Veteran B-24 Pilot Recalls the War and Comments on U.S. in Middle East

There aren't very many World War II veterans around any more and even fewer pilots of that era. Ed Hattrup is among a few living in the Ramona area. He piloted the B-24 bomber in the Central Pacific.

Hattrup reminisced with Ramona Patch recently, in time for Memorial Day, after  a ride in the Collings Foundation's B-24 Liberator "Witchcraft" out of Ramona, during the foundation's recent Wings of Freedom Tour. He chuckled as he told Patch that he got stuck getting out of the plane.

"I couldn't bend down low enough, so they had to help me," he said.

He was also amused that the pilot, Jayson Owen, signed his World War II flight log.

"The pilot said that in all the years he's been doing this, no one has ever asked him to sign a log. He added my time on the plane for me."

Owen has volunteered with the foundation's nationwide tour for about 20 years.

Hattrup sat down with Ramona Patch at his dining table at home recently to share old snapshots. He pulled out his three-ring binder full of documents from the war, such as his flight log and honorable discharge. He also has a computer full of photos.

"I've written a book about every station I went to, and that will be my legacy," he said.

Hattrup has five grown "children," 11 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

"Young people don't know history anymore," he said. "No one knows about World War II and why we got into it. They don't teach it."

Hattrup started basic training at age 20, in December 1943.

"There were too many people in aviation cadet training so I was sent to Montana State College, then gunnery school in Yuma, AZ. They showed us how to use the weapons and I got on a combat crew."

Hattrup trained on the B-17 out of what is now called Edwards Air Force Base. He also went to Langley Field Air Force Base in Virginia for radar training. It's one of the largest and oldest bases in the country.

"Every time I went up, I shot 2,000 rounds of 50 caliber," Hattrup said. "I flew in the nose turret. I was also a flight engineer. That's the guy who sits up on top when it takes off and lands. I flew just under 800 hours, so I've had my share of B-24s."

Hattrup was stationed at Kahuku on the north end of Oahu in Hawaii. He was with the 3oth bomb group, and was a staff sergeant in the 27th bomb squadron, he said.

"The 30th bomb group was called 'The Atoll Busters.' We only had one job and that was to bomb, and we were only doing what we were told to."

He talked about his hatred of the enemy in the Pacific at the time — the Japanese.

"I would just as soon bomb the daylights out of them because of how they treated our prisoners, for example in the Bataan Death March. The Germans had a different attitude toward war. War was an honorable thing to them."

Hattrup said he flew several models of the B-24 — from the 24-D, 24-E and 24-J to the 24-M and N.

He said the joke at the time was that the B-24 was the "box that the B-17 came in," because the B-17 was smaller.

"The B-29s were the big bombers," Hattrup said. "They came from Saipan."

Hattrup was discharged in 1946, came back to the United States and went into the reserves. He also spent 31 years with Firestone as a staff engineer. Hattrup is originally from Southgate in souteast Los Angeles.

He said the 30th bomb group was one of the first sponsors of the restoration of the B-24 bomber through the Collings Foundation.

"After the war, most of the planes were scrapped for the metal," he said. "The 'bone yard' on Oahu took the engines off and scrapped them. They buried them with a bulldozer. It was a darn shame. But that's life in the army."

Ramona Patch asked him what he thinks of the current U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"We're not fighting a real war," he said. "If we were fighting a real war, we'd go in and bomb the daylights out of them and get it done with. But we can't do things like that any more because of politics. We're there to preserve oil. It's a police action like in Korea. We're trying to get their army to control the country and it will never happen."

"It's a 'May I?" war," Hattrup said. "We ask permission to do things. It's cheaper to buy oil from the Middle East than it is to drill oil here. We've got plenty of oil here."

"Why are we making all those smart bombs and not using them?"

Hattrup has lots of stories. He likes to tell some of them when he gets together with friends at Ramona Senior Center.

"I'm 88 years old now, so I've been around a long time," he said smiling. Hattrup is a life member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW).

He and some of his friends plan to gather together in one of their homes Monday to commemorate Memorial Day.