ROY -- Ray Matheney lied about his age to serve in World War II, like many teenagers did back then.
Matheney, now 84, spoke before a packed house at Hill Aerospace Museum's Plane Talk on Feb. 6. He recently published a book, "Rite of Passage: A teenager's chronicle of combat and captivity in Nazi Germany," about his service in World War II and his time as a prisoner of war.
He was 17 and had dropped out of high school when he enlisted in the Air Corps in 1943. A year later his high school sent him a graduation certificate.
His presentation centered around his service with the Eighth Air Force 384th Bomb Group as a flight engineer and top turret gunner on a B-17, named "Deacon's Sinners."
"There are many today who have no knowledge whatsoever what our country went through or what our servicemen and women went through at that time," Matheney said.
Matheney, who retired in 2004 from Brigham Young University where he taught anthropology, took his first flight on July 6, 1930, when he was 5 years old. The plane was a 1927 Waco 10, piloted by his uncle.
When he was 9 years old, he had his first pair of goggles and a helmet. But he also was wearing a parachute and knew the value of pulling the "ring of life," he said.
It was that knowledge that saved his life 10 years later when he was shot down over northern Germany.
The pilot of the first B-17 Matheney was assigned to was only 19 years old and had six hours of flight time.
"We trained every day and it was real intense," Matheney said about the pilot and the crew of 10.
Diagrams of the B-17, along with photographs of different bombers were part of his presentation.
The tail gunner of his crew, Bob Lamoureaux, brought two GI blankets off his bed one morning. When Matheney protested, Lamoureaux said, "You can never tell when you'll need these."
They were among 14 B-17s heading to Abbeville, France, to bomb the airfield where Herman Goering's fighter squadron, "Yellow Nose Boys," was stationed, when they were attacked.
Lamoureaux was severely injured, Matheney said.
Matheney did what he could for his friend, then wrapped him up in the two blankets.
After they landed, Lamoureaux was transferred to a hospital for treatment.
"We were shot down several days later and Bob (Lamoureaux) was unconscious for 10 days, so he thought we were dead," Matheney said.
The two men met again in 1997 in Florida, Matheney said.
NEXT TALK
Ray Matheney will talk about the two years he spent as a prisoner of war in Stalag 17 in Germany at the next Airplane Talk program scheduled for April 24 at the Hill Aerospace Museum. For more information contact the museum at (801) 777-6818.
Comments