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Bill Owens

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As soon as the operation to take Okinawa began, the USS Nevada was hit by a shore battery. For Bill Owens and the rest of the crew, that was just the beginning of the battle. Next came the kamikazes. On the third day a wave of over a hundred of them targeted the fleet. Part 1 of 2. (7:39)

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Just before a kamikaze hit the Nevada, the ship's AA guns did enough damage that it broke up and cartwheeled from it's path, which was squarely aimed at Bill Owens. The body of the Japanese pilot was recovered and, later, after the battle and after the dead American sailors were buried at sea, the chaplain insisted that the man get a dignified service. Part 2 of 2. (7:28)

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Along with thousands of other servicemen, Bill Owens was waiting in the South Pacific, dreading the upcoming invasion of Japan. He knew there would be hordes of kamikazes and the resistance would be desperate and fierce. Then came word of the atomic bomb. (4:08)

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Bill Owens had gone to war at seventeen. As a crew member of the USS Nevada, he saw service at Normandy, southern France, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. He had grown up fast and was determined to make a success in life. A friend suggested that he go to school on the GI Bill. The GI Bill? What's that? (5:05)

Hap Chandler

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B-24 navigator Hap Chandler pays tribute to a dear friend from the war, George Brown. Brown led his bomb group to the furious battle in the sky above Schweinfurt where he witnessed some incredible sights. After the war he became a respected professor of mathematics. (1:39)

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It took three navigators. Hap Chandler was the pilotage navigator which meant that he sat in the nose turret with a map and looked for ground markers. Then there was a radar navigator and a dead reckoning navigator who fed instructions to the pilot. In the skies above East Anglia, it was an intricate ballet to get hundreds of planes in formation and carry out the mission. (7:13)

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It was an unbelievable sight. Hap Chandler was the navigator on the lead plane on a bombing mission to Hanover. The B-24 dropped it's load and turned around to head home. That's when he saw the entire rest of the 8th Air Force heading the other way. 1200 bombers representing a lot of lethal force. (3:02)

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The company clerk was Hap Chandler's buddy at the air base in England. He had completed his 35 missions but was due a week off so the clerk sent him to Edinburgh for a little relaxation. It was there that he met the future Mrs. Chandler but he had a little problem back at the base. They were saying he was one mission short. (7:29)

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He'd proven himself in the skies of Europe but Hap Chandler was not done. He flew as navigator on a B-26 in Korea in a type of warfare that was totally different. This time it was single plane missions, finding and disrupting the enemy at night. (5:50)

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Hap Chandler entered the Army Air Corps in 1943 and raised his hand when they asked who wants to go to navigator school. After that was done, he finished the rest of the training, became part of a crew and set out for Wales in a new B-24. He was nervous about finding Iceland at night but he did and safely landed for the last stop this side of the Atlantic. (4:09)