Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
1:19 | Herbert Stewart tells the story of how he met playwright William Inge while training as a B-26 Radio Operator/Gunner. The air base was in Illinois but he went to St. Louis on weekends to see the Philharmonic and go to the theater and it was there that he met Inge.
Keywords : Herbert Stewart Come Back Little Sheba William Inge Scott Field Illinois St. Louis Missouri philharmonic theater drama Picnic
Like many young men at the time, he was out to save the world. Herbert Stewart wanted to learn to fly, so he enlisted in the Air Corps. Almost immediately, they decided they did not need any more pilots so he became a Radio Operator/Gunner. The gun he mentions was actually a 30 cal machine gun, the standard armament on a B-26. He was soon assigned to a crew and on the way to Europe.
Herbert Stewart's B-26 bomber group moved to it's first base in theater which was near Paris. They would move twice to new bases during the war. On one memorable mission, his squadron was unable to deliver the payload because of weather. Then, on their return, there were some tense moments when the landing gear malfunctioned and they found themselves scraping and sparking down the runway.
He was a Gunner on the B-26 as well as the Radio Operator, but he scoffs at the effectiveness of the small guns on the plane, which were actually 30 cal machine guns. Fortunately, enemy fighters could not penetrate the formation flying of the bombers. After 22 missions, the crew's tour was finished and he settled in as a clerk/typist at headquarters, with an interlude as a test crew on a new aircraft with his former pilot.
The doctor at the air base was a musician and composer. B-26 Radio Operator/Gunner Herbert Stewart said he could get the Glenn Miller Orchestra to play one of his compositions if the doctor could get him weekend passes to Paris for a few weeks. No problem was the response and now he had to deliver.
B-26 Radio Operator/Gunner Herbert Stewart liked to visit London during his rest periods but one time, he milked it a little too long. When he finally returned to his base, everyone was gone.
