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Interview
by Tim Keeler, grand nephew of Richard Sigle, for a school project

Personal Information

Full Name:
Richard Burel Sigle
Date Of Birth:
September 11, 1920
Current Address:
RR 1, Box 46, Luray, KS
Address When War Began:
Fort Hays State College, Hays, KS
Occupation When War Began:
I was a student in college.
Service Branch:
US Army Air Force
Inclusive Dates of Service:
June, 1942 to August 15, 1945
Date & Place of Enlistment:
June, 1942, at Fort Riley, near Junction City, KS
Rank On Entry:
Aviation Cadet (We always said we were two ranks lower than a Jap prisoner of war!)

Units and Duty Stations in USA:

Fort Jefferson Barracks, Missouri
Carroll College, Waukesha, Wisconsin
SAC, San Antonio, TX
Hicks Field, Fort Worth, TX
Coffeyville Army Air Field, Coffeyville, KS
Pampa Army Air Field, Pampa, TX
Liberal Army Air Base, Liberal, KS
Walla Walla Army Air Base, Walla Walla, WA
Hamilton Air Base, San Francisco, CA

Duty Stations Overseas

465 Bomb Group, 780th Squadron of the 15th Air Force, Pantanella, Italy.

Military Service Information

Jefferson Barracks, Missouri.  (Basic training, February, 1943, to April, 1943)

Carroll College, Waukesha, Wisconsin. College to learn the basics for flying and navigation. We took several courses, such as Arithmetic, Algebra, Trigonometry, Physics, Navigation, and English. We also took a physical fitness class.  April to July, 1943.

SAC, San Antonio, Texas. July to September, 1943. Took more math and navigation courses along with Morse Code.

Hicks Field, Ft. Worth, Texas. September to December, 1943. Primary Flight School: Here we learned to fly the PT 19. We learned to do acrobatics and cross country.

Coffeyville Army Air Base, Coffeyville, KS. December, 1943 to February, 1944. Here we learned to fly a much bigger aircraft, BT13, night flying and many new maneuvers, such as recovering from a flat spin.

Pampa Army Air Base, Pampa, Texas. February to April, 1944. We learned to fly a twin engine plane, PT17, do cross country flying, and more night flying. We graduated here, and received our wings and a 2nd Lieutenant Commission.

Liberal Army Air Base, Liberal, KS, May to August, 1944. Here I was assigned to fly B24's.  It was a four engine bomber with a wing span of 110 feet. There were about 800 different instruments and controls that had to be memorized. One had to be able to touch each one while blindfolded. I went on several cross country trips, day and night, to get myself familiar with the plane.

Walla Walla Army Air Base, August to October, 1944. Here I picked up my crew of 10. There were four commissioned officers and six enlisted men. They consisted of:
Richard B. Sigle, 2nd Lt., 1st Pilot and Commander
John Serpico, Flight Officer, Copilot
Gene Koscinski, Flight Officer, Bombardier
Lewis Alexander, Flight Officer, Navigator
Frank Letezia, PFC, Engineer
Alfred Oftedal, Cpt, Radio Operator
Joe Whisler, PFC, Nose Gunner
Robert Hazi, PFC, Top Turret Gunner
James Cooper, PFC, Ball Gunner
Frank Yannuzzi, PFC, Tail Gunner

Here, at Walla Walla, as a crew, each man learned to do his job in all types of situations, such as air to air gunnery, air to ground gunnery, bombing runs, and navigation. The crew also learned to preflight the plane: fuel transfers, inspections of engines and all of the plane, and, also, to make radio contact.

I was very definite about teaching my Copilot to fly a B-24. He was a pilot, but had never flown a B-24, so I taught him how, in case I was incapacitated. He made a very good B-24 pilot. After this training, we were ready, according to the big boss, for combat.

Hamilton Air Base, San Francisco, California. November, 1944.  This was a staging area, and we picked up a lot of our supplies, then were shipped to New Port News, Virginia, for overseas assignment.

If Overseas Service, Port of Embarkation

New Port News, Virginia  
We traveled on board a converted troop carrier, and were on board about three weeks. We ate Thanksgiving dinner on the Mediterranean Sea. We landed at Naples, Italy, and were immediately put on board a British ship and were transported around the boot of Italy to the spur on the Adriatic Coast. From the town of Bari, Italy, we rode in trucks to Pantanella, Italy, where our crew was assigned to the 780th Squadron, 465 Bomb Group of the 15th Air Force. We arrived there on the 29th of November, 1944. Our duties were to fly bombing runs over the Axis Powers.

My first combat was on December 2, 1944, when I flew Copilot for another pilot--just to learn the ropes of combat. I first saw flak over Vienna, Austria, and I had to ask what it was. But I was soon to find out. Vienna had the most concentrated fire power in Europe--even more than Berlin. We flew several missions over Vienna. One time we had only seven planes, and they concentrated the fire power on just those seven planes. We were shot up very badly, but all planes returned to base. Some were not flyable again for many days because of needed repairs.

We bombed such targets as bridges, oil fields, railroad yards, air fields, and factories. Our squadron bombed the famed Polesti Oil fields and refineries.

Anytime we had to go into Germany, we flew the Alps, and it was about all we could do to get a bomb load high enough to get over those mountains. Each and every time we flew up to Germany we had to fly over the Russian lines. Each time, going and coming, we were shot at by the Russians.

One time we bombed the air field at Regensburg, Germany. That was the jet base for Germany. We knocked out 31 of the 32 planes based there. One got going down the runway ahead of our planes, and we could see the bombs land behind it, but it got into the air and escaped.

In the spring of 1945, we bombed the front lines in Italy. For two days there was a line of planes going and coming. Each would drop its bombs, then fly back to get another load. I remember thinking that, at any one time, probably a 1000 planes could be seen in the air.

Return to the United States
Approximately four weeks after V-E Day, we flew our plane back to the United States via Marrakech, Africa, Azores Islands, Newfoundland, and landed in Connecticut. We had left Italy on June 3rd and landed in the States on June 6, 1945.

I was allowed a month's leave, and then was to be assigned to fly a B-29 in South Dakota. However, I was discharged on July 7 because I had enough points to be eligible for discharge. My final rank was 1st Lieutenant, and I received the Good Conduct ribbon, European Theater ribbon with three oak leaf clusters, and the Air Medal.

Supplementary Information (Donna's Note: I don't have the questions, but most can be inferred by the answers.)

The soldiers and airmen that I knew about were treated royally by the community where we were based; for example, when we would go to church on Sunday off the base, we would be invited out to dinner, and the family would show us the area around that particular city.

In the Italian campaign, the men that I knew about were treated with respect. My bombardier would be invited into their homes to talk with them because he was trying to learn Italian.

One day before my partners and I received our wings, we were flying off an auxiliary field shooting landings in a strong cross wind. We blew a tire on our plane, so we radioed our home base asking what we should do. The tower told us to fly the plane back to our home base. We did, and after successfully landing, we were told to lock the controls, and they would send a truck out to the runway to get us.

About an hour later we had a bad wind storm. The mechanics had fixed the tire, and had started to taxi the plane to the flight line down wind. The very strong wind turned the plane over on its nose. We were then accused, by the officer in charge, of leaving the plane without permission. We were put up before a wing board. However, the board never met because, in the meantime, the Lieutenant had been shipped to another field. On Easter Sunday the charge against us was dismissed.

We had parades and speeches at our base overseas. Most of our men wanted to go on and whip the Russians.

The return home was very quiet with no fanfare. It was great to be home with my family again. My wife, Evea Jane, and I had been married about 18 months.

My wife and I decided to return to college and finish our schooling. I had about one semester yet to finish. I had planned to become a teacher, but when I came back from overseas, I decided to become a farmer.

The government paid for my tuition and books--about $200! A few years later, I received funds to pay for a course for farmers: welding, and other skills which farmers need to know.

It just gave me a good feeling knowing that I had contributed to the successful defeat of the enemy.