'They were fighting us, and we were fighting them'
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SEATTLE - A flight leaves in a few hours taking a special group of veterans on a journey to the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Their trip marks the 65th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe. And one of those veterans is a local man who served on a B-17 bomber.
His name is Hank Smith, and he was drafted by the Army Air Corps to sit in the belly of a B-17 as a ball turret gunner.
"Even at 150 pounds I had to wedge myself in there. It was tight quarters," he remembers.
The year was 1943, Hank was 21 years old, and his crew aboard a bomber nicknamed the "Round Trip Ticket" flew bombing runs out of England into Germany and Poland.
"You'd hit the Channel and hit the French coast and they'd start shooting at you," Hank says.
It was Hank's job to shoot back at the German fighters.
He remembers one bombing run vividly, in which a German fighter got in close and Hank unleashed a barrage of machine gun fire at him.
"I could see my tracers going into him, and he was coming up. And finally his right wing came off, so I knew he wouldn't be back up so ... so I went after more of them."
But the Germans often hit their mark, too, he says.
Hank kept a diary of each flight, and he reads an entry from one of them.
"The group behind us got hit by fighters today," he wrote of that fateful trip. "I saw two '17s' go down from the group behind."
His own ship sometimes took heavy fire.
"One time we came back with over 100 flak holes, and the crew chief said he didn't know how we'd make it," Hank remembers. "They were fighting us, and we were fighting them."
Asked what brought him through, enabling him to survive when so many others didn't come back, Hank quickly answers, "The hand of the Lord."
"I think God has had his hand on my life and still has - but that's what carried me through," he says.
And so, after 35 bombing runs, Hank gets another flight - this one back to the World War II memorial.
He and nine other local veterans will be a special guest of the "Honor Flight" program, in which veterans are honored with a trip to see the memorial and be remembered for their service as the 65th anniversary of V-E Day is commemorated.
The group heads out for Washington, D.C., on Friday.
Their trip marks the 65th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe. And one of those veterans is a local man who served on a B-17 bomber.
His name is Hank Smith, and he was drafted by the Army Air Corps to sit in the belly of a B-17 as a ball turret gunner.
"Even at 150 pounds I had to wedge myself in there. It was tight quarters," he remembers.
The year was 1943, Hank was 21 years old, and his crew aboard a bomber nicknamed the "Round Trip Ticket" flew bombing runs out of England into Germany and Poland.
"You'd hit the Channel and hit the French coast and they'd start shooting at you," Hank says.
It was Hank's job to shoot back at the German fighters.
He remembers one bombing run vividly, in which a German fighter got in close and Hank unleashed a barrage of machine gun fire at him.
"I could see my tracers going into him, and he was coming up. And finally his right wing came off, so I knew he wouldn't be back up so ... so I went after more of them."
But the Germans often hit their mark, too, he says.
Hank kept a diary of each flight, and he reads an entry from one of them.
"The group behind us got hit by fighters today," he wrote of that fateful trip. "I saw two '17s' go down from the group behind."
His own ship sometimes took heavy fire.
"One time we came back with over 100 flak holes, and the crew chief said he didn't know how we'd make it," Hank remembers. "They were fighting us, and we were fighting them."
Asked what brought him through, enabling him to survive when so many others didn't come back, Hank quickly answers, "The hand of the Lord."
"I think God has had his hand on my life and still has - but that's what carried me through," he says.
And so, after 35 bombing runs, Hank gets another flight - this one back to the World War II memorial.
He and nine other local veterans will be a special guest of the "Honor Flight" program, in which veterans are honored with a trip to see the memorial and be remembered for their service as the 65th anniversary of V-E Day is commemorated.
The group heads out for Washington, D.C., on Friday.
