we, sometime later, the last to land tardy and very grateful that we had been protected. Regarding being older, I was trained early in life in my church callings in leadership and understanding. I did some reading, for example, How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie. But mostly presidency of Deacon, Teacher, and Priest and Elders' Quorums, and of course my mission for the Church gave me a great amount of experience with people. I believe the Lord has a hand in all things. That my late call on a mission at age 21 instead of 19 was to give me the experience I needed, so that it was easy for me to see opportunities to help our young, so very young, 17, 18, and 19-year-old boys together and give them courage, and answers to their questions and the others are found throughout all of my interview. How I felt, and how others felt, it's a lifetime study isn't it. So looking back again, as we four boys were growing up, we called our father Papa. He, Papa never spent a nickel for himself, on himself, everything was for the family. He never knew or experienced his teenage years because he became the breadwinner when he was 13 years old. His father died, leaving a family of one girl and six boys. One boy, Charles, was born after the death of Grandpa Curtis Galloway. Both the dad and Grandpa Curtis Galloway were Utah-Idaho pioneers. Father was born in Meadow, Utah, and Grandpa Curtis Galloway was born near San Francisco, Califonia, but he was reared in Meadow Creek, Utah. Mother was born in Cameron, North Carolina, and worked in a cotton mill when she was about eight years old. Farming hadn't been kind to either family. Cattle died, crops failed, and when I was between three and four years old, you could buy a farm of 85 acres in Idaho for 85 dollars. But no one had 85 dollars. The rabbits and grasshoppers ate up the crops. So we moved to Salt Lake City. We four boys grew up in the working class area out by the fairgrounds. There was me, Paul, William, Henry, and Charles. We were poor, but didn't know it, as so was everyone else. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was a center of our activities. We enjoyed going to school, the [unintelligible] grade school, participated in extra activities, such as soccer, and baseball, and marble games, and ringing the school bell, this was a hand bell where we run around the, the school yard ringing a bell, as the children all ran to classes. We served as junior police helping at road crossings, and all four of us enjoyed sports, up through Jackson Junior High School and West High School of Salt Lake City. All lettering in football, basketball, and I tumbled for Delmar Fairbanks for four years. We thoroughly engroyed, thoroughly enjoyed growing up as children, and especially in our teen years. We made our own toys, played marbles, tag, Run Sheep Run, Touch Me Not, King of the Hill, Kick the Can, and eye over. And I still remember the beautiful spring days and evenings, especially in the evenings when someone in the neighborhood would start singing, "Springtime in the Rockies." Then everyone from house to house throughout the neighborhood would join in. Life was simpler then. Children and parents were not afraid to be alone, and oh yes we didn't have a perfect society, but we did know peace, although it was Depression years. When I was a little redheaded freckleface kid, I ran out to play one day and heard a pleasant voice say, be a good boy, Richard. I turned back and asked my mother if she'd called me, she said no. And I remembered that, that still small voice ever since. Be a good boy, Richard. When I was seven, I'd read the Book of Mormon, preparing myself for baptism. When I turned 19 I was ordained an elder. I taught a Sunday School class of 12-year-old boys, about 15 of them. Before World War Two was over, all of these young men were in the service. The 29th Ward, Salt Lake Stake, was an average size ward of approximately less than 7000 congregation. Reference is made to a book called, The First 60 Years of the 29th Ward. The copyright's 1964. We had 191 boys and girls serve in World War Two. Their pictures are found on pages 311 through 322. We lost five men and had Purple Hearts, several of them. In fact, two of them was my brother Paul and Henry. I took every opportunity to learn about the Church, attending General Conference two times each year, and attending seminary. I had excellent seminary teachers while attending the West High School seminary. My teachers were men of note, Dr. Gerald Chase, William E. Barrett, Wallace F. Toronto, and a Brother Hinckley, I've forgotten his first name, and Levere Adams was my scout master. So when I was called on an LDS mission, I was prepared. When 25 years old, this call came, instead of the age 19. It was on September 1939. We, our softball team was playing all church finals in Salt Lake, and our team took third place. I was ordained a Seventy and prepared for my mission. I was sent to the Southern States, and served in North Alabama district, and later as district president of the South Carolina district. During this time the war escalated around the world. Missionaries in Europe were called back home to the States, where they finished their missions. Among them was a Newell Spencer Black, who became our district president, and a close friend the rest of my life. I'll speak of him later. My mission call was for 27 months, September 1939 through December 7th 1941. My mission indeed was the goodest experience of our life. We spent our entire time teaching, helping people with their needs, spiritual, physical, and mental. It was a good mission, we were very successful, and corresponded with many for years. Yes, indeed, the mission was my greatest experience, and the same spirit continued on into the next 40 months, while in the military service, even to now in my 85th year. I was released from my first mission at Columbia, South Carolina, December 7th, 1941. George Albert Smith was the presiding elder. He was a great experience. My mother was present, and many of my uncles and aunts and cousins from North Carolina were present. I then visited with the family in North Carolina, spending Christmas with them. Upon returning home to Salt Lake City, I tried to enlist in the Air Force, but they turned me down. I went to work on my old job with the Union Pacific Railroad, and then was drifted, drafted into the Air Force June, 1942, and was sent to Sheppard Field, in Wichita Falls, Texas, to learn about air plane mechanics. We attended LDS services on the base and in Wichita Falls. There the base chaplain, or through the base chaplain, a meeting was called for LDS members. Around 100 showed up and while waiting for the meeting to start, I heard of a very familiar voice boom out, present, Richard Galloway. It was Newell Spencer Black, my friend and fellow missionary. We'd asked the chaplain for permission to hold our own services, which was granted. So then we had our own services on the base at Sheppard Field. The chaplain at our first meeting asked if he could attend. We said yes. Near the close of the first service, the chaplain requested some time and he said, this has been an amazing experience for me. I did not know what to expect, but to see the way you fellows in a few minutes organized a service with theme, prayer, talks, and blessings, and passing the sacrament, I congratulate you and have learned much about your church. In fact, then the church population was 700,000, and we had very few chaplains in the service at that time. Later in October, a Utah night was set apart for the Utah men. The Salt Lake City paper reported it as follows: A Utah night, Utah State Night, the third in a series of State Nights for soldiers in the Army Air Force Base Training Center, Sheppard Field, has been scheduled for November 14th. And the committee members in charge of the arrangements Tuesday reported plans are underway. You know, all out by the several hundred Utah soldiers stationed here is expected for the events at Private Multon R. C. Noice, of Salt Lake City, chairman of general committee in charge. He says, we hope to bring the spirit of Utah to Sheppard Field for one night. He reported that previous State Nights, the field had been welcome responses from the home folks. We Utahns are pretty far from home and while we are not kicking, a little tension from our fellow Utahns at home will certainly be appreciated. Assisting with the arrangements our Private Earl W. Orton of Parowan, Private Robert K. Burch, Bench, of Manti, Private Robert H. Burton, Sergeant T. Milton Wassmer, Corporal Nelson L. Jack, and Private Richard Galloway, S. P. Mougel, Vincent Mullins, Lynn Bright, Ray Christensen, Charles R. Nash, Warner Thompson, Gordon Stout, or Stott, Henry Vitale, and S. G. Taylor, and Lois, Louis Lockler, Junior, all of Salt Lake City. Corporal Frank Owens of Kenilworth, and Private Dean Stock[---] of Provo. Out of this group, a small group, who formed a friendship that was continued on up to Seattle Washington, at the Boeing Flying Fortress school, and later by correspondence by letter. For years and even up to a few years ago. We formed a, a close relationship, not only on the base, but with the good saints in Wichita Falls. They were so good to us, giving us a home away from home. We continued to hold services at Sheppard Field until graduation. A short time before graduation, we offered as volunteers to fly as flight engineers and gunners. Newell Spencer Black and I entertained the thought of, of volunteering. I thought it would be a great help to me to be closer to my brother Paul, who was in England, so we went out on the drill field in the middle of the night, and there in prayer talked to our Father in Heaven about our choice. And after a prayer together and separately, we met the next morning and decided it was alright to volunteer. From Sheppard Field we were transferred to Seattle, Washington to the Boeing air craft factory, and attended the Boeing Flying Fortress school. There were 8 as I remember, that, of this group, Newell Spencer Black, Robert H. Burton, George C. Richard Galloway, Robert Kirby Bench, Preston Anderson, Roy F. Briner, Aaron R. Bates, and Grant Johnson. We continued to hold our own services as best we could. We had very little free time. It came time to graduate from the school, and for one last time, on October 24th 1942, we met together. We couldn't find a place handy, so we went out by the barracks, where we held a testimony meeting, because now we would go in different different directions. This experience would be a highlight in our young lives. A letter dated July 25th, 1995, to me, from Robert H. Burton recalled his feelings as follows. He passed away February 2002. He said, it is with sadness that we learn of the passing of Kirby Bench, our friend from Sheppard Field and Boeing school. Though our group has had little association during the past 50 years, we formed enough great memories to last forever. One thing I think we learned in the service among many was to enjoy each friendship day by day, knowing there would be changing and partings in our pass. I shall ever vividly remember the first Sunday we met you and Spencer Black. It seemed to me that both of you spoke at the sacrament meeting. I remember how I thought, how wonderful it would be to be like men with you with, on regular basis. And at that moment little did I realize that the two of you were actually very close neighbors. You shared many inspiring words with us, but none as meaningful as what you told us out under the pines outside our Boeing barracks. That the Spirit had borne witness to you that each of us, the six or seven or eight of us, would return home after the war. That was a great source of strength and comfort to a husband who had left a wife home after only a few months of marriage. I'm going to try to run down some of the others, and if I'm successful, I'll send you their addresses. Robert H. Burton passed away in February of this year, and Spencer Black, who I visited with last, well a year ago in November, had a nice visit with him and he passed away a short time after the visit. We graduated from the Boeing Flying Fortress school and were sent in different directions, for training. I was sent to Wendover, Utah for area gunnery training, on and off hours. From our tar paper shacks, we would hitch a ride on the ice-covered water truck to the Wendover bus station so we could catch a bus into Salt Lake City, where I could see my folks, and I was able to do this a couple of times. One day, I received a phone call from my mother. And she was sobbing, and could hardly speak. She said that Paul had been wounded severely in Europe, and she was very much worried about him. I consoled her as best I could. That night, I had a dream, and in the dream I was the old 29th Ward, by the locust trees which were in bloom, and with me was my three brothers, in their army uniforms, home safe. I called Mother the next morning, and my brother at home said she was immediately consoled and all was right with her. From Wendover I was sent to Gowan Field in Boise. That, that was where we were assigned permanent crews, and it was a difficult time because on a 24-hour schedule, they were in four hour segments. We slept for four hours and went to school for four hours, and flew for four hours, and so on. Two groups were formed of 29 crews in a group. And one group was sent to North Africa and Italy, that's the group that I was assigned to. The other group was sent to England. I would not be with my brother. By the way, Jimmy Stewart was, the actor, was in the other group. We had such a tight schedule it was almost impossible to attend church in Boise, although we did receive permission to attend church whenever we could. We became acquainted with the good people in Boise, and Spencer Black arrived in Boise before I did, and wrote me a letter stating, "today, two planes crashed into each other in the air, and fell at the base. Another had some problems with bent props and another with some telephone wires." A short time after renewing our friendship, Spencer was sent to the hospital with polio, and later, released from the service. We kept in contact. He became an instructor on the Sperry ball turret, married and was in the bishopric in Long Beach, California. Our paths would cross again. From Boise we spent training in Walla Walla Washington, Redmund Oregon, then to Salina Kansas where we picked up a new B-17F and started our long trip to Africa. Some of my experiences in between these parts of my training are on other tapes. We stopped at West Palm Beach, Florida; Alabama; Puerto Rico; British Guiana; Natel, Brazil; across the South Atlantic to Dakar, Africa; Mariketch, [unintelligible], Casablanca, Navena to Mohammadia, Tunis, Tunisia, our base until we were to fly out of Fogia number two in Italy. Upon arriving at the replacement center, I wrote letters to my dear missionary friends, 17 who had been baptized in Calera, Alabama. It had been about two and a half years since I was there. I wrote to Mrs. PJ Brady, a long letter of encouragement. It changed the lives of many. Lieutenant Reed F. Ellsworth was one of the censures of the mail that day, when one of the censures exclaimed, "I don't have to go to church today, I've already heard a sermon, read a sermon." Lieutenant Ellsworth said, let me see the letter, and wrote at the bottom of my letter, "I too am a return LDS missionary. I will look up your missionary." Which he did, and found several other LDS men, and we held the first LDS services in my tent, in North Africa. Lieutenant Ellsworth's report is found in Saints of Life, page 96, by Freeman and Wright. I will relate some of our experience before he was shot down and became a prisoner of war. Sister Brady wrote me a letter dated August 9th, 1943, which Lois my wife will read for me.

LG: Calera, Alabama. August 9th, 1943. "Dear friend and brother, if you could in the least know how much your letter was appreciated, you would know how inadequate are these words. It was indeed a precious sermon on this subject we are almost interest—all most interested in. All it lacked to make it perfect was your voice as we have heard you in the past. The seeds of the gospel that you helped to sow here are beginning to spring up and bear fruit. If you could be again in this area, you would be astonished. During the last two months, there has been about 40 Books of Mormon sold in Calera. People are showing interest who never did before. I think I wrote you Sister Lawrence was baptized, and just lately, her husband testified to the truth of the gospel, and said just as soon as he can make himself worthy, he will ask for a baptism. He is trying to leave off tobacco, and is succeeding, too. Since finding this wonderful gospel, I am not surprised that I was not satisfied before. But on close examination of myself, I am still not quite satisfied, because I don't have all my time to tell others of it. A thousand years day by day would not be enough time, but I will work all I can beside the other duties God has given to me, and when I meet the taskmaster of my life, I can say, "I did the best I could," and He will know I did, too. I still have the children, and I am beginning to see it as my task to raise them. They must indeed be very precious to our Lord, for He never would have taken them away from their own father and mother and put them into my hands. Each day I pray that I may please Him in all I do, or all I teach these little ones. We have our Sunday school at the Davidsons' in Calera, and the children and I go up on the train in the morning, and back in the afternoon. Wish we could live closer together, but I'm glad we can have our Sunday school. A little something we're very proud of is that we have the most correct answers to our lessons, according to corrections, of any Sunday school in North Alabama mission. And imagine me, as the teacher. It certainly makes me happy to know that we understand the gospel this well. In 1 Peter chapter three, verse 15, I find this: "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear." I like to read on the rest of this writing of this elder chapter five, verse one. Blessings sometimes come to us in showers, and your letter was a shower, for at the foot of your letter was a note that I appreciated so much. The censure is also a return missionary, and it made me so happy to know he would look you up. He said he would. His name is Lieutenant R. F. Ellsworth. I would like to know about his mission, but I don't suppose he served in this section. We only have four elders now, and it's sure a big job they had, you know. But they seem to just work all they can. Not so long ago, the only two lady missionaries spent three weeks in Calera, and they did a wonderful work while there. The Davidson sisters are very good missionaries too, and work very hard. Brother and Sister DuBois are moved away. They live in Sylacauga. The branch there has had some reverses and lost a lot of its former strength. I think McCalla is still gaining strength, especially since they have a new chapel. Birmingham also has a chapel now. The Church bought and paid for it. If you remem—[end]

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Interviewees: Lois Galloway (LG), George Galloway (GG)
Interviewer: Unknown
Date: unknown
Location: Galloway residence, Meridian, ID, USA

LG: If you remember the building known as the little theater, that is it on the south side. Lots of remodeling has to be done, but the last conference was held there. I didn't get to go, but have been going to most of the others, and will go every time I possibly can. Last Summer I had an experience that strengthened my faith, for when you all the power of God wrought in [pause]. Last Summer I had an experience that strengthened my faith, for when you see the power of God wrought in your own life, you can feel the closeness of him. I was bitten by an infected mosquito, which made a terrible place near my ankle, deep and spreading all the time. The Elders came to my house the third time hoping I would ask them to administer to me, but I just didn't feel worthy to ask, so didn't until the last time they came. They were happy I finally asked, for they were so worried over my condition, they were afraid to leave the community, but through that administration I was perfectly healed, in 23 and a half hours. So why shouldn't I work all I can for a God like that, that comes in his great power to care for his own? Yes, ever shall I serve him and try to teach others of him. Now I beg pardon for using such terrible paper, but your letters arrived only last Friday, August 6, and had been a long time coming, so will answer promptly on what I have on hand, determined to do better next time. I will ask our mail carrier if an air mail stamp will get this to you sooner than ordinary methods. In whatever is given to you to do, may God place around you pleasant persons who are his own as you are, and his protecting love and power. Then after your work is finished elsewhere, bring you safely home to your loved ones and friends. If you know the censor, express to him this prayer also, though I never knew him. Write to me as often as you have time. I will write again soon and not wait for the usual answer until I know you are at home again. Ever in my prayers, your sister and friend, Mrs. P. J. Brady. There are several things I think of now that I didn't tell you, but will next time."

GG: Yes, Sister Brady's prayers and Spencer Black's prayers, family's and friends' prayers were indeed a miracle to me, as we faced death many times. Lieutenant Ellsworth and I had many great times together until the day his B-17 was shot down. I never did know until I read his story in the Saints of Life that he was indeed alive. Now flights and other experiences have already been recorded on another tape dated September 27, 2002. In my log I note that on September 12, 1943, that we went to church in Tunis, and there were 30 present. And on Monday, September 13, 1943, Lieutenant Reid F. Ellsworth and I had planned to visit Carthage, but our plans were changed. We, 15 of us, received permission to fly to the recently liberated Sicily at Licata. Went on a training flight and to visit Elmer Grant Sessions, a member from California. He was a radio operator from 347th squadron, and was being sent home. He was severely wounded in the arm and his wrist, and other places. In fact, five other places. Sergeant Sessions requested that we administer to him and give him a blessing. Five of us held the Melchizidek Priesthood. Elder Reid Ellsworth annointed Brother Sessions with oil, and I sealed and blessed him assisted by Elders Ellsworth, Elder Bankhead, Elder Clark and Elder Sanders. By way of note, as we left the airport of this recently conquered island, on the way to the hospital, our jeeps loaded with GIs– Gi soldiers, we'll never forget our sad welcome. The country was in mourning, dressed in black. The injured and especially wounded children were on display, reminding us of the horrors of war, which are long-lasting for so many. Also of interest, we did go swimming in the Mediterranean, down behind the hospital. The Mediterranean, the blue Mediterranean, we'd gone over so often, and would many times more. The answers to the question how I would feel and how I did feel would cover many hours to express. For example, how do you console a weeping, trembling mother, saying goodbye to the third son to leave for war, and one more to go? What do you say to a father, mother, brother and sister who've lost a son to war? I know many mothers who bid goodbye from one to four to five sons. What do you say to the girl you've left behind? The Dear John letters received at the battlefront. I remember well one fellow weakly sitting down on an ammunition box, broken-hearted. He said to me, "My wife is leaving me. She's found someone else." How do you know and honor the faithful, the good, and the wise? How to deal with adversity, homesickness, and the many changes taking place? What about dreams and hopes for the future? I wrote two articles while I was overseas, and I would like to include them in my record here. One is a poem that I wrote called 'Bombardier's Prayers'. This I wrote after one or two missions, and if you're LDS you will readily understand what is behind the thought. "Give us the strength this restless day, our father, teacher of the truth, to live a life and lead the way to heaven's peace and childlike love. To those who lose their lives this day by bombs we loose from dreaded skies, on earth, in heaven, along the way, let me the gospel teach to them, in Jesus's name I humbly pray." While I was in North Africa, December 9, 1943 to be exact, I had written an article, 'Why I Fight', to enter into a contest. It was never considered because at this time we were being transferred and all correspondence was at a stand-still for security reasons. So I wrote this for principles that never change. "I fight for the past, present, and future hope of civilization. For the truths that only civilization can know. I fight for the principles Christ taught and died for, for the principles our forefathers were forced to flee from country to country, until they found a refuge, a haven, and a land which promised to be a chosen land to them and their children, who later defended it with their lives, and sent a declaration to the world, saying, 'We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.' We fight because these sacred principles we believe and have faith in have been challenged by [unintelligible word] men, who present a plan of subjection and force, by which they hope to conquer and rule the world. I fight with the same righteous instinct of inspired men of the past. Scores of men, such as Washington, Franklin, Lincoln and so on, each endowed with charity and a love for fair play. They fought passionately for freedom. They cared and watched over America, with– within which humble folks found happiness. They wanted courts of laws to be temples of justice. They thought it wrong that anyone, black or white, should be hungry or illiterate or miserable. We intend to maintain and keep these blessings of liberty given us by the life-blood of our forefathers, to secure these blessings for ourselves and our posterity lest the nations of this earth dwindle and fade into degredation and oblivion. It's well that I remember the fleeting moments of history, the care-free childhood and days of complete happiness and vision of the future. I can vision our little home now, tucked away among the hundreds of others in a busy city. Perhaps to a stranger it was just a place of shelter for some family, but you know, the very thought of it thrills my soul. It's a yellow brick house with a little frame porch and a yard full of trees, and off to the side, separated by the driveway and garage is a garden of flowers, an unfinished swing my brother was building. There's a grey-haired lady and gentleman waiting there, praying for the safety of their four boys, three who have answered the call of their country. You'd know them immediately if you chose to meet them. Mother so kind and congenial and a friend to all who came her way. Father was a sturdy, western lad when he fell in love with this little southern girl who spoke with an accent. They were married with the blessings of a country that didn't ask to regulate their lives in any way. Like most Americans, father had worked hard for his home and those he loved, and like all Americans he never feared losing the things he earned, either by an act of his country, or some individual seeking power and wealth. They were his, earned and held by the sweat of honesty. Our little community is typical of the American way of life. Most all of our neighbors were born in the old country. What if he were an Englishman, a German, a Dutch, a Scandinavian, a Dane, and Italian, an Englishman– whatever country? And we were acquainted with many. What if he still maintained a love for the members of his early life, and was fond of telling them over and over again? America gave him that right, and God knows we'll protect it. I went to school with some Japanese boys who used to participate in all the school activities. They knew the trust of honor and always played the games square. The two were the best debators the school ever turned out, these Japanese brothers. We never knew the difference of race, creed or religion. My friends at school were out of every national–ality. We knew no hate, no fears, we played the same games together: Football in the fall, then basketball during the cold winter nights, then spring and the cracking of the baseball bats. We were booed and booed right back. We visited each other's home, not caring if you were a Jew or a German, all that mattered was that we were friends, ready to help, to love and be loved by them. So many memories still linger there as a salute, an ovation to the American way of doing things. Books cannot begin to tell of the courage and strength found in thousands upon thousands of such American homes. We fight for the glorious truths that have brought people from every nation, tongue, clime, binding them into one nation, indivisible with liberty and justice for all, giving to each individual his free agency to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, and allowing all men the same privilege. Let them worship how, where, or what they may. Here man was to– free to spread his views by word and press. The Constitution declared man was free to represent and be represented by a group of people. He could say Mr. President, Mr. Senator, Mr. Mayor, I don't think you make a good executive, I don't agree with your politics and policies. I believe John Doe could represent us much better. You could help us so much in some other capacity. Then Mr. Citizen could go home and sleep without fear of losing his life, without losing his friendship or being branded a traitor, happy because he was part of the government of the same– the same as 130 million other people. And with apology to Abraham Lincoln, I quote his words in part, 'These same people are now engaged in the greatest issue of ideas, tears and blood the world has ever known, to determine if peace, liberty and justice, so dedicated by our forefathers, can meet the test and overcome the enemy. Thousands are being killed and injured, but not in vain. These brave men, both living and dead, have given their lives in this great conflict, have hallowed the principles of truth, and their children call– shall call them blessed.' End of quote. America's always been in moral peril from selfishness and greed from the ignorant who fear the old God-given power of thought. The great leaders of the past and present understood by freedom a quality of life that knows no boundaries of wealth or birth, or color or creed. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution speak with elegance and force like bugle calls from the higher realms of existence, calling us to ba– fight the battle of freedom, and the right to think and act for ourselves. No man shall ever take these principles from us. We fight to banish fear from the face of the earth, for the day when the lamb and the lion shall lie down together without any ire, for the day when force is love, and the gun a plow. I fight to be free from the sting of want, to build homes for the homeless, to educate the weak, to build factories, roads, railroads and airlines, to equally distribute to all nations modern conveniences and food so that they may share a more abundant life. To give my neighbor the same equal chance for advancement. We must find this faith in each other. I humbly fight to return and give honor to the noble heritage which has been given me by my parents, friends, church and country. This same heritage I want to pass on to my children and their children. I want a home of my own, a wife just like my mother, and children to teach, that I can take to church, that I can encourage in their games and studies. I want to see the peace of the countryside where– with nature abiding in harmony, and teach many lessons to those who stop and listen. I want to see the beauty of homes, trees and valleys. Places I once knew the things we once took for granted before this war taught us the real significance of truth and God-given free agency. Many of them had enjoyed the hospitality of America. We treated them as brothers now. Their deeds have sealed their fate, by those who love freedom. The enemy will find that truth and freedom are eternal and cannot be destroyed, that the eternal law: as you sew, so shall you reap, is their reward. We who oppose the enemy feel that if the things we do, if the things we give up, will teach future generations of all countries the lessons we fail to learn, if it will save lives by hastening the end of all conflicts, then our sacrifice is not in vain, and freedom is worth fighting for." I'd add here that some of the phrases are borrowed from my memory bank. Proper credit should be given, but I do not have the material for correction. The thoughts are also mine in these cases if the same, I ask forgiveness and feel free to use them. As I have just re-read this Why I Fight essay, I sense that things have not changed much since 60 years ago. There's wars and rumors of wars, and unrest throughout the entire world. The rich and the poor are growing farther and farther apart. There are hungry, thousands, millions dying by starvation, for the need and want for things that are already here. Now I'd like to continue with my thoughts. My flights and other experiences have already been recorded on other tapes, dated September 3rd, 4th and the 27th, year 2002. On March 7, 1944, I completed 50 missions. Friday, March 17, 1944, I was at Foggia number 2, Italy, and received orders to return home by way of Bari, Sicily, Algeria, and Casablanca. Transportation was by C-47, commonly known as the DC-3 commercially. I enjoyed my stay in Casablanca for a couple of days. I used to go to town in a bus and catch the bus back, and I would meet a young man of 12 years at the bus stop, and for a couple of days we had some interesting conversations. He was working on his English, and I was working trying to find out more about Casablanca and its people. This young man spoke in five languages. I left Casablanca for the United States aboard a Liberty ship filled with returning veterans. There was no convoy. We were on watch all the time for submarines, circled way South and then North for Newport News, Virginia. I was in charge of the night watch. No light of any kind. Matches or smoking forbidden. Lots of Blackjack was played by the men, and I saw many of the fellows lose their, their savings to some of the professional gamblers. During one night as I was sleeping, a storm arose and the waves crashed into the side of the ship, and it would shudder like a wounded animal. I thought we'd been torpedoed, but no it was just an angry storm that lasted for a couple of days. No one was allowed on deck until the storm was over. Anyway, who cares, 80 to 90 percent of the fellows on the ship were sick, sea-sick from the turbulent actions of the boat, and most of them spent their time at the head giving up their cookies. Only it was just a few dry heaves after a while. For the rest of us, that wasn't so bad. We could order at any time, as often as we wanted, all we could eat. Steaks and eggs, whatever. It was a lot of food. But everyone survived the storm. When I say a lot of food, steak three times a day, the best is real interesting. On April 7, 1944, arrived at Newport News, Virginia, Camp Patrick Henry. Oh what a beautiful spring day, and tears came as we saluted the stars and stripes. On April 9, 1944, left Camp Patrick Henry for home on a Troop Train. What a thrill to see our cities and towns unharmed by war. Our train stopped many times, and cars were sent in different directions to each man's home. Now for the first time as our Troop Trains passed through the cities and towns, and stopped amid cheering crowds, I realized we were World War Two veterans. The people were turning out to welcome us home, as a special people representing their sons and daughters, with hugs and food. I heard one lady exclaim that they were so young. Yes indeed we were, 17, 18, 19, 20-year-olds, and some older men. But now they were men, men overnight. Some wounded, sick to be released, others to be reassigned. But we were home. Home, home sweet home. Home away from the terror of war and destruction. Now we can sleep in peace and try once again for a better world for our children and the future. But alas, today, December 7, 2002, 61 years later, I hear and read everyday of wars and rumors of wars at home and in foreign lands. I was born during World War One, and hardly, if ever, a year has gone by, but what there was a– there has been, and was, and is a war somewhere on the earth. When and how will we ever learn? But I know the time of peace will come. April 13, 1944, arrived at Fort Douglas, Utah. What a grand reunion with my family and friends. A 17 day delay en route, 21 days of visiting families of GI friends I left overseas, and the LDS wards, and many other talks given at firesides. I had grown up in the 29th Ward of the Salt Lake Stake, a ward of about 700 members. 191 were away at war. But Bill Putman, a friend and schoolmate, lost his life November 7, 1943. It was hard to visit with his mother and sisters. I visited as many of the families as I could in the Salt Lake area whose boys I knew overseas. While at home, my mother handed me a letter that she had received from Irwin Clark, and I would like to read that to you. He said, "You don't know me from Adam, but I feel I know you folks pretty well. Richard is my best friend over here," (I went by George in the army, and Richard is a given name.) and I've had a lot of good times with him. I guess you know that he was promoted to the rank of Tech Sergeant, which meant leaving the other nine men he had been with and worked with with a new crew. Overseas hasn't changed Richard at all, he is a man a person is proud to know as a friend. He is surely a credit to you, he makes friends wherever he goes, and radiates and– good cheer and happiness. Some of his coworkers call him Sunshine and Reverend. I have– I have met Richard several times as he came off his job. He was tired but his spirit was high. He has not a scratch or a bruise from his work. There's surely nothing to worry about. I wish you could hear him talk in church, he's a gifted speaker. I'll surely miss him when he leaves. I surely do hope to meet you both, and Chuck, and Paul, and Henry when I get home."

[End of tape]

GG: Arrangements was made for me to have an interview with President Heber J. Grant, and I felt this to be a great honor. It was an inspiring time and memory for me. He requested I write a letter to the committee for LDS servicemen, and report our activities overseas. President Grant was so gracious to me, and I felt almost a little embarrassed because there were others waiting for interviews for him, but he gave me his full attention, and then he gave me two books, one called 'The Power of Truth' by Jordan, and the other 'Gospel Standards' by President Grant. And in the book he writes, "Brother George C. R. Galloway, with best wishes from your brother, Heber J. Grant, age 87 and 5 months, dated April the 20th, 1944."
I did write a letter to the committee for LDS servicemen, and reported various activities that I engaged in while overseas. I will give a portion of those as I continue this interview.