Starke, William H. Oral history interview with William Starke, [videorecording], 2002.
Title:
Oral history interview with William Starke, [videorecording], 2002.
William H. Starke, an Illinois native, discusses his service in the Army Air Corps as a pilot in the Pacific Theater of World War II. Starke recalls hearing about the attack on Pearl Harbor three months into his studies at Illinois Wesleyan University and enlisting in the Army Air Corps. Because he had worked at a bank, he states he was sent to clerical school in Colorado until his application for flight training was accepted. Starke talks about waiting four months for assignment at Kelly Field (Texas) before finally being sent to flight school at Santa Anna (California) and graduating from advanced flight school at Williams Field (Arizona). After two months of combat training, he mentions flying P-38s at North Island Naval Air Station before going overseas. Sent to New Caledonia, he talks about missing Thanksgiving dinner when he crossed the International Date Line. Starke discusses assignment to the 44th Fighter Squadron at Guadalcanal and missions to bomb the Japanese Naval Base at Rabaul. He portrays the capabilities of the P-38 fighter plane and recalls his first flight in one. Starke details his first combat mission, Christmas Day of 1943: the flight formation, his panicking, the chaos caused by attacking Japanese planes, and the debriefing. He mentions becoming more comfortable during missions and eventually becoming a flight leader. Starke comments on living in the jungle: wildlife, rainy season, malaria, dysentery, and a fungal infection called "the crud." He speaks of the frequency of missions, having rest leave in New Zealand and Australia, and moving camp about every three months. Starke touches on buzzing a village in New Guinea and seeing the natives throw spears at the plane. He explains how Charles Lindbergh came to the South Pacific and showed the P-38 pilots how to use less fuel, so they could fly longer missions. Starke talks about escorting bombers to hit the oil wells in Borneo and the discomfort caused by long missions and cold. He portrays dive bombing, skip bombing, dropping napalm on Japanese soldiers in the Philippines, and using rockets towards the end of the war. He describes destroying enemy troop ships before they could reinforce Leyte and characterizes Robert B. Westbrook, a great Wisconsinite pilot in the 13th Air Force who was killed in action. Starke contrasts the size of aerial operations in Europe and the Pacific and states in the Pacific they suffered from lack of supplies and equipment and from bad food. He mentions pilots were issued Benzedrine to stay awake during missions, but he drank coffee instead. Starke reflects on the difficulty of using the runways at night and the difficulty of navigating in poor weather conditions. He recalls seeing Dick Bong, famous ace pilot, and Charles Lindbergh. Starke describes improvements made on P-38 models over the course of the war such as the addition of a dive brake and an aileron boost. He comments on dog fight tactics and getting shot at by ground fire. He explains how his squadron adopted the nickname of "the Vampire Squadron." Starke discusses training replacements and practicing strafing on manta rays, and he details his one confirmed kill over Formosa. He states he had a combat camera in his plane but never saw film from it, and he talks about using a personal camera to take photos of the jungle. Starke talks about attending a squadron reunion in 1981, and he recalls meeting John Wayne with some other pilots and being asked what combat was really like. Starke recalls watching movies in camp, including training film propaganda and inaccurate Hollywood movies like "A Guy Named Joe." He talks about trading cigarettes for liquor, and once trading liquor for a drill bit so that his new camp could drill for water. Starke details the cockpit equipment, keeping radio silence until they reached the target, and dropping wing tanks. He reports saving up his post-mission liquor rations for parties and describes a wild party with singer Martha Tilton, Carol Landis, and some Navy nurses. Starke comments on the accuracy of the issued navigation maps and needing silk maps in the operations shack due to mildew. He details receiving orders to go home, declining to reenlist, celebrating V-E Day on the ship, and returning to college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Starke talks about his brief civilian career in advertising before becoming the owner of a Ford dealership in Fort Atkinson (Wisconsin). He reflects on the shortage of cars after the war and narrowly avoiding being sent to Japan with a Chicago Air Force Reserves unit during the Korean War.
ArchivalResource:
Video recording : 4 video cassettes (ca. 108 min.) ; sd., col.; 1/2 in.Transcript : 35 p.
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