World War II Roy Talbott

May 5, 1944, was the day Roy Talbott, of Sedalia, almost lost his life.

Talbott joined the Missouri National Guard in Sedalia in 1940 to earn extra money. He was part of the 128th Field Artillery, 2nd Battalion. In 1942, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps, because he had always been fascinated with flying.

He served with the 13th Army Air Corps, 5th Bomb Group, 72nd Bomb Squadron in the South Pacific. He participated in 33 combat strike missions. Though his main job was armored gunner, at times he was a bombardier and a flight engineer.

His crew of 10 flew B-24s, four-engine bombers, and served as escorts for U.S. convoys and participated in strike missions. Short missions lasted about eight hours, but long missions could last up to 18 hours. To have enough fuel, the crew eliminated part of their bomb load and put tanks in the bomb bay. They seldom had fighter cover, because their missions were too far away.

The last mission Talbott flew was on May 5, 1944, in a B-24 over Biak Island. Seven bombers participated. They ran into 25 to 30 enemy fighter aircraft. Two of the American planes were shot down. Talbott was on one of them.

The pilot of his plane was shot in the leg, so the co-pilot, who was on his first mission, had to land it. They made it as far as New Guinea before they crashed.

“It was an old Japanese runway, which was nothing but a dirt runway. We crashed and the plane burned. Everybody got drug out. There were people in the area, but we got everybody out ourselves,” Talbott said.

He suffered a broken wrist and nose. He found a navigator who had lost a leg and pulled him out of the plane. Other crew members got the pilot out. The navigator and pilot suffered the most severe injuries.

The men on the other plane that was hit were killed, including the company commander.

Talbott kept focused by not thinking about the incident. Since he was part of one of the oldest crews there, he was due to return to the States. The co-pilot was the only member of his crew who stayed.

Talbott went to a hospital in St. Petersburg, Fla. After recuperating, he was sent to Pueblo, Colo., where he trained American crews on B-24s and B-29s and Chinese crews on B-24s. Then the war ended.

He got out of the service on Oct. 17, 1945. He soon discovered jobs were hard to come by. He re-enlisted in the Army about a year later, because of the pay.

He participated in the Berlin Airlift in 1948. He met his wife, Irmgard, during the mission. They were married Oct. 15, 1951, in Munich.

He helped check out equipment and supplies and did paperwork. Planes were taking off from Frankfurt every three minutes filled with supplies headed to West Berlin.

During the Korean War, he worked with tanks and artillery. Planes weren’t used as much for that war, because the focus was on the ground.

“Tanks, to me, is the hottest thing in the summer time and the coldest thing in the winter time. Korea is the coldest place you can find,” Talbott said.

During the Vietnam War, Talbott worked at the armor school in Fort Knox, Ky. He trained soldiers on tanks.

Talbott also participated in the Cold War and mainly served in Frankfurt, Germany.

Talbott served 26 years in the service, and was discharged with the rank of sergeant first class.

After he got out, he worked for Mobil Oil. Then he worked for the Pettis County Sheriff’s Department, where he was a dispatcher, a jailer and a transporter.

He has two daughters, Donna Lynn Talbott and Sandra K. Talbott. Donna has been in the service for 34 years and is an Army colonel.

She noticed her father had never received a Purple Heart for his service and was instrumental in him receiving it last year. The ceremony was held at Randolph Air Force Base in Texas.