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Title
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Richard Donald Wagner, Oral History
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Performer
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Richard Donald Wagner
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Interviewer
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William Vollano
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Description
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Richard Wagner was born on December 13, 1924 in Blissfield, Michigan. He attended Blissfield High School and enlisted in the Army at the end of his senior year after taking a class in aircraft identification. He left home for Fort Custer near Kalamazoo on July 9, 1943. After passing the necessary tests to join the Air Corps, he was sent down south to Miami Beach for ten weeks basic training. In October of 1943, Richard attended the Air Force College Training Department at Michigan State University. In April of 1944, he was sent to San Antonio, Texas and was trained as a bombardier-navigator for eight weeks. From there, he received flight training in San Angelo, Texas. Richard was assigned as a bombardier/assistant navigator/nose gunner in a B-24. After getting married while on commissioning leave, he was sent to Westover Field Airbase near Springfield, Massachusetts where he became acquainted with his crew and did large amounts of flying and bombing practice. After VE Day, Richard's crew was taken off shipping orders to Europe and was sent to Boise, Idaho. After rendezvousing at the Golding Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California, Richard's crew flew to New Guinea where they spent ten weeks. After they arrived at Clark Airbase in the Philippines, the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, and the second on Nagasaki. Richard remembers seeing the Japanese delegation in their white planes at le Shima on their way to the signing of the peace treaty in Tokyo Bay.
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Subject
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Enlisted; United States Army; Company C, 2nd Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Armored Division; Vietnam War, 1961-1975; Vietnam; United States; Sergeant
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Publisher
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American Folklife Center, Library of Congress
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Run Time
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1 hour, 16 minutes, 6 seconds
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Language
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English
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Spatial Coverage
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Vietnam; United States
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Date
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Dates of Service: 1969-1972
Richard D. Wagner Video