Paige+and+Bethany

Bethany Wiczalkowski & Paige Neuin-Stump Veteran’s Research Essay 10-20-12

In 1941, a global war was started. Arthur Lee Longnaker was just 17 years of age when the war broke out. Just two years later little did he know he would become apart of the war effort. Mr. Longnaker was apart of the Air Force during the conflict of World War II. He was stationed at Fort Dix in New Jersey to recondition C-475 planes that would carry wounded GI’s and supplies to and fro. He earned a couple different medals for his service time in the Air Force. Mr. Arthur Lee Longnaker was drafted in World War II and served as an aircraft mechanic who was in charge of many men. The U.S. Air Force is the most powerful air arm today. It was not always this powerful. Its beginning was in 1907. It was an organization of three men and no operational aircrafts within the army. After World War I the air force still remained much smaller and weaker than European air forces. The US army air force grew greatly during World War II. It became the strongest force with 2.4 million uniformed people in 1944 and about 100,00 operational aircrafts. The USAF became an independent service in 1947. In 1955, it reached its maximum size which was 960,000 people. When 1998 rolled around the size was down to about 381,00 active duty, uniformed personnels. (Craven) Furthermore the US Air Force was very involved in the conflicts of World War I. In 1919, the first World War just ended. The Treaty of Versailles was enacted to keep the European countries in line. Holes within the treaty were not very well detected, and was a key factor in the starting of World War II (Bowes 529). America joined the war due to a lot of causes, but one main cause was Pearl Harbor. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed an American Naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. In two hours, over 3,500 Americans were either killed or wounded. Of the U.S. Pacific fleet, eight battleships were sunk or badly damaged(this included the U.S.S. Arizona). The number of aircraft that was damaged was about 350. The slogan 'Remember Pearl Harbor' was a mobilizing statement that would help rally the Americans to promote the war and to fight for something (MMX-MMI). WWII was a hard time for both soldiers and citizens of any war supporting country. Much like WWI, Materials were scarce. President Roosevelt created new agencies for such circumstances. One of these organizations was the OPA rationed the goods. These goods included gasoline, food, and rubber. The war effort was so unprepared for that everything had to be saved just in case anything worse would break out (The 1940s: World War II––Home Front). The war would be long and hard; therefore, it seemed as if there was no end.On the contrary there were many involved in the war, including those at Fort Dix. Throughout the war, Mr. Longnaker was stationed in Fort Dix. Here is some history on this particular Fort in New Jersey. Fort Dix used to be Camp Dix. Between World War I and World War II, Camp Dix was a place for the training of active men in the Army, Army Reserve and National Guard units. The camp held summer training under the 1st, 77th, 78th, and 99th Infantry Divisions. Camp Dix, between 1933-1941, was also a reception, training and discharge center, that went for those of the Civilian Conservation Corps. On March 8, 1939, Camp Dix became Fort Dix and was from then on a permanent Army post. It was a training center for anyone brought in by the draft of 1939. July 15, 1947, the Fort became a basic training center. In April of 1954, the 9th division was sent to Europe for war and the 69th Infantry Division moved in. On March 16, 1956, Fort Dix became the U.S. Army Training Center, Infantry. It then expanded during the Vietnam War. (Support) On a similar topic, aircrafts were worked on in Fort Dix. Mr. Longnaker was involved with two particular aircrafts. These aircrafts were known as the C-47 and the C-475. When 1914 rolled around, the old Air Corps had transformed themselves into the Army Air Force. They modified one version of a DC-3, also know as a C-47 Skytrain, to its standard transport aircraft. There were not many changes, a larger cargo door and fuselage floors. Those were the major changes. The C-47 was a supply plane and could carry up to 6,000 pounds of cargo. It was also capable of holding an assembled jeep or even a 37mm cannon. It was able to carry 28 soldiers in full combat gear. It could also be used as a medical airlift plane. In this case it could hold 14 stretcher patients along with three nurses. There was a total of 7 basic designs built and the aircraft was given, at the least, 22 designations. These included the AC-47D gunship, the EC-47 electronic reconnaissance aircraft, the EC-47Q antiaircraft system evaluation aircraft, and lastly the C-53 Skytrooper. (Manning) Because Mr. Longnaker had done a great job throughout his services, he was presented with many medals. After the war, many veterans returned home with new injuries or fresh wounds. Mr. Longnaker happened to have a problem with his left knee that left him in the hospital for a little while. There were many medals out there for being involved in WWII, and Mr. Longnaker accepted a few of these. The Victory medal was given to any military personnel who served from December 7, 1941 and December 31, 1946. The medal is bronze, and it has a woman who is looking to another day while her right foot is on a helmet of a war god. In her one hand she hold a broken sword, and in the other she has the broken blade. Right in the middle it says "World War II". On the other side it says "Freedom from Fear and Want," and "Freedom of Speech and Religion". "United States of America," is around the rim. It's ribbon that it hangs on is similar to the one from World War I (World War II Victory Medal). Another Medal he earned was The Good Conduct medal. This medal was awarded to men who served for a one-year period of service during war, or a three-year period of active military service. The person who receives the medal must have character and excellent ratings. The medal was created on June 1, 1963, when the secretary of the air force established it (Air Force Good Conduct Medal). One last honor that Mr. Longnaker had received was the AAF Technician Badge. AAF Technician badge with one bar was worn on the left pocket flap. Adjutant General Instructions established the badge November 16, 1942. January 1943, changes put the badge into more paperwork by listing the badges bars. February 1943, described this badge but provided no data from the establishing letter. Regulations excluded the engraving of qualification dates on the backs of bars. November 1944 the War Department added three additional bars (AAF Technician Badge). WWII brought on many new challenges which meant more people needed to be recognized. Many medals were handed out, and above was some of the many to give. War is a time that no soul should have to go through. Arthur Lee Longnaker is another brave, strong willed man that served for his country. He might not have served on the front line of the battlefield but his contribution was still a great help. He is part of the reason we were able to provide American soldiers with the supplies and help they needed throughout World War II, all through the building and reconditioning of aircrafts.

__Interview Questions__ Bethany Wiczalkowski & Paige Neuin-Stump This is Arthur Lee Longnaker He was born on September 19, 1924 He served in the Army Air Force His highest rank was sergeant We are at……………………. On October 10, 2012 The interviewee is a friend of Paige Neuin-Stump and Bethany Wiczalkowski The interview is being conducted for the Veteran’s History Project at the Library of Congress


 * 1) Where were you born? Could you describe the area?
 * 2) Did you have any siblings? If so, what are their names?
 * 3) What were your parents’ names? Did they have a specific occupation?
 * 4) Did you have an occupation before you entered the service?
 * 5) Can you describe how it was when the war first began?
 * 6) Did you have any other relatives in the military?
 * 7) When were you notified that you were drafted into the military?
 * 8) How did you feel when you found out you were drafted?
 * 9) Where did you go for your basic training?
 * 10) Did you have any unique experiences during your basic training?
 * 11) What kind of specialized training did you experience?
 * 12) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Was it hard adjusting to military life?
 * 13) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What were the conditions like on the base?
 * 14) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Could you briefly describe the kind of planes you have helped fix?
 * 15) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Which plane was the plane that needed to maintain the most often?
 * 16) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What made maintaining these planes so difficult?
 * 17) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How did you feel about supporting the war effort by maintaining these planes?
 * 18) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Would you consider your job important?
 * 19) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">During your period of service, were there any ladies working amongst the men? Did she fit in well with the other men?
 * 20) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What was it like being in charge of all the men/women? Did you enjoy it?
 * 21) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Did you make any special bonds with the men you worked with?
 * 22) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How did you stay in contact with family during your time of service?
 * 23) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Did you engage in any activities in your own time?
 * 24) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Was it hard going from military lifestyle to civilian life?
 * 25) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Could you describe to us how you thought the world changed after the war?
 * 26) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Did you go back to your occupation when the war was over (only ask if applicable)?
 * 27) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How have your experiences affected your life? Did it impact your life with negative or positive influences?
 * 28) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Did you learn any life lessons from being in the military?
 * 29) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">If you had the chance, would you ever go back into the Army Air Force by choice?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Thank you for your time, we appreciate you doing this, and thank you for your service. Arthur Lee Longnaker Born September 19, 1924 Bethany Wiczalkowski and Paige Neuin-Stump For the Veteran’s History Project

Wiczalkowski: This is Arthur Lee Longnaker. He was born on September 19, 1924. He served in the Army Air Force. His highest rank was a Sergeant. We are at ELCO High School on October 10, 2012. The interviewee is a friend of Paige Neuin- Stump and Bethany Wiczalkowski. The interview is being conducted for the Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress.

Neuin-Stump: The first question is, Where were you born, and do you think you could describe the area?

Longnaker: I was born in Steelton, Pennsylvania, and Steelton is a small town, at that time it was about 10- 12,000 people. And the big thing in Steelton was the Bethlehem Steel Plant which employed many people, and during war, they increased their employment down there and they brought many people up from other states to work there too.

Wiczalkowski: Did you have any siblings, if so what were their names?

Longnaker: Yes, I had seven siblings, and it was Clarence was the oldest. Then there was Alan. Then there was Park. There was Harem, and three sister: Helen, Louise, and Ruth.

Neuin-Stump: What were your parents names, and did they have a specific occupation?

Longnaker: My dad’s name was Harem Alexander Longnaker, and my mother’s was Carrie E.Longnaker. My dad for quite awhile was the Chief of the Police in the borough of Steelton, and then later on he went to administration in the borough, and for quite awhile he served as borough secretary, which is equivalent to today to like the manager, the town manager, but he was the assistant at that time. Of course it was all the siblings in the family, my mother was a stay at home mother and wife.

Wiczalkowski: Did you have any occupations before you entered the service?

Longnaker: No, I just did general labor work for awhile because already they had talked about drafting 18 year olds, 18 year old people and a lot of the firms I had two three recommendations from the high school teachers when I graduated, and they emphasized it was all good employment places, but all three of them had to get back to people, and they were no longer going to hire 18 year olds because of the impending draft. They had just decided nationally that we have to take in the 18 year olds in the draft, we were already registered for the draft at 18, and it was just a matter of time until they took us.

Neuin-Stump: Can you describe how it was when the war first began?

Longnaker: Oh yes, yes, we were, I happened to be listening to the radio when Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7. I couldn’t believe it. In fact at that time, I was typing a letter to a brother-in-law of mine who was already in the service, and I was saying what shocking news this was, and of course it drastically changed our lifestyles, not just mine, but everyone’s.

Wiczalkowski: Did you have other relatives in the service other than the one you just mentioned?

Longnaker: Yes, my Brother Harem, he was already in the service. He was already drafted. He was in the first group drafted. He was in the category of 1B, and 1B meant you were limited in what you could do physically. His problem was among several things was, he had a punctured ear-drum, he was legally blind in one eye, and he had a knee that would go out of place without any effort at all, so technically he wouldn’t of been selected ordinarily, but they ruled since he was performing in an occupation that they need badly in the military which was in working in the office. He was able to type. He was able to take shorthand all that sort of thing, so he was drafted and he served four years, and one of the medals I have in the shadow box is his, even though he was blind in one eye, he made expert on the rifle, and that is why they kept calling him two or three times. They thought they could try to get him over there to serve as a sniper or something like that. He wanted to go, but he couldn’t qualify the other ways.

Neuin-Stump: When were you notified that you were drafted into the military?

Longnaker: How did I react? Well I had been expecting it because we kept reading in the paper and it wasn’t long until the 18 year olds would be gone and I think we were, some of us were looking forward to it, not knowing really you know what it would be like when we got in there, but of course then with both of my parents it was, they weren’t too happy about it, and the letter came in the mail. There were just about 100 eighteen year olds, and we were told to be ready, and report to the draft board for the first physical exam which was in Harrisburg. There were about 100 of us and a lot of them were from my class in high school.

Wiczalkowski: Were you scared or nervous when you first got that letter when you were drafted?

Longnaker: When I first got the letter, well there wasn’t much I could do because they didn’t give you much notice. It was just a short time, a week or something until we had to, knew we were, you know. I was expecting it so you know it was no big shock, and like I said many of my buddies were going too. That made a difference.

Neuin-Stump: Where did you go for your basic training?

Longnaker: You’re going to like this. I went to Miami Beach, Florida for my basic training. It was a typical at the beach vacation. We got up every morning at quarter of five or quarter of six, and since we were in a hotel, we were on the fourteenth floor, but we couldn’t use the elevators, we had to come down the steps, fall in and they would have role call. He’d make sure everyone was there, and then we’d go back upstairs and do certain things that you had to do, and then that takes you to breakfast. Back from breakfast and you’re in there a short time and you went out, and we marched to drill fields which was probably a mile or two away.

Wiczalkowski: Did you have any unique experiences during your basic training?

Longnaker: Yes, we had. It was customary for the air corps to sing, and we marched, as we marched along we were singing. And you had group after group. We called them flights rather than a company or something. Our flight had about, I guess we had about 48 men, and we marched along singing. We were pretty good, and all of a sudden we got the command to eyes right, which means turn your head to this way, and there stood Betty Grable, one of the leading stars, movie stars at that time. And she was there in her shorts and halter, I think they called it, and waving at us. That was one big thrill.

Neuin-Stump: What kind of specialized training did you experience, if any.

Longnaker: Okay, we went through a lot of testing. We went through testing first at the reception center, and the army, the military was kind of unique in this they, if you were good at arithmetic for example, it meant you were also good at this, and if you were good at this subject, it meant you were good at this. Now I had an advantage. I was right out of high school, and I was able to breeze through the tests pretty good. I felt, for some of them, we had four older gentlemen with us and it was kind of difficult for them because they hadn’t been doing this for a couple of years, and down at Miami beach at basic we went through basic tests. They ruled out any who was going to be pilots, because they already had enough of a build-up in pilots at that time. So, they talked to me, I had scored very high in the technical aspect of going to a table and picking up parts and putting it together, even though I had never seen it before. And I stood up when I was finished and then the sergeant said, ‘What’s the question?’ and I said, ‘No I’m finished.’ ‘You’re finished?’ So they gave me a second test and then from there it, we also took a radio test, but man I couldn’t tell a difference between a beep beep and a bop and a beep beep, and so I didn’t do good in radio, but I did do good in technical, and I went on to the Army and Air Corps training center down at Sheppard Base, Sheppard Air Field, and I was an air and engine mechanic, and there I applied for further training, and I was sent to General Motors Pratt and Whitney School in Detroit, Michigan. And what we did there was we completely disassembled a R-1830 engine, and put it through a lab test and then put it back together, and then we were taken out to the run plant and we hooked up our engine. It was three guys to an engine. We hooked it up and we ran it. And you had to have it run to pass, and I think we had our engine running in about two hours, so then we had the rest of the week to help others, who were having difficulty and couldn’t find out what it was, but that was an excellent school. All the instructors were engineers from Chevrolet, or General Motors, or Pratt and Whitney.Very good school, I guess out of the hundred of us that went there in our class, I guess probably at least ⅓ washed out. Washed out in the Air Corps meant you flunked out. They did all flunk out because of the subject, but a lot of them weren’t putting their mind into it. Most schools were good.

Wiczalkowski: Was it hard adjusting to military life?

Longnaker: Definitely, because they told you where to go, when to go, how to go. They would tell you when to go to bed, when you’re getting up, or they might surprise you and get you up after a couple of hours. Everything you did was- they told you what to do. And there was an old saying, ‘There is three ways to do it, the right way, the wrong way, and the Army way.’ There were differences. But, many, many of the men like at Miami Beach had become a problem at first in basic training, especially if a gentlemen was married, and he had a child or something. They were more prone to go a-wall, and then they just got in more trouble. That is absent without leave, and, but for the most part I think the younger guys adjusted a lot faster, and the same on the obstacle courses. We went through a lot of situations where after you were in school eight hours and you went out on the obstacle course, and to the drill field another two three hours, and it was kind of difficult, and it was a long day and sometimes you got tired, and when you get tired, it kind of weakened your physical abilities, but here the younger guys had a big edge on the older gentlemen because we would go up to hit a wall and pull yourself up, and they couldn’t even hit it. If they did hit it, they would hit the wall and fall down, and we could grab the top of the fence and and go on over, and the same with the climbing of the rope. For the younger guys it wasn’t so bad.

Neuin-Stump: What were the conditions like on the base?

Longnaker: Well at Sheppard Base I fondly remember Sheppard Air Base. That was the first base I was at. Miami Beach was considered a Basic Training Center, but Sheppard’s field had the worst drinking water I’ve ever had in my life. That was so bad, that when they, when we went on a long hike and it was overnight and so forth, we would have lister bags, they call them, of water and then they added chlorine to it. That tasted much better than what the drinking water was on the base. They were noted for bad water. The sales at the px from sodas and so forth was beyond belief, you know, and I should’ve been aware when our train pulled into the there were several soldiers standing there and as soon as the troops train stopped they got on. I thought they’re gonna tell us what to do, but instead they had their canteens and they went to the front of the railroad car and was getting ice water in their canteens. Just for a break that they’d have something decent. Along with Sheppard was probably at that time, they went through a readjustment period that we didn’t always have the food that we should’ve. If you were in a class that, you know, each day your class moved up or back a few minutes, five minutes or something and then that’s when you went to the mess halls to eat. And for awhile if you were in the last, in the evening meal, in the last four classes, it was usually just jelly bread and peanut butter and jelly bread or something like that because the food would be gone. And then someone from Congress got in on it and by the time we left, they had straightened it out. But other bases it was good and bad.

Wiczalkowski:Could you briefly describe the kind of planes that you helped fix?

Longnaker: I, when I was on the flight line, I worked on different planes and that was because it was the seventh varrion division out in Rapreviews, Montana, and they were bringing pilots back that had already served in combat and were going through a retraining. So, we had probably eight different types of planes there, and most of them had to break them in on the trainer planes again. So, I think probably the AT6 the Texan and the advanced trainer was the one that I probably worked on the most although we had others. Eventually after I got experience on the flightline, I was given the plane that belonged to the base commander. That was a little C-45. They called it a cargo plane that had five passenger seats. That was kind of tough and of course I spent a lot of time on that, but the difficulty on that one was the, it was so hard working on the engines. If you had to change the spark plugs and so forth, that was very difficult on that plane. You had to be very careful, if you snapped a spark plug, then you had trouble because we might have to pull the piston, and then that’s even more trouble, but fortunately it never happened with me with that plane, but that was probably one of the hardest to work on. But we had B-17, we had a B-25 there, and we had different advanced trainers, and the basic trainers, and we had a number of them. They would bring in one or two planes that would be the only type on the base because maybe a pilot coming back had flown that particular one. We even had one navy plane. And that, so they had a little office there about the size of this room and that was called the techler room, and that’s when you got a plane that hadn’t worked on, that’s where you went to research it, to see what is this, and where is this, if I’m going to replace a master brake cylinder, you know what do I do,and then since one of the things, sometimes I got jobs because of my size. Like on a P-47 we had to replace a master brake cylinder, and it required going underneath and going through an access panel and you’d go up there and I’d ask for certain tools. I couldn’t even have, you know room. I’d have to bring up the wrench or whatever like this, and it took awhile. So I’m in there locked in and I began to sing. “I’m just a little, on a lonely side tonight.. “ I’m going to town on entertaining my co workers or my, you know, and then when I crawled out with plenty had it finished, I crawled out, here stood three women and three officers, and I was quite embarrassed because I had been singing, and the one women said, “Sing it again!”

Neuin-Stump: Which type of plane do you think you worked on the most often?

Longnaker: I would have to say probably the AT6 because they got the most use out there in Montana. They were good. It was a good plane to fly. Good for rehab for the pilots coming back. They could do a lot of things, and then that they could do in airplanes, and they got the most action.

Wiczalkowski: What made maintaining these planes so difficult?

Longnaker: Well, for one thing, you didn’t think well, I’ll fix this if it doesn’t work. You just can’t come back to it you know. You didn’t have a second chance. You’re fixing something that someone will be up there three, four, five, ten thousand feet, and if something goes wrong, and he’s coming down, you don’t know what’s going to happen to him, and along with it, I have one or two forms I brought along just to show. Everything that a mechanic did, is on there with his initials, and you were responsible for that, and if you think oh I’m not going to do that I’ll just write that off and something happens, there were men who were court martialed and served time for it. Understandably, because the pilots, the crews are depending on us, and they would tell us later when we get to go to reunions and stuff they would, the pilots would always tell us how they appreciated the crews. And then of course if you got to be a crew chief, like I did,well then you got people working, and I was also responsible for their work. If you did something, I’m responsible for yours. If you came to my plane to work on it, it didn’t matter whether I was sergeant or what I was, I was the one you took orders from. There was many times I had men with more stripes on their arms than I had, but they did what I said and the way I said do it. Now if they were specialists, maybe instruments or radio, and they would follow their training, but they couldn’t brush it off. They couldn’t say that’ll be alright. Uh uh. We want that replaced, so it was a big responsibility. Big. It was, when you look at it, because some of those pictures later of what all is involved in an aircraft, you know the airplane, so many things could go wrong, and when there’s an accident, even today if there’s an airplane accident they get right into it, what caused it? There were, like I say, as crew chief, I would never permit anyone writing something off, or that’s hard, I’ll get that next time. If that needs replacement, do it now.

Neuin-Stump: How did you feel about supporting the war by maintaining planes?

Longnaker: By what?

Neuin-Stump: Maintaining the planes...

Longnaker: I felt that the era. I didn’t think that any particular group was responsible for winning the war, but I felt I was very confident and very sure that what the Air Force did over in Europe, they saved many American lives in their attacks and their bombings and so forth. In an addition to that, we also had the transport system, and primarily when I was in Montana, it was an air transport command. We were more into transporting people, ferrying new planes, and in that respect I still felt that we did a tremendous job, and later on that was much of the credit was given to the Air Force for the way they helped, the way they literally destroyed Germany’s Air Force. So when our troops moved there, the infantry, they would have it a lot easier. And the invasions, D- Day, when all those fellows went through the biggest invasion ever, all those ships and men coming in, there was literally hardly any German aircraft able to participate because our airplanes were doing it, were keeping them away, we had already literally destroyed most of their air force, and yes, I like the Air Force, I liked what they did, and the different rescues and that sort of thing.

Wiczalkowski: During your period of service, did you work with any ladies?

Longnaker: Yes, my first assignment on the flightline. There was a- They flipped a coin to see who would go this way, and to see who goes that way. The other two guys won, and I went over and I heard some of the gang in this flight shack waiting for their assignments, they began to giggle and he says “Okay, Longnaker you’re going to work for corporal so and so” I wish I could remember her name. She was a very good, very talented, and she has actually gone through engineering, taken two years of college in it. I learned a lot from her. She had about three planes that she was a crew chief on, and I worked for her for about four months. Never had a problem, I learned a lot from her, and eventually she volunteered to go overseas somewhere, and that cost her, her life. Somewhere over there she was involved in some sort of a bombing, and it costed her, her life. I always respected her. I had no problem working for her, accepting her orders.

Neuin-Stump: What was it like being in charge of all the men and women? Did you enjoy it?

Longnaker: I enjoyed it after I got the feel for it. The big problem I had was, I was young. And if you have-In my last assignment, even when I first had, when I was a crew chief, I had average twelve men, there was always one or two that kind of resented. You know the “I’ve been in the Army, I’ve been in the Air Corps two years and I’m taking orders from this kid.” But, he didn’t put as much into it, I don’t know what training he had, but I experienced that when I got up to the point where I had 60 guys under me. Then it was more noticeable that a young guy could have some problems, but I had studied the guy ahead of me, how he handled problems, and I think it was a good thing. I also did that when, later on when I do managment in the state. Study some of the good managers and pick up their good points. And I studied some of the sergeants and picked up their good points, and I had no problems. I never followed- A lot of the military had this, “Hey I need two guys. They want two guys to work in here maybe sorting mail, in and out of the cold.” And boy did they have volunteers, but when they went in there “oh they don’t need them anymore, but we needed them over here in the mess hall,” you’ll have to maybe was some pots or pans. When you literally lie to the troops and you lose their respect. I learned from the, I hadn’t volunteered, but learned you know never to do that, at that time I was still PFC, but if you get up into a position of command treat them with respect. Straight stuff. this is what we need, this is what we’re going to do, and how we are going to do it.

Wiczalkowski: Did you make any special bonds with the men you worked with?

Longnaker: Yes, I had some friends that I still contacted up to even a year or two ago. We would contact each other. It would be comparable, and you’ll probably experience this, this will comparable to like somebody going to college. They will have certain friends, you know, not family, and probably have a lifetime friendship out of it. That’s the way with some of the friends I met in the service. It amazed me that you always were able to seem to pair off. For example you were going into a barracks; for example, there was going to be a 100 guys in there. It always seemed to work out that people like you that maybe you would get to know them or maybe one of them would have the bottom bunk and you would have the top bunk and that’s what it’s like. That’s the way when we ran around. When we would go into town or something, that’s the way it was. It wasn’t all one right from this area or right from that area. Some of them were sergeants, higher rank, some of them were lower, but yes, it maintained friendships throughout the years. Used to send Christmas cards and something special from Hershey down at the candy shop and something like that, and they would reciprocate.

Neuin-Stump: How did you stay in contact with your family during your services?

Longnaker: Mostly by mail. If you're a serviceman there is no postage charge. That was the easiest way. If you wanted to telephone it was almost always a problem. They did not have that many telephones and then if you got on there you’re feeling sorry for the long distance operators. It would take them awhile to place the call and when they did they would say try to limit it to three minutes and that’s impossible if you came from a big family and everyone wanted to talk to you. I went more by the mail. I loved to get a letter. I felt sorry sometimes for the guy that didn’t get a letter for two or three weeks or something like that. It was very depressing for them.

Wiczalkowski: Did you engage in any activities in your free time?

Longnaker: Well yeah, it depended on the season. Sometimes we would, like out in Montana, we might go somewhere they’d have special tours were the USO, and were they would take us to some other site nearby. Of course you had a great time. Like in the fall they had a lot of winter sports going on. We had our own basketball team, hockey team, baseball team. There was always something to do. Much like if you're in school. Then they had classes. You could go, you could attend a class on the base. Things like that. Most of the bases were pretty good like that.

Neuin-Stump: Was it hard going back from military life to civilian life?

Longnaker: It was hard adjusting for a couple of weeks. It’s completely different and especially like if you had a position like I did. Being a sergeant and frequently telling people what to do I had to readjust. Some of my sisters didn’t care for that.

Wiczalkowski: Could you describe how America changed after the war?

Longnaker: What?

Wiczalkowski: Like how was America different after the war?

Longnaker: Well I guess I could say it probably took about three or four weeks anyway. The one advantage was your freinds were coming back the same time. Two days after you’re back then here comes John. Then a week later, oh Joe is back. You adjusted slowly. It was before you had something to do and now you're adjusting. They said well don’t go to work right away. Give it a chance. I’m thinking I got outta that. I went and applied for a job and I got with the state because it was getting a little boring not doing anything through the day. That was one of the best moves I made because then exams later, tests and so forth. One of the things that helped me then was the fact i supervised or had been in charge in the service of large groups and that. I, that helped me out then. It was hard adjusting and of course it was hard, of course, it was even harder I think on the families. In my family's case I came back, and then my brother-in-law came back from the navy and then another brother came back all within one week. well, you can imagine that was quite an adjustment for all of us living, we had a three story house, thank goodness. But it took awhile and like I say, once I started working I think that made it easier. Because then I had something else to concentrate on.

Neuin-Stump: How did your experiences affect your life?

Longnaker: How did my service experiences? Well, they, the good part was that I learned in there. I learned about people and I learned about handling people. I understood that once I left the service it was gonna be, it didn't matter what your organisation or group is, you’re going to have a couple bad eggs. For example, now I was smarter than this. You’d put your wallet on your bunk and go take a shower and expect it to be there. Nine out of ten times it wouldn’t be there or the money would be gone, something like that. You had people like that. You always had a very small group. A very minor group that would, that was looking to get something or nothing and they didn’t hesitate to get it any way they could. Steal, and the same way they would try to get around doing this, doing that. So you learned there was all kinds of people like that because you’re in that national draft. You had a big pool. When people got together, you had people from this state and that state. All the states. It wasn’t just your own group and that’s the first thing they did after they finished their training. They would break them up so you weren’t all from the same town or the same area, but it helped me understand better that in life there are going to be people who you have to understand are going to take the easy way out and are not always going to do what they are suppose to. That was one thing that was very important, I think.

Wiszalkowski: Now, did those lessons help you in your future occupations that you had?

Longnaker: Yes, some of those, I’d say understanding people. I learned, I was very naive when I went into the service, very naive, and that helped me to understand that when you are gonna work in a place that has 50 people, there’s gonna be 50 different people, and it was interesting but, someone had advised me one time. They were picking out their good points, concentrate on them and that’s what we did. It payed off when I finished. I rose pretty good in the state. When I finished, I had 200 people under me when I knew more how to handle situations. When you have 200 people, they’re all different. You try to handle them according to rule, but you gotta bend that sometimes.

Neuin-Stump: If you had a chance would you ever go back into the army air force?

Longnaker: I very near did before I got out. They offered me master sergeant if I would be in this for six months because the job I was performing there at Fort Dix air base New Jersey. What we were doing there was we were completely reconditioning the C-47. The C-47s were used, we were making them more usable to bring back the injured, the wounded. You fly them back from overseas. We were putting new engines on the planes, going over to another crews’ outpost, going over the rest of the plane. We had a tremendous job there and good performance. The guy ahead of me designed the system. I won’t take credit for it. The guy, the sergeant ahead of me set it up. Basically we were using what Henry Ford did well. Mass Production. Were you two would do a job, pretty much the same job everyday and you became much more proficient at it. Thats the way that we had this operating. We had sixty guys. They were pretty much doing one job each day or two jobs, three jobs. It was very impressive for someone that was in the pentagon because they couldn’t understand how we were accomplishing it. Like I say, the sergeant in front of me was the one that set it up. When it came time, when my name came up for, to be discharged, why then. The captain called me up and offered me a masters sergeant if I would reenlist within the next six months. I had a problem then. My brother was home, my dad had passed away, didn’t know what the situation was gonna be at the time. That was one thought. But I was also thinking on it. I thought of it over night. I thought well if that’s the case. If he could get me masters sergeant that quick, why didn’t they do something as my outfit grew? When I first went in there, in this engine shop, there were only seven people. By the time I left, nine months later, the engine shop, I got 60 guys. The rate, the rating called for more, Even on the crew chiefs and so forth. The rate, the ratings stripes were frozen in the United States practically. Very minimal. They’d get a couple through, but not like it was at the beginning. For example when you graduated up at Detroit, you got at least staff sergeant, because you’re a specialist. For example, that’s just one example. But like 60 men that calls for at least technical sergeant. Well I thought, why didn’t they do something before you know? I’ve been doing this all along. So I wouldn’t have gone back there, but then there was another new factory involved. It, now the jet engine was coming into things and that was a whole new field.

Neuin-Stump: Would you like to talk about your things you brought in at all?

Longnaker: This stuff?

Neuin-Stump: yes.

Longnaker: Well basically you would ask about working. Is it hard working on planes and so forth? There’s one book here like this. If you just looked at the front of that or you went inside here and it’ll show what a plane really has. Now the first time I saw that, down in Texas at the vet school, the first day they walked us over and this is what we would see, I was like oh my goodness. I’ll never make this go. I’ll be outta here in a weekend. But then you learned later on that they had something they call coding. Red code. Red, white, red. They took them and that would identify certain like hydraulics, and the red of course was fuel. So you learned that once you learned the system then you knew how to track things down in something like this. It made it a lot easier after we got that much work on them. But that book, I thought that would show you more of that than what I had, what we could talk about. Then of course these books, each airplane carried one of these. When a pilot finished, he would write in there what is wrong or if anything’s wrong. He did that and then the mechanic, crew chief, whatever, he would check it out and see what had to be done if anything. Now the only problem I had with this system was on Saturday nights out there Texgrade in Montana, Saturday nights there were frequently dances at the Offier’s club. Sometimes they would bring additional women partners from other places. It seemed that on Saturday afternoons and later, like mid afternoon and that, the planes, some planes would come back and complain that the engine was missing or wasn’t performing right up there. And then, in my case, sometimes I would go up. I had a parachute there and a locker and we would go up there with another pilot and check it out. After a while, I realized that this trouble usually occurred on Saturday when they had the dance. I didn’t wanna think it, but it seemed logical that maybe these officers wanted to get out so they could meet the girls coming in on the base. That’s what was happening really. So then we weren’t dressed accordingly to and the mechanics, well we won’t check it out today. Maybe that’s okay tomorrow. Because on the ground when we would run it up, bring it in, and we would run that engine up for you and check all the gages. Then it would come out that nothing would show up there. So then we pretty much guess what was going on. It was interesting. This little deck of cards here is when we were going to school they didn’t know, we didn’t know what we were gonna be. We could have been gunners, or flight engineers. But they always had these. This is different planes, and of course they had not just airplanes, but the enemy planes. We would have to go through what they called aircraft recognition. I’ll tell you, when you start going through these and looking at them it, there;s not a lot of difference in some of them. For example, some of our planes and some of the German planes and so forth, they look pretty much alike. But that was one class in recognition and they used to also have models of the most common planes hanging down in rooms. So you would get accustomed to looking up and seeing that. So that takes care of that and that. Just to give you an idea of the pilot and what he had to go through, this is a manual just to fly a B-25. I went to school on the B-25, B-26, a lot of those. This is the manual that he had to, he had to be pretty knowledgeable on. Just to fly that B-25, that’s a very powerful plane. One of the best pilots I saw, I flew with her once or twice, was a woman who was a wasp pilot. They were actually, they were not in the service but they were, they wore uniforms and they were civilian employees. We get the B-25 out there in Montana and her husband happened to be the base commander. Then shortly after we got a B-25. That’s what she loved. She would fly that, I think she was one of the best pilots I ever saw. You were asking questions about women being involved awhile ago. I met several pilot women that were pilots. Boy, all those women that were in the division, you know flying planes, they were excellent. They had, the biggest roadblock they had was some of the generals in Washington didn’t want the women even flying these planes overseas and stuff. To get back to one of the questions you had a while ago one of you had a while ago. In that respect, that came out in more occasions than one. You know? Were these women, they actually had to fight to get the jobs of flying the new planes. Pick up the new planes at the factory and then they’d fly them to the drop off planes. You know where our pilots would be coming in to pick them up. They were good. They were good. So I had no problem teaching my wife how to drive a car. She knew that if I taught her right she would drive right. She drives just like me, good. I also taught my daughter over there to drive and she passed on the first try. So that takes care of that. I didn't know if you’d. In this one there’s just one or two. So when we finished, when we were completed, this was the House of Representatives of the state. They gave us this. There’s what it looked like. There’s what I looked like when I was in the service. If you notice up here in the right, that’s like the, that’s what we wore out in Montana. We looked like we were in Russia don’t we? It was very cold out there in the winter, very cold. The winter I was there, at one time we’re up on the top of the mountain and it got down to forty below zero. All we did for a couple nights was we keep driving generators, not generators but like the kerosene burners. We had all these tarps over the engines so everything wouldn’t freeze up, totally wack out on us. So that was that. Here was when we went to perform something on a car, or on a plane. That’s what we started with. When we finished, this here everything on there had to be done. Over here you can make your notes and you had to initial. This, if they said I’m gonna steal your wallet or steal your shot record, which would you want them to do? Let me have, keep this shot record. If you lost this paper in the service, you had to take all your shots over again. The shots in the service, we just had the flu shot the other day and I didn’t even know she put the needle in. The service they used the same needle for I don’t know how many people. So by the time, if you were towards the end, by the time they got to you the needle was pretty dull. Plus, they had pretty bad effect after a little while. They really gave you potent shots. You carry that with you everywhere you went. When you trade, like when I went from Shepherd's field to Detroit and then from Detroit to, up to Montana you would keep that with you. Same with your pay record, that you would keep with you. Chevrolet, Chevrolet Prat and Whitney came out and not only gave me a this but while they were there, when we finished, if you graduated, they took an eight and a half eleven picture of you and sent it to your folks at home, which I thought was a very very good public relations thing to do. The other thing, I got a letter from them about six months after I was home that if I was interested in employment. Anything at all, they gave me, had this whole list there with them or with one of their dealers, to write back. Not just me, any of their graduates from up there got letters like that. But I had already passed my civil service test and had started there and I didn’t like to change at that time. Who knows where we are gonna end up.? So that’s basically that. That’s the sweetheart there, my discharge that I got right out here at Indiantown Gap. I was there for three days. That’s the way the military worked. I was stationed at Fort Dix airbase. I could go over there to their PX. Ours didn’t have one. I could get a nice scoop of ice cream and so forth in the evening. When it came, they had the biggest probably the biggest discharge, you know, center there for discharging people back to civilian life. I’m within walking distance of it, but they send me up here to the one up here at Indiantown Gap because I guess it’s closer to my home. But sometimes you think man just well we’ll put you through here and pay your way through here. Basically what they did anyway was give me tickets for the train, and I had to ride out to Indiantown Gap. Some of the things aren’t like they say it is. Like a right way and a wrong way and an army way. That wasn’t my saying. That was somebody else’s. So I guess that’s about that. Some guys never claimed these. This was the American theater and that included any of the outlands close by, Alaska and all that. For service there. This one’s the big one, for World War II victory medal. That was for anyone that was in the service and got an honorable discharge was eligible to get that medal. This one, some people sitting nearby might not believe it, that was a good conduct medal. That meant I had at least one years good conduct. That you understand. That is what you call a good engineering patch. All the people who were trained to work in that category. You wore that on your sleeve here on the right sleeve. That was the standard air corps patch. This is a dog tag. We got two of them, two of them we wore around our neck. If something happened to you, and they, like you were killed or something they would take the one and the other one they kept for their records. That had your religion on and your blood type. That’s for the rifles there. This is an ID bracelet. Many in the air corps tended to wear an ID bracelet in addition to dog tags because if something happened. If the plane blew up, for example, there was a better chance if you had more than just your dog tags. It did happen more than once, many times. We had many many planes that went down or crashed in the United States during World War II in training. We lost a lot of good men in that too. Okay, Do you have any other questions of me? This was a musette bag. This was handy if you were ever in well, like, basic training down there. We would sometimes have this on our backs when we went out because we’d be going through different things out there. It had a lot of uses, just like a backpack would now. I’ll be glad I was able to hold on to that. Do you have any other questions of me?

Wiczalkowski: No.

Longnaker: Okay, you have your instructions on what, I don’t know what we do now. Hope I was able to help you and get you through okay. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Biographical Narrative- Longnaker Bethany Wiczalkowski and Paige Neuin-Stump 11-4-12

On September 19, 1924, a boy named Arthur Lee Longnaker was born. He lived in Steelton, Pennsylvania under his mother and father’s roof. Having seven siblings, his mother Carrie Longnaker was a stay at home mom. His father, Harem Longnaker, was the Chief of the Police in the borough for a while and later on went to be the borough secretary. After he graduated from high school, Mr. Longnaker did a lot of general labor work because not a lot of businesses were willing to higher eighteen year olds due to the impending draft from World War II. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> On the night of December 7, 1941, Mr. Longnaker was listening to the radio and writing a letter to a brother-in-law in the service. While listening to the radio, he heard that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor. Mr. Longnaker was shocked when he heard this news. From that moment on, the draft of eighteen year olds was being considered greatly because the United States had just entered WWII. He kept reading in the paper about the draft and was not surprised when he got the letter in the mail to report for the first round of physicals that the military needed the men to go through. When he reported to the building in Harrisburg where he was to be examined, he saw that many of his classmates were there as well. Suddenly he wasn’t so nervous to enter the military. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> When he entered the Army Air Force, he began his basic training at Miami Beach in Florida. He got up every morning at about quarter of five or six, and he would have to run down the stairs from the fourteenth floor for role call. After role call came breakfast. After breakfast he would have a little bit of time to himself and then Mr. Longnaker would march to the drill fields about a mile away. While walking in his flight, they would sing songs. One day, while singing and marching to the fields, they got the command to eyes right and there was Betty Grabel, a famous movie star during the time, waving at him. His specialized training included going to the General Motors Pratt and Whitney School where he learned everything he needed to know about engines and planes. The time spent at this school was very useful because it prepared him for life on the base as an engineer. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> He was stationed at Sheppard’s base first. Conditions at the base weren’t very nice. Mr. Longnaker recalled the drinking water as the worst he has ever had. He also said that the food was not very good either. If his flight was the last to eat, he normally got peanut butter and jelly because the base didn’t have enough of the main course for everyone to eat. On this base, he also worked under a woman to which he can not remember her name. Even though she was a woman, Mr. Longnaker treated her as he would’ve treated any other boss. She was a well rounded engineer who knew what she was talking about. He worked under her for about four months and then she volunteered for a mission overseas. Throughout his career he started to work his way up in his rankings. Being in charge of about twelve men, he wasn’t really respected because he was young. He always made his crew do their work to the full amount of work that the planes needed to be fixed, because he didn’t want to be held accountable for anything that happened to a pilot in a plane he didn’t fix properly. Maintaining planes was a lot of work, and since Mr. Longnaker was a rather small man, he could get into the plane’s nooks and crannies easier than all of his staff. Being in charge of his men led to new bonds, and friendships. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Throughout his experiences during WWII, Mr. Longnaker made many friends. Some of which he continued talking to after the war was over. When he was in the service he would tend to stick with people who were like him when they would go out places. Once he was close to those people he would have a good friendship over the time of his service and they would send each other things for the holidays. Mr. Longnaker had friends from all over because once he was in the service he was divided into groups with people from all over the country. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Along with staying in touch with his friends from the service, Mr.Longnaker also stayed in touch with his family. He contacted them mostly by mail because there was no postage charge for those in the service. Mr. Longnaker also thought it was easier to talk to his family by mail than by telephone. When on the phone, he would have to wait for the operator to connect him with his family and then try to limit the call to three minutes. This was near impossible considering his big family. He loved getting letters. Mr. Longnaker often felt bad for those who did not get on for two or three weeks at a time. This was just one part of his daily life. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Whenever Mr. Longnaker had free time, he would try to make the most of it. Depending on the time of year and where he was, there were different activities. He and his friends would sometimes go on tours of places nearby or they would play sports. They had their own basketball team, hockey team, baseball team. There was always something to do. He could even attend classes on the base. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> After six years of being in the service, Mr. Longnaker was finally able to return home. It took him some time to get used to his everyday life again. When he came home he could no longer boss people around like he was used to. His family did not appreciate it, his sisters more than the rest. Mr. Longnaker slowly adjusted to his lifestyle change and the change of the country around him. After all, America was different after the war. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Once Mr. Longnaker was back home, his friends slowly began returning. The government had told him not to go right back to work, but to give things a chance first. He did not listen and went and applied for a job right away. This gave him something to fill in the space during the day. Mr. Longnaker discovered that his time he spent supervising large groups helped when it came time to get a job. He lived in a big house with a big family so once he had a job it was good for him. This gave him something else to concentrate on during the day. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> The lessons Mr. Longnaker learned during his time of service payed off in the long run. His service time taught him more how to handle others and himself. He learned to pick out his good points, concentrate on them and that’s what he did. It payed off when Mr. Longnaker finished he rose in the state. When he finished, he had 200 people under him. That was when he knew more on how to handle situations. “When you have 200 people they’re all different. You try to handle them according to rule but you have bend that sometimes,” Longnaker said. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Mr. Longnaker was later offered to rejoin the Army Air Force and nearly did. When it came time for his discharge he was offered masters sergeant but declined. He instead left and later received many different medals and patches. He received a Victory Medal for the win of WWII, a Good Conduct Medal for a year straight of good conduct. He took many things with him including his memories, his lessons learned, and his new found skills. Later he got married and had a daughter. Mr. Longnaker is still alive and well today. We would like to thank you, Mr. Longnaker, for you services.