Bill Blackburn

Bill Blackburn   (William G)

Birth date: September 28, 1923    Expired 2/22/05     Wedding Date: December 24, 1942

Bill enlisted in the Army Air Force on December 13, 1942, while in college at University of Nebraska, Lincoln. He was called to active duty in February, 1943, stationed  at a base outside of St Louis. MO, and attended Washington Univ there for about 2 months, then to San Antonio Aviation Cadet Center (by Randolph Field) for a couple of months of pre-flight training, then, in August 1943, shipped to Cuero, TX. (SE of San Antonio) for primary flight training. Then he was transferred to Waco, TX for about 2 mo basic single engine training, then for 2 more months for advanced twin engine training. He graduated, getting his wings, and a 2^nd Lt commission, in March, 1944.

He was next assigned to Ft Worth, TX, for training in B-24’s, then to Boise ID for final training, with the crew, preparing for combat. Training consisted of formation flying, low level flying, and aircraft management while crew were firing machine guns and dropping bombs. The next stop was in Lincoln, NE, for getting oversea immunization shots and equipment. They thought they were headed for the South Pacific but instead were put on Liberty Ships at Newport News, VA  and shipped by sea to Naples, Italy, and assigned to the 15^th Air Force, 484 Bomb Group, 825^th Bomb Squadron, at Cerignola Italy. He arrived here in November, 1944.

During the next months he flew 14 successful missions, but on number 15, March 23, 1945, his plane was badly damaged by flack over Vienna, Austria. He was sitting in the right pilot seat and suddenly had severe pain in his right arm and hand; he first thought his hand had struck the control yolk, but as the crew pulled him out on the seat, there was a large bleeding wound of his Rt shoulder  and upper arm. The severe pain was from damage to the median nerve. He had been struck by flack from the right rear. The crew tried to slow the bleeding and gave him a couple of shots from the first aid kit with only minimal help. The plane damage was extensive; only one engine fully operational, with two engines inoperable, and the third only running intermittently;  the hydraulics were gone. Bill was in and out of consciousness, but thinks it was about 45 min before the pilot could make an emergency landing the plane at a Russian held airport in Kecskemet, Hungary, where medical personnel treated him.

The first treatment was by a Russian female, who promptly stopped the bleeding, saving his life. He was in Russian military hospitals in Kecskemet and Szeged, Hungary, for the next few months.  When they finally planned to ship him back to Russia for surgery on the median nerve, he firmly requested they return him to US facilities. The arrangements for repatriating soldiers among the allies were made by each country, and it was a very slow and tedious process with the Russians.

The US occasionally sent trucks into the Russian controlled areas to obtain supplies (and distribute Red Cross Packages) and one such truck, supposedly to pick up plate glass for shattered windows in Budapest, managed to contact Bill and five other hospitalized fliers, and make arrangements to secretly pick them up at an adjacent park in the evening. Hiding the six American Airman behind the glass plates, the truck made its way past Russian check points to the Allied Control Commission Headquarters in Budapest.

After a week of frustration, the Controlling USA Officer there, who spoke some Russian, got his Russian counterpart, feeling pretty good on vodka, to sign  passes for the six Americans to get into the Russian controlled Airport. They then snuck on a US transport, taking off as the Russians chased them down the runway in a Jeep. This was in June, 1945, a month after V-E Day (May 8, 1945). The transport took them to Foggia, Italy, where Bill was later assigned to Naples. Italy.

Here Bill was hospital outpatient, awaiting transportation back to the States. He became friendly with a Air force MD, who greatly expedited Bill’s return to the US, pointing out the urgency for his nerve repair. He got him on a Med Evac flight, instead of awaiting his turn on a troop transport ship. He arrived in New York on July 28, 1945. While an outpatient  for a week there, undergoing tests and evaluations, he met and old Grand Island friend, Thomas “Brick” Murray. He was subsequently transferred to a service hospital in Springfield, MO specializing in nerve injury repair. There he ran into another Grand Island friend, Howard (Short) Kelly, also an Air Force Pilot, who had been badly injured in the Pacific Theater. They celebrated V-J Day (4 August, 1945) together.

After his nerve surgery in September, 1945 (more than 6 mo after the injury), Bill was on extended medical leave, and was able to enroll In the University of Colorado in the fall of  1946. Christmas, 1946, he was ordered Hospitalized for further testing and  evaluation in Kellogg, MI. He was pronounced fit for duty, and discharged on 19 Oct, 1946, but told to report to the Veterans Service Officer next door; they finally gave him permanent partial disability. He continued at CU, graduating with a Law Degree in 1949. 

He found out later that the other members from his 484^th Bomb Group flight crew, who were uninjured, had been shipped by train to Odessa, Ukraine, then by ship to US facilities in Italy-over a period of many weeks.

Years later, a member of his crew visited him in GI, and gave him a piece of the aircraft, and a piece of shrapnel that had been found in the plane. The latter still had Bill’s tissue attached.

Bill  expired 2/22/05, at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN. He was cremated, and the memorial service was conducted on 3/23/05, the 60th anniversary of being shot down over Austria in 1945.

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