Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
5:36 | George Theis was finally heading to the fight. The glider pilot had been in training for years and was now bound for Europe. It was early 1945 and Germany itself was now the target. He got there just in time to participate in Operation Varsity, the final glider assault of the war.
Keywords : George Theis glider pilot SS Ile de France Orleans France Germany Operation Varsity Rhine
George Theis was seventeen years old when the war started and he couldn't wait to join up and become a pilot. He didn't pass the physical to become an aviation cadet but he was offered a chance to train as a glider pilot.
He was getting impatient. George Theis was a glider pilot in training when that program went off the rails. He was training to be a ferry pilot but that task was taken over by female pilots. He started pilot training in 1942 and it was now 1944. At the rate he was going, he was going to miss the war.
After successfully landing his glider during Operation Varsity, George Theis discharged his cargo of four men and a jeep. As he threaded his way to his designated command post location, he met a general and captured two Germans.
As the war was ending, George Theis learned that his unit had a band in search of saxophone players. He was a saxophone player. This was some good duty, but he got another pilot assignment before he went home, flying for the liaison service.
When George Theis returned from occupation duty, he got married and began seeking a career in civilian aviation. The tough job market drove him back into the newly renamed Air Force. He had a good run as a flight engineer and worked on the conversion to computerized controls.
He had been a glider pilot in the war and he was a bona fide power pilot who could fly many smaller planes. George Theis then became a flight engineer in a B-52 unit. He was in the cockpit readying for a flight when the pilot asked if he'd like to try a take-off.
George Theis could fly a lot of different planes but he did have favorites. He got to fly jet aircraft as well, before he retired, a long way from the glider he piloted into Germany.
