Fred Wiese Shares His Journey from Nebraska Farm Boy to B-17 Pilot

Announcer
World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Afghanistan, and our other wars and conflicts. America’s fighting men and women strapped on their boots and picked up their guns to fight tyranny and stand for liberty. We must never forget them. Welcome to America’s veteran stories with Kim Monson these stories will touch your heart inspire you and give you courage We stand on the shoulders of Giants.

Here’s Kim Monson

Kim Monson
And welcome to America’s Veterans Stories with Kim Monson. Be sure and check out our website. That is AmericasVeteransStories.com. And this show began because of a trip that I had the great honor in taking to Normandy, France back in 2016 to accompany four D-Day veterans back to Normandy and realized how important these stories are that we record them and broadcast them and hear them.

and so hence America’s Veterans Stories. I am so honored to be interviewing Fred Wiese and he’s a B-17 pilot in World War II and Fred it is just great to be here with you.

Fred Wiese
Thank you, it’s nice to have you here.

Kim Monson
We normally don’t ask people their age, but I have to ask you your age. I’m 99. 99 years old. When’s your birthday?

Fred Wiese
October, 1030, 22.

Kim Monson
Right around the corner then.

Fred Wiese
Yeah, four months.

Kim Monson
Okay, a B-17 pilot in the Army Air Corps, World War II. Where did you grow up, Fred? I

Fred Wiese
grew up in

Kim Monson
Nebraska. Where at in Nebraska? Bloomfield, Nebraska. Bloomfield.

Bloomfield, okay. And where

Fred Wiese
is that exactly? It’s in the northeast part of the state. And it’s not far from Yankton, South Dakota. And not far from Sioux

Kim Monson
City. North of Norfolk. So you were born in 1922 then? Yes.

So you lived through the Great Depression. What do you remember about the Great Depression?

Fred Wiese
Well, there wasn’t much money. There was nothing. And other than that, we had plenty of food. We grew it all.

And I lived in a home with my mother and her maternal parents. Okay. And at that time, I didn’t know anything about depression. You were

Kim Monson
just a kid, huh?

Fred Wiese
Yeah. But I knew there was no money. Frequently my shoes were worn out. And I had no shoes, but that was alright.

Kim Monson
Wow. Did you go to school in a one-room schoolhouse? Or where’d you go to school?

Fred Wiese
No, I went to school in the public school building. The school system in Bloomfield. And we had a kindergarten. And I know I was put in there when I was still four years old.

I had an aunt that lived there too. and she was eight years older than I. She was in high school at the time, or in junior high, I think. I cried a lot.

Kim Monson
You cried a lot?

Fred Wiese
Yeah, I did when I was put in kindergarten at age four. But then they took me out and kept me out until my birthday. and went back to school, a whole different thing.

Kim Monson
Isn’t that amazing? Yeah. Ah, that’s quite a story. Okay, so you grew up during the Great Depression.

When did you join the Army Air Corps?

Fred Wiese
Well, I joined the service on December 30th, 1941. But I was sworn in on December 31st.

Kim Monson
Okay that was right after Pearl Harbor then. Oh yeah. Okay. Do you remember, where were you when you heard about Pearl Harbor?

Fred Wiese
Well first I had graduated high school in 1940 and that year my mother had moved out and she had gone to Ames, Iowa from our hometown because my maternal grandparents passed away and by that time they had to sell the home and move on. She had no income, whatever, but this is her first job, I think, away from home of any consequence. Okay. And she learned to know a lady at one of the restaurants in a little town, and this lady had a sister who her name’s Alice and needed help.

Okay. And she had a restaurant too. So, she moved over there. After graduation, I went to enroll at Nebraska U.

On that first winter, at Christmas time, my teeth gave me some trouble. And I had to abandon school. And I used up all the money my mother had given me. for I had no money left and so I had a friend that happened to be rooming in a mortuary in the employees bedroom area where he could stay.

So I knew about him. He was a friend of mine from school. I went to ask Dean one day, suppose I can get in here? I need a place to sleep, you know.

So he came back with the answer, yes, you can get in. They took me in and I had some simple duties to do. One was to dust the caskets, the new caskets that were on display. and other menial tasks to do.

And among them sometimes we’d use the hearse for an ambulance. And in those days they didn’t have ambulances running around like they do today. And et cetera, et cetera. And I had run out of money and I had to do something.

So I had to go to work at other places to eat. I had a room. I was in that room. I had that place there and on the 7th of December, I can picture that right now.

It’s just frozen up. I was looking to the west. They had a radio standing up there. And I remember the names of the people that were there.

Max Grosshans. and Harold Schwartz, they’re both employees and both bombers. And they were up there, it was in the evening, about 5.30, 6 o’clock I think, as I recall, during that. And Dean was there and I was there, and probably a couple of other fellows, I’m not sure.

Kim Monson
Okay, so Fred, you said you can remember the names of the guys that were there.

Fred Wiese
Yeah. I said Max Grosshans, Harold Schwartz, and Dean Schrader and myself. I know for sure. And we were stunned at what we heard.

Up to that point in time, I didn’t know anything about government, didn’t know anything about anything really. I was just a kid off the farm and off a small farm. But that just stunned me and I, at that time, it was near Christmas, you know, and a couple of weeks I decided I’m going to go see my mom. I haven’t seen her for two years.

So I had nothing else to do. Went to Ames, Iowa to see her. And I asked her one day, Mom, I said, what do you think about me going down and enlisting in the service? She didn’t much like that.

Most

Kim Monson
moms didn’t like that very much.

Fred Wiese
At any rate, she finally acquiesced after I told her. I said, if I enlist, perhaps I can get a better situation, which I did. and she agreed to it. I went down there and I was inducted on the 30th of December of that year and on the 31st they told me to come back on the next day and on the 31st they would swear me in.

along with a bunch of other guys. This is a recruiting station and there’s only a cavalry post called Fort Des Moines.

Kim Monson
So once you were, so this is the end of 41, you’re 19 years old.

Fred Wiese
Well, I was just barely Yeah, I was just 19. Okay.

Kim Monson
After you were inducted into the Army, where did you go for

Fred Wiese
boot camp? Well, I stayed right there. I don’t recall ever having any boot camp at all. Okay.

It’s one of those weird things. Somebody, I don’t know who it was, but someone walked up to me and asked me, what do you think you can do when you’re in the service here? I said, well, I don’t know what I can do, but I think I might be able to drive an ambulance. They took me in and they gave me no particular tasks to do.

I hung around the station hospital there a good deal, and the medical department, and assumed that that was going to be my duty. I had a buddy who had a serial number of three digits from mine. And we became good friends. His name was Mike Markson.

And he was an Iowa boy. And he knew his way around better than I did. So I had menial tasks to do in the sergeant there. took to me for some reason.

He took me in and gave me a job. One day I walked in and told him, I said, sergeant, I don’t have nothing to do. What can I do for you? He said, well, you can clean up the basement.

Well, those old military buildings like that, on arms posts like that, were all brick buildings and they had an open basement, as it were, half basement, I guess. I went down in the basement there and cleaned up the dust that was good and swept it and so forth. Then I got into a bin that had several bins there, probably for clothing and other equipment that they would have separated, sort of separated. A whole bunch of shoes scattered all over in there, and they were just not in pairs.

So I bundled them up in pairs and such, and it ended up really clean and neat. And I came across a pair of shoes called garrison shoes. And of course I had no knowledge of what a lot of that stuff was for that I saw down there. But I asked the sergeant, I said, sergeant, these things fit me.

Do you suppose I could wear these instead of these boots that I have? Because I can shine these. He said, I’ll imagine if you can. So I put those on after I shined them.

And from that day on, I was just somebody special. Because I had those shoes on. Well, you

Kim Monson
already were something special. Fred, let’s go to break. This is Kim Monson. I’m talking with World War II veteran Fred Wiese, and we’re going to go to break.

Before we do that, though, the nonprofit that I’ve adopted is the USMC Memorial Foundation. They are raising money to remodel the Marine Memorial out at Sixth and Colfax, and they’re going to have these different walkways, and you can actually buy a brick to honor your loved one’s military service. It’ll have their name and their branch. when they served and so you can do that or you can just donate.

Go to usmcmemorialfoundation.org. That’s usmcmemorialfoundation.org. We’ll be right back with Fred Wiese.

Speaker 8
REMAX Realtor Karen Levine helps bring to life the individual stories of our servicemen and women. With her sponsorship of America’s Veteran Stories with Kim Monson, Karen honors the sacrifices of our military and is grateful for our freedom. As a member of the National Association of Realtors Board of Directors, Karen works to protect private property rights for all of us. Karen has a heart for our active duty military and veterans and is honored to help you buy or sell your home.

Call Karen Levine at 303-877-7516 to help you navigate buying or selling your home. That’s 303-877-7516.

Speaker 6
All of Kim’s sponsors are an inclusive partnership with Kim and are not affiliated with or in partnership with KLZ or Crawford Broadcasting. If you would like to support the work of the Kim Monson Show and grow your business, contact Kim at her website, kimmunson.com. That’s Kim Monson, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com.

Kim Monson
And welcome back to America’s Veteran Stories with Kim Monson. Be sure and check out our website. That is AmericasVeteranStories.com. I’m so honored to be sitting here with Fred Weese, World War II veteran, 99 years old, and you’ll turn 100 at the end of October this year.

So we were talking about your first job in the Army, and you were talking about garrison shoes. Just tell us a little bit more. What is a garrison shoes? What

Fred Wiese
are they? Well, it’s just a soft leather shoe. in US English This was a special shoe for the garrison when they had parties and such, I suppose. Okay.

Anyhow, this was a fine thing to have, you know. Boy, my feet were growing and this was something comfortable.

Kim Monson
We take so much for granted these days, oh my gosh. Okay, so what happened after that? What was your next duty?

Fred Wiese
Well, this buddy of mine and I We’re hanging around the hospital area all the time. As a matter of fact, that’s where we took our food as well. One time we happened to run into the bulletin board and see an item up there that suggested they were looking for some technicians and they needed to train them. And the technician job was a surgery technician.

Well, we decided we’d like to try that. And, you know, they sent us out to Denver to the Fitzsimmons Hospital. And Fitzsimmons was brand new in those days. And we took a course in surgical technician work.

And apparently we did all right with it. They sent us back to Fort Des Moines. When we got there, the camp looked a little different. different things going on more people there and there were some women in uniform and there were whacks not many but there were some and we were assigned to go up and get into the surgery section and while I was up there neither Mike nor I got anything to

do except carry bedpans And that’s not a suitable thing for me. So, along came another situation. I needed technicians for pharmacy. So they sent us back to Fort, to Denver here, to Fitzimmons.

And we went through that course. And that took a couple of months. So we got back to camp that time at Fort Des Moines, and there was a whole lot of change by that time. They had lots and lots of women there, and they were recruiting.

That was where the main recruiting station was for that area. And they had converted the stables to And there were three of those that they had converted to living quarters for the women. And they had consequently built a whole bunch of wards for women at the hospital. And that was just in a couple of months they had done all that stuff.

So I’m standing one day in the pharmacy and the pharmacist had left the area for some reason and a full bird colonel came up to the window to get a prescription filled. I forget right now what it was, but it was medicine. We actually had to make it. We used the USP and the National Formula for our books that we had to work with.

And it was made with alcohol, alcohol, drinkable stuff. It was a good mix anyhow. I told Mike, after this guy had left, I said, Mike, we’ve got to get some of this. You know, this guy looked very young, and he was a full bird colonel, and he was wearing wings.

Boy, he was a top class person. So, we went to the We found out where the place where we could go and ask if we could get into service in the Air Corps. So the next day we had off, the next opportunity we had, we went downtown Des Moines and got into a recruiting station and told the sergeant there that we’d like to be introduced to the Air Corps somehow.

Kim Monson
And was this colonel, was he in the Army Air Corps?

Fred Wiese
Yeah, he’d been in the Army. So that’s why, okay, got the connection. That was the lead in, yeah. This sergeant said, you two dummies are going to have to take a test.

Okay. And so it was just information whether or not we were smart enough to even write our names, you know. Okay.

Kim Monson
So you passed that, huh? Yes, we

Fred Wiese
did. Matter of fact, he put us into a big room, large room, very large room. One of us on one side, one on the other, so we couldn’t cheat. Okay.

Anyhow, we We’re told then, after we finished that, he said, well, you gentlemen sit down here and stay here. I will dismiss you when I’m finished with you. At any rate, he came back and he says, you two dummies did pretty well. Somebody will be calling you.

We had a call a couple weeks later. went into the company or detachment office and there’s a lieutenant standing there, second lieutenant, brand new guy. And he’s a red-headed guy and the name was Morrison. I’ll never forget him.

Lieutenant Morrison. And he called us to attention. We froze like a, you know, like an icicle. We didn’t know what was going to happen next.

And he read off a riot act at us. And then he stood up and stuck his arm out. I didn’t know what was going to happen then. He says, at ease.

And he says, congratulations. And thank you for your initiative. So, we were then called to go to have a physical. And we went out to Fort Dodge, Iowa.

That was a Fort Dodge campsite right out west of Des Moines. And my buddy and I passed the physical. But my buddy was told, well, you’re short about five bananas. Gets himself some bananas and eat them, a lot of

Kim Monson
them. He didn’t carry enough weight,

Fred Wiese
huh? He didn’t carry enough weight. Next thing we know, he comes out of there and the sergeant says, well, you’re short. He went back and had another exam right shortly after that.

I’m sorry I didn’t say it. You’re one banana short but we’re going to let you in anyhow. Oh my gosh.

Kim Monson
Oh my gosh. Hey Fred, let’s go to break. I’m talking with Fred Wiese. He’s a World War II veteran, flew B-17s, talking about his experiences.

Before we do that, another great sponsor of the show is Hooters Restaurants. They have five locations. That’s Loveland, Aurora, Lone Tree, Westminster, in Colorado Springs. Great place to get together to watch sports.

They have specials, lunch specials, happy hour specials, Monday through Friday, so be sure and check that out. The way they became partners of the show, it’s a great story. It’s a story of capitalism and free markets and freedom, so check that out. That’s on my website at KimMonson.com.

We’ll be right back with Fred Wiese. And before we go to break, I’ve got on the line with me Karen Levine. She is a REMAX award winning realtor. She’s a sponsor of both the shows, both the Kim Monson show and America’s Veterans Stories.

And it is because of her and our other sponsors that these stories come to you. Karen Levine, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me, Kim. Boy, things are crazy out there in this real estate market.

We’re seeing public policy has had such an assault on single family home ownership. But yet we know people want to own their own homes. And so you’ve been in this business for a long time. I think what’s happening is kind of unprecedented.

But with all your experience, you’re still helping people successfully get into homes and specifically there’s some special things for veterans that you can help them with as well.

Speaker 9
Most definitely. I think the one thing our government has done well is provide veterans the opportunity for home ownership with their VA financing, the VA loan, which allows a veteran to be able to get into a home with no down payment. They have to come up with their closing costs and in this very competitive marketplace, if veterans have been well managed their money, if they have well managed their finances and have been able to put away monies for a home, those monies can then be used with, for what we call an appraisal gap.

And what’s happening in this very, very competitive marketplace is homes are selling above their appraised value. And people would think, well, that’s not wise, but it’s wise in an appreciating marketplace because appraisals are This is a if they’ve been able to save some money for that appraisal gap. And I have been very successful in helping our veterans become homeowners and utilize this fabulous financing and these tools in the marketplace to help them be successful and become a homeowner.

Kim Monson
Well, being a homeowner is something that we’ve talked about many times is one of the ways that middle class America is able to create wealth for themselves and for their families. Now, I just wanted to mention new bills because we are seeing new bills out in some of the suburbs. and it’s important that the home buyer has representation and all they need to do is have you accompany them on their first inquiry into those new bills and then that way the builders on one side of the table, the buyers on the other, but they have representation by you who has a whole lot of experience.

So we’ve got about 45 seconds left. How would you like to explain that and then how can people reach you?

Speaker 9
Well I think what’s important for them to understand is there is opportunity in the new home arena and there are some amazing communities, some great builders out there and all the builder has asked is that when you come to check out their product that you bring me with you with the buyer, that I come with you. And that’s just on the first visit, but I will accompany you on many other visits because I’m representing you, the buyer. The person on site, the on-site salesperson, is representing the seller, which is the builder, and their goal is to sell as many homes as possible.

Of course, that’s many of our goals, but with that said, they are not going to divulge to you information that might be helpful in your decision. And I have a background in new home construction. That’s where my career started over 30 years ago. So I’m able to bring that knowledge to the table so that you can make an educated decision about your home buying opportunities.

And I would encourage you if you’re considering new construction or resale in the home market that you would give me a call at 303-877-7516.

Kim Monson
That’s Karen Levine, 303-877-7516. We’ll be right back.

Speaker 7
In these tumultuous times, it is necessary that we each have a freedom library to know and understand our history. Bury Him, a memoir of the Vietnam War by Captain Doug Chamberlain is a must for your personal library. In this honest and gripping memoir, Captain Chamberlain recounts the chilling events that took place during his command of a company of young Marines at the height of the Vietnam War. Chamberlain painfully recalls the unspeakable order he and his marines were forced to obey, and the cover-up which followed.

Purchase the book at MarineDougChamberlain.com. That’s MarineDoug, C-H-A-M-B-E-R-L-A-I-N dot com, so that you gain perspective on this time in our history. I love

Kim Monson
And welcome back to America’s Veteran Stories. Be sure and check out my website. That is americasveteranstories.com. And I’m thrilled to be sitting here with Fred Wiese.

He is a World War II veteran, was a pilot of B-17s. We’re hearing about his experiences. So you’re in the Army Air Corps now. Where do you go from there, Fred Wiese?

Fred Wiese
Okay, I was, not yet, but I’m on the way.

Kim Monson
On the way,

Fred Wiese
okay. We’re leaving Des Moines. We have an assignment to go out to to Santa Ana, California, Santa Ana Army Air Corps Station. This would be the pre-flight area where we’d be examined physically and mentally and even at calisthenics and bring us up to speed to go to our next, our beginning of flying.

and so we spent a couple of months there. We had to go through bariatric tests and so forth like that. to see if we could comprehend identification, aircraft identification and things of that nature. And we were in several, oh there were just tons of us out there, of people.

And we were there for about two and a half months, as I recall. While we were there, we had to go through a couple of things, and my friend Mike and I, when we went to the bariatric thing, I came out of that just fine. And I supposed that at that time I was chosen to be a pilot, to go through pilot training. Mike did not make it.

He was washed out. But he went to navigator school then. and navigator school washed him out. And I lost track of him from that time on.

But I did run into him many, many years later here in Denver.

Kim Monson
Did you say what happened to him?

Fred Wiese
Well, I don’t know. I guess he just didn’t have the physical and mental knowledge for it. I didn’t know any different. My mantra from that day on when we first got in there was to work hard and to study hard and don’t get in trouble.

And I didn’t want to wash out. And that was a no-no. A lot of people did. And consequently, My statement was to myself, if you’d watch out, people back in Bloomfield, Nebraska will probably say, this narrative well never would be worth a darn.

And you know, it was my bringing up that caused that part of it. But that was my idea. So, this held through all the way through my training. Every time I got into a tough spot, I had to remember that.

And by golly, I got myself through. Wow.

Kim Monson
And work hard, study hard, don’t get into trouble because you didn’t want to wash out. That’s great advice for people. Well,

Fred Wiese
you know, I was a kid that didn’t have any pilot training. You’d never flown before, right? I had never been on an airplane. Wow.

Okay, this base had no airplanes on it. Not at this point. So when we finished that, they sent me to Thunderbird 1 at Glendale, Arizona, outside of Phoenix. And there was a number 2 Thunderbird just over the next ridge.

And these were civilian training stations at one time. But now I’ve been taken over by the Air Corps. And I was assigned a pilot trainer named Mr. Walker. He was a man that was probably, I have no idea, but he was probably 45 years old or something close to that.

And he was a little bit heavier than any of us were. And a great guy. Because he took me up and Well, let’s get out on the field and I’ll tell you what we had to go through. We were students in taking ground school learning what aircrafts were about and what the lift was all about and such as that.

And we would do that for a half day and the other half a day would be on the flight line. Half the time on the flight line You were wing walking so that they wouldn’t run into other airplanes or into anything with the wings. You could be out there and direct them a bit. Or we would be cranking the engines.

and the other half of that flight time was actually flying. So we had a quarter of a day for that, most every day. And it was scheduled differently almost every day. What plane were you training in?

The PT-17, it’s German. And Walker took me up on the first flight. And in that, I remember him getting in the front seat, in the front cockpit, and I was in the back one. And he showed me about buckling up, and so forth, put the belt on, and so on.

And the belt had a funny-looking device on the top of it. It looked like kind of a sneaky S-shaped thing. And that was the thing that you would release it with. And we were wearing flight suits.

And the flight suits had long, big sleeves in them. You know, large sleeves. And they’d catch things. Anyhow, we got in there and Mr. Walker showed us some things about Okay, we’re going to see if we can find a place to land.

We’re assuming the engine is out. And you’ve got to find a place to land. And this was a very important thing. But next thing he said to me, okay, we’re going to do a loop.

He said, have you got your belt on good tight? I said, yes, sir. and I don’t know, I might have reached in and loosened it with my sleeve, I don’t know. And we get to the top of the loop, back upside down.

and I felt that there wasn’t anything under my bottom. I’d never have spread my legs like that in my life. But I didn’t fall out. I was wearing a parachute.

It wouldn’t have mattered anyhow. It was an experience that I never wanted to have again, and I never had to after that.

Kim Monson
So what you did, so you spread your legs so that your legs were as thick as the sides so that you didn’t fall out?

Fred Wiese
Yeah.

Kim Monson
Oh my Lord. That’s amazing. That is just amazing. So, finish the loop, then what happens?

Fred Wiese
Well, of course, from there on, I did pretty well. and he checked me out and I was soloing at the regular time about, I don’t know how many hours, probably five or six hours and then we would fly, we’d get out and fly and do all kinds of aerobatics and all that sort of thing. It was a wonderful airplane to fly with. And from there, Well, if you graduated from that thing, that was two and a half months, I believe, something of that nature.

And it was probably in just over the 4th of July weekend, something of that nature. Yeah. And then we were transferred to Minter Field at Bakersfield, California. And while at Minter Field, we were on in the BT-13.

We called it the Vultee Vibrator. Volte made the airplane and the vibrator was just noisy. It was a 450 horsepower engine. Now that was a big engine compared to what we had previously.

220 horsepower I think. So while we were there we had various experiences like we had been introduced to radios, we’d been introduced to flaps and stuff of that nature, we’d been introduced to a cockpit that had a slide over the top of it and we could see all around as we flew. And it had a front and a back seat on it. And we had an Air Force officer by that time, Air Corps officer at that time as our instructor.

We had to do certain things, like we had to do stage landings, which would be over a device similar as a high jumper. If you hit the rod up there, that rod would fall off, the pegs, and that would wash you out. If you couldn’t make that thing work for you. So anyway, the point of it was to get down on the ground as quickly as you could after you make an approach to the land.

Well that took place and on one occasion we were coming in for that landing and we were told to get out of the area and get back in our practice quadrant and what the reason was was simply it was a B-17 coming in for a landing and we were landing on a tarmac which was a square piece of asphalt So they had to bring this airplane, the B-17, across the furthest point for the landing surface. And then we were called to come on in after the airplane landed and safely back on the flight line, being checked out for fueling and refueling and everything. I asked the captain then, are we going to be allowed to go see that airplane when we get down?

Are logs filled out and such as that? He said, well, I imagine so. We’ll see about that. So he allowed for that to happen.

We walked over like we were not too anxious to get over there, but we had to walk slowly. You don’t run out there. We walked under the wing and we saw these turbo buckets going on and on. Turbo buckets, that’s for the turbine engines.

They have the splined wheel that just spins like a dickens probably up to 22,000 RPMs or something like that and it was hot under there and I just got out in front of the airplane and I stood back to view the cockpit and the silhouette of the airplane and I saw women up there one of them was in the cockpit in the pilot’s seat and one was on the wing checking the fuel tanks and there’s another one climbing up on the side of the fuselage for something else. And I just was mesmerized by that. I couldn’t believe it.

What are these people doing out there? They happen to be wasps. I had never heard of it before. And it just put me down something terrible.

I just couldn’t believe that. I had heard of Amelia Earhart, but I had never ever heard of people, women flying airplanes like that. See, these people had a minimum time in anything, but they had the nerve and the ability to fly those darn things.

Kim Monson
Let’s go to break. I’m talking with World War II veteran Fred Wiese. When we come back, we’ll continue the conversation. Stay tuned.

Speaker 1
If you’re 62 or older, a reverse mortgage could be a great tool regarding retirement and estate planning. It is essential to understand the process. Lorne Levy with Polygon Financial Group has nearly 20 years in the mortgage industry and has the experience to answer your questions. Lorne understands that each financial transaction is personal.

If you’d like to explore your options on a reverse mortgage, remodel your home, buy a rental property or move, call Lorne Levy at 303-880-8881. Licensed in 49 states, Kim Monson highly recommends Lorne Levy for all your mortgage needs. Call Lorne at 303-880-8881.

Speaker 4
You’d like to get in touch with one of the sponsors of the Kim Monson Show, but you can’t remember their phone contact or website information. Find a full list of advertising partners on Kim’s website, KimMonson.com. That’s Kim, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com.

Announcer
Welcome

Kim Monson
back to America’s Veteran Stories with Kim Monson. Be sure to check out our website. That is americasveteranstories.com. I am interviewing Fred Wiese.

He’s 99 years old. He was a B-17 pilot in World War II, and we haven’t even gotten to that yet. So during break, Fred and I were talking, we’re going to schedule another time. to do an interview about all that.

This is so fascinating to me. One thing, before we went to break, you said this B-17 comes in, and you go out to take a look at it, and it’s being piloted by women. Now, I had talked to someone who had said, was it, could it have been Tap Arnold? They were concerned that one of the bombers was having a record of crashes, and so that they had some women Flying those so that the guys realize that the women could fly if they could fly it Does that have anything to do with that or do you know?

I

Fred Wiese
have no idea

Kim Monson
Okay But you were surprised that it was women that were flying this

Fred Wiese
B-17? Yeah, I had never run into women flying before. I had never even conceived that idea.

Kim Monson
So you see the B-17 though, did you like the plane when you saw it?

Fred Wiese
Oh yeah, of course I did. I was mesmerized by the size of the thing. and that it could get off the ground at all. But, I knew it was flyable, I had seen it, heard of it, and so forth.

Now, we were at Minter Field at that time, and on that stage landing thing, I had not done well with it the first day, and the captain said, Weas, if you don’t get that down right, The next time we fly, you’re washed out.” Well, he made me think about it again, that mentor of mine. So, I did graduate from that area, and then went down. The next issue was to go to advanced training, advanced pilot training.

And this put us in either multi-engine or we were in single engine. And he had already told me I would never be in a single engine. So that was fine. So we were on train.

We were detrained at a place out in the middle of the desert and we didn’t know where we were. It was down in between Marfa, Texas and Alpine. And there was a field called Marfa Army Airfield out there. We had to get off there, off the train.

You could see nothing. We marched out there to the place. It was all of our baggage on our shoulders. It seemed like a mile or more.

And we were out in the desert. Southwest Texas. Now, we were flying at that time the Bobcat. And it was a two-engined aircraft.

And we called it the Bamboo Bomber. It was made of wood. I think it was a Cessna. We had experiences there that were different too.

Now we had retractable gear. We had flaps. We had radio transmissions. We had a fly-by-night.

and we had to do stuff like that in an airplane that could carry two people and possibly three. And so we had two students flying as we were checked out. And I enjoyed the airplane. There was nothing to it.

It had no power at all much, but we could just stay up in the air.

Kim Monson
Well, that’s a good feature.

Fred Wiese
It was. And as I graduated there, I graduated as a flight lieutenant. I had no idea why, but I assumed that I was not as able as some others, but that wasn’t the truth. They had run out of spaces for second lieutenants.

So we were temporarily in that category. I don’t remember the serial number that well. T2835. And I remember the serial number so well.

Yeah, that’s amazing. I’m going to have to go back and get the other one. I’ve got it written down somewhere. Anyhow, they gave us that same, that ranking, and now we were being paid the same as the second lieutenant.

It didn’t matter to any, huh? So I got my second lieutenant’s here after I got to to the second station I was assigned to. However, we were then introduced to go down to Roswell, New Mexico, and that was a station, I think it was Roswell Army Airfield at that time. But it was a B-17.

Now, this time I got to get up close and personal with the darn thing. And I tell you what, it was an airplane that just fascinated me. And we went up with our two students and an instructor. And of course I had a flight engineer with them.

and maybe an observer, I don’t know that. But that training took two and a half months. And then I was assigned to go to Lincoln, Nebraska to pick up a crew. And when I got there, they put me as a pilot and I had a co-pilot.

And I had eight other guys. So a total of ten. Nine other guys. Yeah, a total of ten.

So a total of ten, yeah. We trained in Rapid City, South Dakota. While at Rapid City, we had to do aerial work and the first thing we had to do was go out and prove that we could fly instruments. And I did pretty well apparently on the first instance of flying instruments.

We had to go out and orient ourselves into the cone of the beacon that was right over on our station, on our field. and get that stuff done. And you had no windage and such as that. And listen to the radio and get…

We had oral null at that time. That was our beacon type of radios. And it was just a sound. An A or an NN.

And when you get to the middle of that, it was a solid tone. So that’s what we’re looking for is trying to get that solid tone. And I did make my flight into it and came out right over the spot. Now we had to go out and turn around and come back in.

Now the signal is reversed. And I hit it again right on the button. And at that time, my engineer said, well, I think we’ve got a good crew. And that was the end of that.

I will tell you that the next thing I did, I had to go fly formation. On my first flight of formation flight, we had a whole crew aboard. And I’d just gotten in position to fly in my own spot that I was assigned to be. And also my aircraft started shaking like the dickens.

Couldn’t figure out what it was. I had changed props. positions, changed the throttle, forward and aft, put down flaps and lifted them, tried to lift it, put the gear down and so forth. Everything worked.

Couldn’t figure out why it was doing that. So we went, I broke the formation. I told the commander of the formation that I had to break out. My airplane was shaking.

And he didn’t like it. What he said was not very nice. Okay. Anyhow, I went in to land and it shook like the dickens I thought it was going to come apart.

That whole airplane just died. I can’t emphasize enough about the vibrations we had. So we got on the ground and I got stopped. And I could see an officer running up to the airplane.

And it was the maintenance officer. He says, he got on board, and he says, everybody off here but you. And he’s pointing at me. He said, we’re going to fly this airplane.

I’m going to prove to you that there’s nothing wrong with it. So he got us all off, and the engineer, I think, came along with me. I’m pretty sure he did. Anyhow, we took off, and the moment that we broke ground, he started yelling, Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, all the way around the circuit, coming back in.

And he had all the fire trucks out there, everything else, and he was shaking like a leaf. And I’ve never heard another word about it. Oh my gosh.

Kim Monson
Fred Wiese, we are out of time for this interview. This is part one. We’ll be scheduling part two very soon. This is fascinating talking with Fred Wiese, World War II veteran, 2B-17s.

And my friends, these stories are so rich. We indeed, we stand on the shoulders of giants. So God bless you and God bless America.

Announcer
Thank you for listening to America’s Veteran Stories with Kim Monson. Be sure to tune in again next Sunday, 3 to 4 p.m. here on KLZ 560 and KLZ 100.7.

Speaker 2
The views and opinions expressed on KLZ 560 are those of the speaker, commentators, hosts, their guests, and callers. They are not necessarily the views and opinions of Crawford Broadcasting or KLZ Management, employees, associates, or advertisers. KLZ 560 is a Crawford Broadcasting God and country station.