Taylor+and+Hannah+H.

Please state the veteran's name, the conflict or era in which he or she served, and the group in which he or she belonged.

Then research this era or conflict using the Veterans History Project website. Be sure to use as many primary sources as possible. Include your research on this page.

Then watch a video of a veteran from the Veterans History Project website who served in a similar role and position. What questions will you be able to ask your veteran based on watching this interview? What worked well with the interview and what would you change? Include your finding on this page as well.


 * 1) Where were you born? Where did you grow up?
 * 2) Can you tell me about your parents, siblings while growing up?
 * 3) While growing did you have any family in the war?
 * 4) Did you enlist or get drafted?
 * 5) Why did you decide to enlist rather get drafted?
 * 6) When did you enlist?
 * 7) How old were you when you enlisted?
 * 8) Were you still in high school when you enlisted?
 * 9) Were you pressured to enlist? Or was it your own decision?
 * 10) Did you enlist with anyone? A Friend? Family member?
 * 11) Did anyone or anything influence you to enlist?
 * 12) Why did you decide to enlist?
 * 13) What was the state of the war when you decided to enlist?
 * 14) Did the state of the war have an impact when deciding to enlist?
 * 15) What was the process of enlisting?
 * 16) When you enlisted did you want to be in a certain branch?
 * 17) If so what? And why?
 * 18) Did you get in that branch?
 * 19) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">When did you learn that you did or did not?
 * 20) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">How shortly after enlisting did you depart to basic training?
 * 21) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">What date did you leave to go to training?
 * 22) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Where was your training located?

__<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Hannah's Questions __
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">What was your starting rank when you reenlisted?
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Where did you go for basic training?
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">What training did you recieve?
 * 4) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Were you part of the mission to take Guam?
 * 5) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Did you prefer B-50s or B-29s?
 * 6) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Did you have to deal with any malfunctions of the bomb bays in the B-50s and B-29s?
 * 7) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Did you know what was going on in Guam before you got deployed? How did you feel?
 * 8) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">A lot happened during the 1940's; how were you affected differently by not being in the United States?
 * 9) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">What was a usual dat like for you?
 * 10) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Did you like being stationed in Guam better than Luzon? Why/ Why not?
 * 11) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Do you prefer saying y were in the Army Ait Corps as opposed to saying you were in the Air Force? Why?
 * 12) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Did you have any problems or friendships with the natives of Guam?
 * 13) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Island hopping", was a popular U.S. tactic in the Pacific; did you ever help run missions for this tactic?
 * 14) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">What was you job as an engineer for B-50s and B-29s?
 * 15) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Guam has humd, rainy weather. What did you do if typhoons or heavy rain storms hit?
 * 16) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Some soldiers passed time with entertainment and cards; what did you do to pass time?
 * 17) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Living in close quarters can form tight bonds or cause irritation with other soldiers; did you experience either of these?
 * 18) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">You swam in the China Sea while stationed at Guam, why did you swim there? What was it like?
 * 19) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Were you ever terrified for your life? Why?
 * 20) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">How did you recieve local or national news while stationed in Guam?
 * 21) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Did you keep in touch with family or friends back in the states? How?
 * 22) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">When you learned you were going home, how did you feel? Why?
 * 23) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">After you returned from Guam, did you have any health conditions you struggled with such as Post Dramatic Stress Disorder?
 * 24) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Why did you get out of the service in August of 1951; a year after you reenlisted in the Army Air Corps?
 * 25) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">How were you greeted when you returned from Guam?

Edited Transcript

<span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hentz: Today is Sunday February 28, 2011.And we are interviewing Gerald Bickel at his home. Mr. Bickel is eighty four having been born on December 3, 1926. My name is Hannah Hentz

Cairns: …And I’m Taylor Cairns

Hentz: And we’re the interviewers. We’re interviewing him for the Library of Congress Veteran History Project.

Cairns: Where were you born?

Bickel: Richland, Pennsylvania.

Cairns: Richland, is that where you grew up?

Bickel: That’s exactly where I grew up, yes.

Cairns: Can you tell me about your parents or your siblings while growing up?

Bickel: Well we were just an ordinary poor family, just trying to survive. My dad worked as a cigar box. He made cigar boxes. And my mother was a homemaker. And I had two other brothers, one older, and one younger.

Cairns: Okay, while growing up did you have any family in the war?

Bickel: I had an older brother, that was five years older who left in 1942.

Cairns Did you enlist or get drafted?

Bickel: I enlisted.

Cairns: Why did you decide to enlist?

Bickel: I wanted to be a fighter pilot. In the Air Force, the United States Army Air Force.

Cairns: When did you enlist?

Bickel: When I was a senior in high school.

Cairns: So did you finish high school?

Bickel: Yes I did.

Cairns: How old were you…at the time?

Bickel: When I gra..?

Cairns: When you enlisted?

Bickel: When I enlisted I was seventeen, seventeen when I enlisted. Then I left before my graduation, and I left on April 7, 1945 and we graduated in May. And instead of me going for my diploma my mother went for my diploma, picked my diploma up on the stage when they gave them. She represented me at the graduation.

Cairns: When you enlisted, were you pressured or did you decide on yourself?

Bickel: Nope, nope, it was all volunteer,

Cairns: Did anyone or anything influence you to enlist?

Bickel: Just that I wanted to be a fighter pilot in the Air Force.

Cairns: So you enlisted to be a fighter pilot, was there any other reason?

Bickel: Not really. Well I knew I didn’t want to be drafted either, because, if I would’ve been drafted I would have had to gone in the army. I wanted to go in the Air Force.

Cairns: When you enlisted, what was the state of the war, like what was happening, during the war?

Bickel: The war in Germany was coming to a close and the war in Japan was still in full force.

Cairns: Did the state of the war have an impact on your decision to enlist?

Bickel: No, I just wanted to become a pilot.

Cairns: What was the process of enlisting, how did you enlist?

Bickel: I enlisted to a recruiter. He came to the high school.

Cairns: When you enlisted, did you want to be in a certain branch of be something specific?

Bickel: I wanted to be a fighter pilot in the United States Army Air Force.

Cairns: Where did you enlist?

Bickel: Where I enlisted, right here at the high school, really. I was inducted at the, it was that river.

Cairns: Why did you want to be a fighter pilot?

Bickel: Well because I thought, I was good enough to do that and I wanted to fight for my country. And I wanted to defeat those Germans.

Cairns: Were you able to become a fighter pilot?

Bickel: Yes I was. I never became one, but I was able to, passed everything to become one.

Cairns: Why were you able to become a fighter pilot?

Bickel: I passed all my exams and while I was going through basic training the war with Germany was over, and they shut down all the schools and they shut down. Well, they had enough pilots coming back from the European War that they didn’t have to train anymore for that time of the war. They gave us other options to go to school then, which I did then.

Cairns: What school did you go to?

Bickel: First of all I went to sheet metal school, in _, Illinois. Then I went to cook’s and baker’s school after that.

Cairns: What did you learn at each school?

Bickel: How to repair shot up airplanes, repair, did sheet metal work to cover up the holes and whatever had to be done. And then when I went to cook’s and baker’s school I wanted to be a cook and baker.

Cairns: Was that considered your basic training going to these schools?

Bickel: Nope, nope, nope.

Cairns: You had other training?

Bickel: Basic training was right after you enlisted, before you went and did anything in any of the services.

Cairns: Okay, how soon after you enlisted did you have to leave to go to basic training?

Bickel: Immediately.

Cairns: Immediately?

Bickel: Yes, went three days in New Cumberland and then they sent me right down to Texas for basic training. And that’s where they did, they did all the test as a qualifier, in order to qualify to become a fighter pilot. And I did all that. Yeah, I did okay.

Cairns: How long were you in basic training?

Bickel: I think it was twenty-one days and then after they shut the school down they didn’t know what to do with us so I had to take Army Advanced Basic Training. So actually I went two phases of basic training. The Air Force Basic Training wasn’t quite as severe as the Advanced Basic Training.

Cairns: What did you do at the training? Like what did you learn or have to go through?

Bickel: Well we learned to survive really. How to use, how to prevent ourselves if we got gas in War World II. We used a lot of gas. We had to qualify to use masks of all variety. We shot different weapons, 45 pistol was one, the Thompson Sub Machine Gun, and the rifle, 30 on 6 rifle in Color Guard.

Cairns: What was Color Guard? Like what is that exactly?

Bickel: What the Color Guard?

Cairns: Yeah.

Bickel: I belonged to the Legion Color Guard. That wasn’t in the service. We used, we used to go on, on the parade field on Saturday morning when we were in basic training. we did the drills.

Cairns: Why did you do drilling?

Bickel: For physical, well to build your body really. I would say yeah. Did five miles, you were supposed to do five miles an hour.

Cairns: Did you have to adjust to walking all those miles, was it difficult for you?

Bickel: No, I didn’t have no problem. No I was physically fit...to do that.

Cairns: Where did you march?

Bickel: Where?

Cairns: Yeah.

Bickel: Amarillo, Texas. I was down in Amarillo, Texas when we did that.

Cairns: Why did you guy’s march?

Bickel: We were forced too. That’s what they did on a Saturday morning. Maybe thousands of, everybody that was on the base. they had parades and you had to stand at attention. If you didn’t have the right method of standing up then you just keeled over in the hot sun down there. And you weren’t allowed to help them either. If you fell over aside of me, I couldn’t help you.

Cairns: So would you just continue to march and just leave them there?

Bickel: Well, most of that happened when we were waiting for the parade to move. They made you stand at attention.

Cairns: What does that mean? To stand at attention?

Bickel: You didn’t move, you’re tense.

Cairns: You just stand still.

Bickel: Stand still, right, right. Or stand, you got your gun along side of you and you got your other arm back here at your belt line. At parade rests too.

Cairns: Was there a lot of parades you had to march?

Bickel: Every week. Every Saturday morning yeah, Saturday morning.

Cairns: Were you ever punished for not marching correctly.

Bickel: No, no i wasn’t.

Cairns: Was there a punishment though, like if you weren’t marching incorrectly?

Bickel: I would imagine, I would imagine. I’ve never seen, well nobody in my outfit never. If we did real good on the drill field, we had a pretty good sergeant and he used to walk, drill, he used to run us from the drill field across the street right into the PX. And we used to go get a soda. I thought that was pretty neat. I never heard of anything like that before, but it happened to me. We were on the drill field then we used to...call commands that you head straight for the PX, and then single file into the door he used to say.

Hentz: When you were on a boat for the first time, what was your experience?

Bickel: Very bad. We left San Fransisco Harbor, went under the Golden Gate Bridge. Then after dark we hit some bad waters and we were sick for the next three days.

Hentz: How many of you were sick?

Bickel: The majority of five-thousand.

Hentz: What did they do to clean it up?

Bickel: They, well the Navy uses hoses. They wash down hoses.

Hentz: So they just washed down the whole boat, pretty much?

Bickel: Well most the stair wells got heavily traveled, it just.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hentz – What was your job in World War II? Bickel – Airplane engine mechanic Hentz – Okay so like, did you work on bomber or… wh- Bickel – No, we were air sea rescue; C54s. Hentz – Did you, like rescue ships? Bickel – Yep, yeah we dropped boats and we carried boats on the bottom of the ship- uh airplane. I don’t know why I called it a ship. Hentz – So they were big planes? Bickel – Four engines, yes. Hentz – Oh wow. Bickel – Tricycle landing gears. Hentz – So you worked on the planes, like the whole plane or the engine? Bickel – I was in number two engine crew. There was three or four of us. We were the maintenance on the number two engine. They had a crew for each engine, and my engine was number two. Hentz – Did you work on just one plane or more than one plane? Bickel – Whatever was in the fleet. Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah. Hentz – So was that like a lot of planes or did it vary? Bickel – I never counted them tell you the truth. All we did was went in and got our morning- well like 500 hour inspections, 100 hour inspections…We went and got the paper work on the air planes we worked on. Those air planes we worked on on a particular day, so I really don’t know, I really, honest I don’t know how many there were in the whole outfit, but there had been quite a few. Hentz – So did you- Bickel – Ten, Twelve, Fifteen maybe.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hentz – So did you work on just one particular fleet or several? The fleet of planes. Bickel – Yeah just C54s.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Hentz - Did you have to go through a lot of training to work on the engines?

Bickel - Well the sad part about that was I went to sheet metal school and that gave me an MOS and then I went to Cook and Baker’s school and that gave me an MOS and they didn’t need either of the MOSes I was qualified for so then they stuck me on engines and that was a 555 MOS, so I carried three MOSes. I was qualified for three different jobs. That’s all I did then in the Philippines in that C-54 outfit. Just the engine work.

Hentz- So what does MOS st-

Bickel - I never went-

Hentz - MOS?

Bickel - That’s the name of your description number of your job.

Hentz - Oh okay so it doesn’t, like stand for anything?

Bickel - Just the description, it describes your...

Hentz - So then you worked on the C-54s while you were stationed in the Philippines?

Bickel - I did, yeah.

Hentz - How long were you stationed there?

Bickel - Oooh...about nine months.

Hentz - So then that was most of your enlistment? For the time being; while you were in the Philippines that was...

Bickel - It’s a little tricky. They got deals that you only had to put in so much time. You like replaced people. After the war, they sent replacements, and we were sent over as replacements and then we got replaced, and we went home again so... It was a little tricky back then yeah.

Hentz - Where were you stationed when you weren’t over in the Philippines?

Bickel - No place after I came back. I went to Fort Dix New Jersey to get discharged. I came across country, landed in San Francisco, then came cross country in a troop train and landed up in Fort Dix New Jersey and then got discharged in Fort Dix New Jersey.

Hentz - So what was it like to be discharged?

Bickel - I didn’t fulfill what I went to do. (laughs) Okay, it was all right. I have no problems with- I like the military. I really did. I enjoy it to this day... I enjoy it, the military

Hentz - Did you meet anyone over in the Philippines that you still kind of like have a memory of them; that you got close to?

Bickel - I don’t believe so. We were sorta taught not to get too tight cause you never know, if you knew somebody it would effect your...mental. So you didn’t fall in love with nobody. If you were my buddy today maybe tomorrow you weren’t. You know, you weren’t even living maybe the day after or the next day or something. So we, I had friends sure. Everybody has friends. Nothing, nobody I stuck with.

Hentz - Did you- What were the sleeping arrangements like in the Philippines?

Bickel - Quants and huts. Open shower rooms. You left your place where you slept naked and went down to the shower room. You walked like half way down the street to the shower room and came back again. Well, you could cover yourself with a towel. That’s the way it was. That’s where we lived. And we had Japanese prisoners that did our, cleaned up our waste cans, and we also had Japanese prisoners down on the flight line and washed down our airplanes. Other than that...it was like a job. We were over there doing a job really. We got three meals a day and took four showers a day because it was so hot and humid. You took a shower before you got going in the morning and then at dinner time, supper time, and before you went to bed.

Hentz - Did you bunk with anybody?

Bickel - Nope.

Hentz - Or did you have your own hut?

Bickel - No, we had single beds with mosquito nets. You lived in mosquito nets at night. You had to make sure you didn’t lay too close to the net or you’d get bit up anyway; if your arms lay against. We had...like nets we had to put down and tuck them under the mattress.

Hentz - So was it small quarters? Like a bed and then a door or you had a little bit of room?

Bickel - No it was like a ward. There was maybe twenty-five or thirty guys in the same room.

Hentz - Oh! Okay. Gottcha.

Bickel - You had bed, bed, bed, bed; both sides.

Hentz - So did you keep your stuff under the bed?

Bickel - Whatever yeah. You mean your personal belongings?

Hentz - Yeah, like your duffel.

Bickel - Well you were allowed- We had locks you could, if you had something that was worth something you locked it in your duffel bag until you came back at night. Carried the key with you.

Hentz - And this is while you were stationed in...

Bickel - In Manila in the Philippines Islands, yeah.

Hentz - Okay. Can you tell me what Manila was like? The area...

Bickel - There wasn’t much left of it when I was there. It was all blown up. It was starting to recover. They used to steal our vehicles and take them up in the mountain, and they used to make buses out of them and bring them back and charge the people to run like jitny, you know like bus fare. They used to steal the vehicles right out of the motor pool, take them up in the mountain, burn the numbers off of them; the military numbers and repaint them and put steps on the back and use them- oh well they had so many they didn’t know what to do with them anyway, so they didn’t care. That’s what they did though.

Hentz - Who stole the vehicles?

Bickel - The Filipinos

Hentz - So then you said Manila was humid; did you ever have any bad storms or anything that you remember?

Bickel - No, no nothing like that. Not while I was there, no.

Hentz - It was just really dry?

Bickel - The most memorable thing when I was there was the Philippines got their independence the fourth of July of 1946 and I saw that; all the nations coming in on their own airplanes and that was interesting to witness. All these diplomatic people coming in from all these different countries, yeah. That was July the fourth 1946.

Hentz - So you remember that vividly?

Bickel - Yeah, that was impressive, and that was the first time I saw American jet- fighter pi- fighter planes. They flew...oh what do they call that...Fly by. That’s the first time I saw a jet fighter; an American jet fighter. All the rest of them were prop planes and gas engines up until then.

Hentz - That’s really interesting. So you said that you had Japanese prisoners that like helped you guys work-

Bickel - Washed the airplanes, basically. That’s the closest I got to them, and then there was a couple of them that did our waste cans in the living areas where we lived.

Hentz - So you never really got to communicate in any way?

Bickel - No, not really just- they couldn’t talk English anyway and we couldn’t talk Japanese so we were sort of at a loss there. I would’ve been better off in Germany because I can speak Pennsylvania Dutch, but I can’t speak- I can speak Pennsylvania Dutch pretty good.

Hentz - Did you keep in touch with your family while you were gone?

Bickel - Oh you bet. I wrote letters everyday. I used to get plenty of mail. There were a lot of people I wrote to. I used to get about maybe three, four letters a day and I used to write that many too.

Hentz - Wow.

Bickel - I used to compose one letter and just keep copying it and copying it, the same thing, because they didn’t go to the same place or the same people and I wrote the same thing to ten people. Yeah I used to even keep in touch with my English teacher here at the high school.

Hentz - Cool.

Bickel - I did. She wrote to me regular and she said she enjoyed my letters; to keep them coming she used to tell me.

Hentz - How long did it take to receive a letter? Do you know how many days it took? Or like approximately or just a guess...

Bickel - I would say basically a week.

Hentz - Really? That’s pretty quick.

Bickel - Well, we didn’t have to pay any postage. They flew them in with the whatever; the mail and stuff.

Hentz - Service people get deployed today, they get like gift packages and stuff. Did you ever receive anything like that?

Bickel - Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah...Yeah I used to like bologna and pretzels so they used to send me bologna and pretzels.

Hentz - Did you get that stuff from your family or different organizations?

Bickel - Family.

Hentz - Just family.

Bickel - No not from any organizations. Uh-uh. Just the USO that we used to get, they used to send programs or whatever, and we use to watch movies. That’s about the length of the entertainment over there. The USO... They had a lot of good movies.

Hentz - Like film reels? I assume...

Bickel - Yeah sure.

Hentz - Do you have a favorite movie that they played?

Bickel - No, I don’t. (26:01)

Hentz - So you never had anybody like come over and perform, it was just-

Bickel - Oh yeah! Yeah, yeah. Yeah, sure. You mean like whatever or whoever.

Hentz - Singers or anything?

Bickel - Sure yeah, yes we did.

Hentz - Do you remember any of them?

Bickel - (shakes head)

Hentz - No? (laughs)

Bickel - That’s sixty-five years ago. No, I really don’t. I would imagine like Bob Hope and stuff. You know, these old guys that aren’t living no more.

Hentz - So you enjoyed that?

Bickel - Sure! I didn’t stay home in the barracks. Whenever there was something to do, I was gone.

Hentz - So when you weren’t working, was it ever boring or you just...

Bickel - (shakes head) Life’s never boring for me I don’t- I enjoy every day of the week, I really do.

Hentz- Um...

Bickel - I look forward to tomorrow already.

Hentz - That’s a good thing.

Bickel - I do. I’m looking forward to going up to the vets tomorrow morning and go swimming again; I do.

Hentz - It says here that you received the Pacific Theater of War award...

Bickel - That’s- everybody got that.

Hentz - Did that- did you get that, because you served or-

Bickel - Yeah.

Hentz - Or did you have to do something specific?

Bickel - No, no.

Hentz - Just because you served, and then you also received the World War II Service award for the same reason...

Bickel - Everybody got that too, that’s about what everybody got, unless you got the Purple Heart or got wounded or some kind of- You know if you got some kind of injury and I never got any injuries. In everything I did I never ever; I tried to work safe.

Hentz - So you were an engineer yeah well- You worked on the engines of C54s; did you go on any missions or-

Bickel - Like I was telling you earlier, I used to ask the pilots and then he used to say well check out the fuel and I’ll be down here at so and so and then we used to go up for four hours, that’s about all. I never flew.

Hentz - In the middle of the night?

Bickel - Sure! (laughs)

Hentz - Did you ever get lost?

Bickel - Well no. I was hoping he knew where he was going.

Hentz - (laughs)

Bickel - He was the pilot of the airplane.

Hentz - So did you have a special navigator in the back or-

Bickel - Nope, just him and me.

Hentz - So you just kind of...

Bickel - Yeah.

Hentz- That’s cool. I don’t know if I’d be that brave, but good for you. (laughs)

Bickel - We had to have shoots, if something would’ve happened we would’ve had to parachute out, but I didn’t look forward to that.

Hentz - So you never-

Bickel - But I tell you what though, Hannah if it would’ve came to that, I would’ve jumped.

Hentz - I’m sure that would’ve been quite an experience.

Bickel - Ahh...I didn’t want to witness it, I mean, I didn’t want to go through that, but. No, maybe- Okay. I only did that maybe three or four times while I was over there, the nine months I was over there. It was something to do and I- it was different. To fly around in the dark, it isn’t much fun. Maybe you’ll see a ship sailing or maybe you get close enough to see the island. That was back in the forties yet and they were really antiquated in those islands and stuff. They didn’t have everything lit up like they do now with these lac- you know these, buildings that are fourteen, fifteen stories high. That all happened after the war.

Hentz: What war did you serve in, under what branch?

Bickel: I served in World War II under the United States Army Air Force.

Hentz: And then did you serve in an another war?

Bickel: I served in the Korean War. I stayed in the active reserves. Then I got recalled as soon as the Korean War broke out.

Hentz: And then was your rank different in the Korean War or did it come like transfer over?

Bickel: Well, I stayed in the active reserves and I got my corporal in the active reserves and my sergeant in the active reserves. Then when I was called for the Korean War I was, they thought I did such an excellent job for them down there that I wasn’t there for too long. Then they promoted me to Staff Sergeant down there. Then before I left, they wanted me to go to school. He offered me Tech Sergeant stripes and my own mess hall. But then I didn’t take him up on the offer, and then he wrote me a letter; the Major Dillman, he wrote me a letter of recommendation to bring along home. He said, “If they don’t treat you good back there in Pennsylvania back there, come right back down here.” He said, “I’ll always have a job for you.” That’s what he told me.

Cairns - Um, where did you serve in both the wars?

Bickel - Well in World War II I served in the Philippines, and then in the Korean War I was stationed in Tuscon, Arizona and we went over for our tests- sixty day test run for the B50 bomber, and then I came back and I spent the rest of my time at Tuscon until I got discharged from Tuscon, Arizona. Then, I drove home from there. I got discharged at Tuscon.

Hentz - Where was the uh, where was the test flight? Where did you go for the test flight?

Bickel - They checked the- Well to Guam; on Guam, the island of Guam and they flew in the tar zone, just flew around. That’s, a lot of humidity, and to see how the engines performed at different altitudes.

Hentz - Okay. So was that when Guam had just been taken?

Bickel - Pardon?

Hentz - The United States took over Guam for their island-hopping, right?

Bickel - No, well when I got over there in the Korean War it was completely occupied and operating on the United St- Well it is one of our islands. It’ originally one of our islands.

Hentz - Okay. Just checking. (laughs) Okay. Now we can move on.

Cairns - How do you say...Luzon?

Hentz - Oh yeah, how do you pronounce this?

Bickel - Luzon?

Hentz - Yeah is that- Luzon?

Cairns - Luzon.

Bickel - That’s the whole group of the Philippine islands. Luzon takes in all of the Philippines.

Hentz and Cairns - Oh.

Hentz - That makes sense. Okay! Now I get it.

Cairns - How do you want to do this? Just like...-

Hentz - Um. You say a question and then when we’re ready for the next one I’ll say the next one.

Cairns - (points) Okay, do we need to do these?

Hentz - We can skip this one. Go to the second one; we’ll cut all this part out. Go ahead.

Cairns - Um, where did you go for your basic training?

Hentz - For the Korean War.

Cairns - Or did you have training for the Korean War?

Bickel - Actually you only get one basic training no matter how many times you reenlisted, you only go through basic training once, and that's your initial entry into any military service you were in; navy, marines, army, air force or whatever. I only went through basic training once. Yes, that’s...

Hentz - So when you were in the Korean War, you still had the same job? You were still an engineer?

Bickel - Nooo. I worked at the Vets hospital, and I left the Vets hospital and went down there and got a cooking job. I used my 060 MOS that time. Well, when I first got there, they said, “Well you’re carrying three MOSes!” I said, “Yes.” He says, “Well you gotta get rid of two.” So I got rid of the sheet metal; the repairing shot up airplanes and then I wasn’t working on the engines either, so I kept the cook. Main reason for that was I was going back to the VA when I, after my year down there I was gonna go back on my regular job at the VA again, which I did.

Hentz - Ok so, was it just because of the VA or did you enjoy cooking more than working on the airplanes?

Bickel - I enjoy doing an- Anything I do, I enjoy. I can get my heart and soul into whatever I do. I don’t have any preference. If it would’ve been engines; okay, but it happened to be cooking. Well you saw what happened there. He offered me going to school and another. It takes about seven, eight years to get Tech. Sergeant; you had to wait in line you know for...So, I think I did good down there.

Hentz - Sounds like it, yeah.

Bickel - I enjoyed it. I even had men; I trained men down there under me. Oh what do they call it...On-the-Job Training or something like that. I even have those guys pictures in here that I trained

Cairns - Um, did you prefer B50s or B29s?

Bickel - Well, I was with the B50 outfit with B29 air refuelers. If they didn’t fly the distance that they needed, 29s weren’t part of our squa- They were just part of, if they were needed. They went with for distance for bombings like New York like I told you before. If New York was the target and they left at Tuscan, they didn’t have enough fuel to fly to New York and come back again, then they refueled somewhere between New York and Tuscan in the air. That’s how that worked.

Hentz - So then the B50s and the B29s, you worked with the B50s during-

Bickel - No, I was a cook.

Hentz - Okay, so that didn’t have anything- that was going on while you were in the service, but you weren’t part of it?

Bickel - Nope, I was not. I was a cook. I cooked for these men that flew these airplanes.

Hentz- Okay.

Bickel - Flew with these airplanes.

Hentz - So when they came in, about how many men do you think you cooked for? On a regular basis.

Bickel - Maybe about 220.

Hentz- How long did it take you to prepare a meal like that?

Bickel - Well I used- like if I went on duty this dinner, I helped (points to Hentz) say you were on duty- you were, you cooked dinner. I helped you get your dinner out of the way. Supper is mine, and anything that came in on a mission during the night was mine, and I had to make my own breakfast and make my own dinner. I was on duty for twenty-four hours. Whatever happens within that twenty-four hours, I had to be there.

Hentz - So being a cook wasn’t an easy job.

Bickel - Sure it was!

(all laugh)

Bickel - And then we were off. We used to work twenty-four hours on and forty-eight off. That was a good deal. That way you had time to go down to Mexico if you wanted to. You could go out L.A. or something; over to California, up to Phoenix.

Hentz - So you were a cook while you were in Texas?

Bickel - (shakes head)

Hentz - No. You were a cook...

Bickel - When I was in Tuscon, Arizona; Davis Montro Air Force Base.

Hentz - Got it. Okay, sorry.

Bickel - No. The only thing I did in Texas was took basic training.

Hentz - Right.

Bickel - And then from there I went to the Technical Command and went to school.

Hentz - Okay.

Bickel - I went through two schools up there then.

Hentz - I think I got it now. Alright, um-

Bickel - Yeah that was World War II, that was all World War II now.

Hentz - Okay so when you were a cook, you were in Arizona and that was the Korean War.

Bickel - That’s right.

Hentz - Got it. So what was a usual day like for you? (talking to Cairns) I’m sorry.

Cairns - No, it’s okay.

Hentz - (talking to Bickel) While you were a cook, so you...I don’t know.

Bickel - The day I worked or-

Hentz - Yeah.

Bickel - The days I was off.

Cairns - Well you can...

Hentz - We can do both.

(all laugh)

Bickel - I was on for twenty-four hours, and then I had trained a couple guys who used to work on my shift. I even had a one colored guy that was under me.

Hentz - So you had help to cook all the meals. It wasn’t just-

Bickel - Oh yeah! No, I didn’t it by myself! No, no, no, no, no. No, you couldn’t do that.

Hentz - Well I guess that’s true.

(Cairns and Hentz laugh)

Bickel - Not for 200 people. I mean have to peel your own potatoes, and we didn’t have any slicers to slice the bacon. We had these, we had to slice our own bacon and lay it out. We did that the night before after supper before we went home. We used to, our hundred; these ration pans they’re a hundred, you could feed a hundred with both of the...Yeah and crack- If you had scrambled eggs, then you used to have your, you used to sit in the middle and you have a crate of eggs here; thirty-eight dozen here and thirty-eight dozen here with the bowl in the middle and we used to (makes cracking noises) crack eggs with both hands. Spread them open...

Hentz - That’s a talent I do not possess.

Bickel - But you had to do it, to get that much stuff done.

Cairns - Yeah...

Hentz - Do you know where your shipments of food came from? Were they local or did they come in from like-

Bickel - Oh I would say the meats probably. We served quite a bit of lamb, and I’m sure a lot of it was local. The way it worked was, the cook ordered his own foods, so I had to figure out, I had to feed; I had a dollar...I had to feed you or your buddy or whoever it was, for the 200 men I got a dollar and five cents a day. I had to feed...that’s all I got; three meals. I had to feed you three meals for a dollar and five cents a day. And then if we had extras, like I’m a Pennsylvania Dutch guy and we had a lot of leftovers, you know we heat leftovers, I mean we did at home and I used to do that in the service. Or if I didn’t have quite enough to go around, I used to go back in the closet and get number ten cans of that, this, that and then I had something extra for the guys. And they used to often come in, “When’s Bickel on? When’s Bickel on? We eat better when Bickel’s here!” Yeah..yeah I used to do that.

Cairns - Did you get a like, were you able to choose what you would cook for them?

Bickel - No.

Cairns - Or it was set out everyday?

Bickel - I had to order the amount I wanted. But they had a menu set up. They had a menu set up. You had to follow a menu.

Hentz - Did you have a favorite meal that you cooked?

Bickel - Nope, no I did not. I cooked whatever came in front of me, whatever’s up.

Hentz - So, did you have a lot of people that worked like under you, for the kitchen?

Bickel - I had another cook and then I had apprentices, and the KP’s, yes.

Hentz - About how many men is that?

Bickel - Oh, maybe six or eight.

Hentz - So about ten people making a meal for about two-hundred people?

Bickel - Yeah.

Cairns - Did you eat with them?

Bickel - With who?

Cairns - With the, the...

Bickel - With the people that came into eat?

Cairns - Yeah.

Bickel - Sure.

Cairns - Did you?

Bickel - We were a big old family, a big family. We did favors for them like if, say the motor pool, well I had two fixed teeth I had operated on, my jaw operated on. And I had my fixed bridges put up. I used to call the motor pool, I have to go to the dentist this afternoon. Can I see that I have a jeep here by two o’clock so I can go to the dentist. Then they used to call me. hey Bickel sending a man over in a jeep they said “How ‘bout you make me up a half a dozen sandwiches” and I say okay. So we used to work together like that, you know. The lumber people, the guys that did construction if you needed a couple two by fours to do something; we used to, I think that’s what I was pretty...handy and our Mess Sergeant was from Pennsylvania and him being from Pennsylvania and me being from Pennsylvania we hit it off really good. And like we got a dollar and five cents a day, we got to feed you. And we had to put a out on the door and we had to charge thirty-five cents for every, if they lived off the base, they had to pay we had to have a man out there to collect the money at every meal. And then if we had extra money we used to go to town and we used to buy like ??? and stuff like that Army didn’t supply. We used to go to the store and set one on each table and they really went for that.

Hentz - That was really, that was nice.

Bickel - I enjoyed it...I said to my wife that that was the best job I ever had. I really enjoyed that in that military. That one year I was down. I really enjoyed that.

Hentz - So, were you ever stationed in Guam in more than just those sixty days?

Bickel - Yes, I believe it was ninety. Come to think of it, I think it was three months.That’s the shortest they send you overseas for really. Ninety days.

Hentz - Now you said you didn’t have any like friendships or anything in World War II. Did you in the Korean War with like the natives?

Bickel - The natives?

Hentz - Yeah.

Bickel - That would have been the people that lived down in Tuscon...? You mean over seas?

Hentz - Yeah.

Bickel - In Guam? No, no we used to take a six by six truck and anyone who wanted to go swimming in the China Sea would go then. And then we, I have some pictures in here too that of the coconut trees. This one guy used to, used to be my apprentice. he was young. He was more I don’t know. He was a climber. He used to climb up these coconut trees and shake the tree then we’d crack them open and drink the milk out of them.

Hentz - I never had a coconut before.

Cairns - No, me either.

Hentz - I like coconut, but I like never actually had a coconut.

Cairns - You swam in the China Sea while stationed in Guam, why did you swim there? Like why did you guys swim?

Bickel - That’s the only place we had to go. That was the closet place. They’d take us there by truck. They drove us there. Route 1 was their main route through Guam, just like the interstate out around here. Then we used to, it would be about seven until we got there. And we, there was a rest area there that you could buy sodas, whatever.

Hentz - It was like a way to pass time.

Bickel - Yeah that’s what it was really, yeah. If you weren’t working yes. If you had a day off or whatever. I didn’t go there everyday, but I have pictures in there of where we would swim.

Cairns - What was it like there, like at the sea?

Bickel - It was like a beach.

Hentz - Like a tropical beach?

Bickel - Well if you go to Florida.

Hentz - So like East Coast beach?

Bickel - Well you could go right out in the sand.

Hentz - So was the water like-

Bickel - I used to just walk into it

Hentz - Was it like cold or warm?

Bickel - Oh, it was warm. Yeah it was warm all of the time.

Hentz - Could you see through it?

Bickel - Fish, oh yeah.

Hentz - So you never had any problems with critters or anything?

Bickel - No, no, not that I know of. I never even heard of anybody getting bit. Nope, nope really, nothing.

Hentz - Did you do anything else at the beach besides swim?

Bickel - No just relax, smoke my pipe. We were all men so.

Hentz - Yeah. Did you have like swimsuits or did you swim in your underwear?

Bickel - We had swimming trunks, yes we did.

Hentz - Okay. That’s kind of an awkward question.

Bickel - Oh no, not at all. Well it’s not, it’s not.

Cairns - Did you continue to stay in touch with your family and friends like you did in World War II?

Bickel - Sure, I did that all. I have a cupboard out in the garage. Piles of mail.

Hentz - So more letters.

Bickel - I kept in touch with everybody.

Hentz - ...in Arizona?

Bickel - I would say no, unless you went to the USO or something. Where you had radio, not in the barracks. You didn’t have radios like in the forties. I was down in fifty, fifty-one. That was still like sixty years ago.

Hentz - So what was it like to live in the forties?

Bickel - What it was like to live in the forties,

Hentz - Yeah, like at home compare to here.

Bickel - Compared to now?

Hentz - Yeah.

Bickel - In the forties, we lived the same but everything was a lot cheaper and everybody was more friendly. And you didn’t have the same. I mean you walk to church. You walked to school. And you didn’t get plow, streets didn’t get plowed down for a day or so, I lived down here at the corner that’s where I was born and raised. My grandfather built this place. From our place over to Stoudtsburgh, Paul Barry used to come down into town on his dozer on a Sunday afternoon and open the roads. Sometimes he spent an hour or more over here in the cut to get to Stoudtsburgh. There weren’t a lot of snow days either. We had teachers coming from Newmanstown, Schaefferstown and we had a hotel here in Richland. You know where the bank parking lot is?

Cairns - Yeah.

Bickel - Well, if it snowed the teachers from different towns, Newmanstown, Schaefferstown, or wherever Myerstown would, used to stay in the hotel and we had to, if the snow was up to here to our rear ends we had to walk to school. We had school, everyday we had school.

Hentz - Sorry, I feel bad for you.

Bickel - Why? Hey that was life at that time. That’s the way it was, you know.

Cairns - When you were going home how did you feel? Like your leaving Guam or Tuscon?

Hentz - Well let’s start with World War II, when you were getting, when you found out you were leaving where you were stationed in World War II how did you feel when you got discharged?

Bickel - Oh I don’t know, I was glad to get home. I liked the military, but I enjoyed coming home and getting a job. I wasn’t even home long and the shoe factory, you know where the wire factory is?

Cairns - Mhm.

Bickel - It used to be a shoe factory. Before I went in the service I was cutting baby shoes since sixteen too and I started at sixteen and I started cutting baby shoes and they knew that when I came from the military. I don’t believe I was home for a week and my phone rang, well somebody came in contact with me and said will you cut shoes for us? Heck I just came back home from the military! I didn’t want to go back to work the next day. Anyway, that’s what happened there.

Hentz - So did you feel the same way when you cam back from Arizona?

Bickel - Sure. Well I had a job waiting for me then. I was working at the restaurant I left and went up and told them I’m back. I did go back to work right away there.

Hentz - After you returned from Guam yeah. After you returned from Arizona did you have any health conditions that you struggled with such as post dramatic stress disorder or injuries?

Bickel - No.

Hentz - That’s good, I’m glad to hear that.

Cairns - How were you greeted when you came back from Arizona? Like when you came back home?

Bickel - Good, like somebody should. Yeah.

Hentz - Did you have people waiting for you or like party?

Bickel - Family, just my family.

Cairns - Did they know that you were coming home or was it like a surprise?

Bickel - Well, I used to send them like a letter. See, you had to go through processing and when you know that you just write a letter. I go through processing starting tomorrow morning and I should be home...and I’ll be home two or three days later.

Hentz - Did you celebrate when you got home?

Bickel - No. No, we weren’t really a celebrating family.

Hentz - Okay so I think this is going to be the last question. Overall what did you take from being in the service?

Bickel - What I learned or..Well I accepted life as it was presented, I guess. I met it head on. Dealt with what I ran into. I don’t know what else to say.

Hentz - I don’t know about you that you went over and you enjoyed your job so much even though you had to deal with the difficult situation of being away.

Bickel - Oh well sure, this is the way I look to sum it up. When they sent me from here to there in a month or two, these guys used to complain and carry on and I would say come on let’s go I want to see something else.

Hentz - Optimistic.

Bickel - Huh?

Hentz - Optimistic.

Bickel - Sure, I want to, I like to see what’s going on. I’m nosy, even when today if I go somewhere well you know from going some guys just stayed at World War II, I was willing to go, that’s why we went down there.

Hentz - Yeah. It was a long trip.

Bickel - What?

Hentz - It was a long trip.

Bickel - Yeah, the way we went down?

Hentz - Yeah.

Bickel - Yeah, I don’t believe you got tired either. Did you?

Hentz - Well I did a little bit tired towards the end.

Bickel - Oh yeah, that’s when I helped you out and said I’ll push for myself. Remember.

Hentz - I almost dumped you in the fountain.

Bickel - No. You didn’t.

Hentz - Alright, well thank you for letting us interview you.

Bickel - Sure. <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;">Edited Narrative <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">__Mr. Gerald Edward Bickel__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">by Taylor Cairns and Hannah Hentz

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Mr. Gerald Edward Bickel served in World War II in 1945, and the Korean War in 1951. He finished his service as a Staff Sergeant. Over his first few years of service, Mr. Bickel collected three MOSes. He went to school for repairing shot up airplanes, and Cooks’ and Bakers’ school. After arriving in Manila, Philippines, he received his third MOS in engine repair. When he was discharged from World War II in 1946, he stayed in the active reserves who called him to the Korean War four years later. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mr. Bickel grew up in Richland, Pennsylvania with his family in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s; the time of the Depression. His family wasn’t the wealthiest, so they were considered an ordinary family just trying to survive. He grew up with a younger and an older brother. His father made cigar boxes, and his mother was a homemaker. When he was 16, he started working for a local shoe store cutting baby shoes.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> When Mr. Bickel was 17and a senior in high school, a recruiter came to his school. The recruiter was looking for anyone willing to enlist in World War II, and Mr. Bickel didn’t question it for a second. He took full advantage of the moment and enlisted on April 7, 1945. He was fortunately able to receive his diploma, but since he was at basic training, his mother went up on stage and got it for him. Mr. Bickel claimed no one or nothing influenced his enlistment; it was all volunteer. He enlisted because he knew that he wanted to go into the Air Force to be a fighter pilot and if he had been drafted he would have had gone into the war and not get to choose his branch. Mr. Bickel was fully capable of being a fighter pilot, passing all tests that would qualify him. But he never became one, because the Air Force had enough pilots coming from the European branch of the war to serve.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> After Mr. Bickel enlisted in the United States Army Air Force, he was immediately sent off to basic training in Amarillo, Texas. Basic training lasted approximately twenty-one days. Once Mr. Bickel went through basic training he was able to go to other training schools. He went to Sheet Metal School in Illinois where he learned how to repair planes that were shot and to cover up the holes that were in them. He also went to Cook and Baker’s School because he wanted to learn to be a cook and baker.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When his training was over, Mr. Bickel was sent to Manila, Philippines. The boat ride to the Philippines caused him to become the sickest he’d ever been. A majority of 5,000 men were sick, and crew members had to use hoses to wash down common areas. While in the Philippines, Mr. Bickel gained his third MOS; engines. He worked in a squadron of four-engine C-54 Air Crafts with tricycle landing gears with the Number Two engine crew.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mr. Bickel never flew a C-54 airplane, but he did fly in one. He used to be asked by a pilot to check the fuel level of the plane. Then, they would fly for about four hours in the middle of the night. While flying, he saw 14 to 15 story high buildings and an occasional sailing ship or an island. Flying at night may seem very dangerous for a person, but to Mr. Bickel it was an experience of a life time. He never was caught flying with the pilot in the middle of the night nor did they ever become lost. A bad situation was never brought upon them when flying, but if Mr. Bickel would have needed to have parachute out of the plane, he claimed he would have.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On July 4, 1946, Mr. Bickel witnessed his first fighter jet “fly-by” as all nations came in on planes to celebrate the Filipinos gaining their independence, which he says was one of his greatest experiences of the war. Mr. Bickel occupied himself on the days he was off by writing letters and occasional trips to local beaches. Men would go to the beach to cool off and relax. Mr. Bickel recalled having a man he’d apprenticed climbing a coconut tree and cutting them down so they could all drink the milk inside.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He sent letters to his family, friends, and even his high school English teacher. He had a certain technique he would use to write up to ten letters a day. He would write one letter, copy that single letter many times, and send it. He would receive letters in about a weeks time, because mail was sent on planes. His deployment in the Philippines lasted nine months before he was discharged from Fort Dix, New Jersey in November, 1946.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Mr. Bickel stayed in the active reserves after being discharged in 1946, and was eventually sent to Tuscon, Arizona. He became part of a B-50 heavy bomber squadron with B-29 bombers that were converted into refueling tankers. When he arrived in Tuscon, they made him get rid of two of his MOSes, so he chose to keep his cook and baking MOS. He and about eight other men cooked about four meals a day if they didn’t need to cook in the middle of the night. He worked a twenty-four hour shift, and was off for forty-eight hours at a time. On his time off, he enjoyed writing letters and going to programs for the USO.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The USO would send programs, movies, and performers to soldiers serving overseas. He watched the movies, performers, and singers, because when there was something to do, he wanted to be part of it. He wasn’t one to be caught bored in the barracks. He would try to go to as many performances as he could. He didn’t exactly remember any of the performers or movies that played, but he assumed they were people like Bob Hope. Attending the shows was entertaining and a worthwhile experience for Mr. Bickel. Mr. Bickel was discharged from the Korean War in Tuscon, Arizona August, 1951. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> When he returned home, Mr. Bickel was greeted by his loving family, but there was no celebration. The community welcomed him back, and he was treated like he thought a veteran should’ve been. Within a few days of being home, the shoe shop was calling asking if he wanted to come work for them cutting shoes again. However, he declined their offer because he’d just gotten home.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> As a veteran and after everything he’s experienced throughout his life, Mr. Bickel says he still loves the military. He also says that out of his entire service, what he absorbed from it was to accept life as it was presented to him. Mr. Bickel was always optimistic and wanting to get out and explore. It didn’t take him long to soak up one atmospheric condition of a surrounding and desire to move on to the next. Mr. Gerald Bickel was proud to serve his country and many are proud of him.