64 years in the making: WWII Vet receives Distinguished Flying Cross

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Jason Barebo
  • 509th Bomb Wing Public Affairs
After more than 60 years, an Air Force World War II veteran was formerly presented the Distinguished Flying Cross Dec. 6 during a ceremony here.

Edward Ireland was presented the medal by Brig. Gen. Garrett Harencak in the presence of his family, friends and Team Whiteman members.

"What a great opportunity it is for all the Airmen warriors of Whiteman Air Force base to honor this American hero," said Brig. Gen. Garrett Harencak, 509th Bomb Wing commander. "Great Americans like Eddie volunteered to defend America during a time when it wasn't so easy to do so."

Edward M. Ireland formally received the Distinguished Flying Cross for extraordinary achievement while serving as top turret gunner on a B-17 Flying Fortress on many heavy bombardment missions over enemy occupied continental Europe. Mr. Ireland displayed great courage and skills warding off many enemy attacks and materially aided in the success of each of his missions, according to his citation.

"I often was discouraged about the way I wasn't presented the medal formally, but that's just the way things were then," Mr. Ireland explained. "You scheduled everything around the combat duty. That's what we were there for.

"We weren't there for any pomp and ceremony, we had missions to fly," he said.

"I think this medal is just deserved for what (Mr. Ireland) did," said Lt. Col. Ron Bodine, 393rd Bomb Squadron. "It's an honor for us to do it and I know it's great for him to feel this gratitude from his country."

"We never expected this big of a ceremony," said Edileen Ireland. "I only expected two or three people to show up here. This was absolutely wonderful."

The presentation came about as a favor to Mr. Ireland from Col. Paul Tibbets, former 393rd Bomb Squadron commander, whose grandfather, General Paul Tibbets, was a former commander of the 509th Composite Group and the pilot of the B-29, "Enola Gay." General Tibbets piloted the aircraft when it dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

Mr. Ireland, an avid researcher of military history, provided several facts and sources to Colonel Tibbets about his grandfather.

"When (Col. Tibbets) got deployed to Belgium, I had sent him some more data about his grandfather," Mr. Ireland said. "The colonel made a mistake and said 'gosh, Ed, is there anything I can do for you?'"

"Well, this is it," Mr. Ireland said jokingly.

Following the presentation, Mr. Ireland shared several stories and experiences with the crowd .

As a staff sergeant in the Army Air Corps., Mr. Ireland served in several positions aboard the B-17 Flying Fortress, including aerial gunner, bombardier, co-pilot and flight engineer.

Assigned to Lt. John Reeve and his B-17 crew, Mr. Ireland, as a rated flight engineer/gunner, was allowed to cross-train as a bombardier and a co-pilot.

In October 1943, the crew was assigned to 568th Squadron, Crew 13 in Framingham, England. Mr. Ireland flew two successful bombing missions with his crew, warding off enemy fighter aircraft as an aerial gunner. Before his third mission, however, Ireland was sent to the hospital with influenza and was unable to fly his third mission.

"The last I saw the crew was when the truck left the briefing area," Mr. Ireland said. "When I would visit with Staff Sgt. Solarz, he said that he had continuous premonitions that I would be the only survivor.

"I took it kind of lightly at the time because he based it on the fact that my initials, E.I, backwards was 13 and we were in the 13th Combat Wing and flew our first mission on the 13th (December 1943)," he added.

"The day I got sick and couldn't fly the third mission, as the truck pulled away form the compound, Sergeant Solarz gave me a thumbs up and saluted me," Mr. Ireland continued.

"When I arrived at the British hospital, another flight engineer from another squadron was amazed to see me, because he thought the entire crew was shot down," Ireland said.

"I spent that Christmas in the isolation ward," he continued. "But one nice thing happened that sad Christmas. A British nurse's aid came in to give me my medicine and she seemed upset.

"So I visited with her because I had no one to talk to and she finally broke down and started crying," Ireland recalled. "Her brother was in the British army and was sent to someplace in Africa. The last thing she had said to her brother was that she hated him.

"A week later she got notice that he had been killed in action," he said. "So I ended up consoling her."

Ireland continued his tour of duty and flew many more missions with other crews and trained several crews with the experience he gained during his tour.

"The determination for me to complete my tour of duty was based upon several things," Ireland said. "Two of them were that two of the crew members' wives gave birth to children after we were overseas. They never got to see their fathers."

Mr. Ireland continued on talking about his experiences in the Army Air Corps.

"We spent a year training, which wasn't nearly enough," Ireland continued. "We were just a bunch of kids just out of high school. I probably had more mechanical experience than any of the pilots because I grew up in a business world where people would share their experiences with me even from the time I was about 12 years old.

"I knew machine shop work and electrical and what have you. When I took the mechanical test at Ft. Leavenworth, they thought I had cheated because I scored so high. Really I had just grown up in that atmosphere," he said.

"One thing they didn't tell us at training command was how cold it was (in England)," Ireland joked. "We had no heat because they stripped the heaters form the aircraft because of the weight factor.

"Another factor they didn't tell us about was there was no bathroom," he added. "At times I wore two pair of sorts, two pair of long johns, fleece wool jacket, trousers, boots and all that," he said.

But at such low temperatures, you're going to get cold, Mr. Ireland added.

"And the bombardiers' seat was really terrible because you couldn't stop most of the air coming through. You got really cold up there," he continued. "They did have relief tubes, but with all that clothing on there was no way I was going to be able to use it, so you developed a large bladder.

"If you got airsick, you were better to just swallow it or you were in trouble," he said. "If you took the mask off, frost could occur in 2 - 3 minutes at temperatures like that so you had to be careful."

Following his tour overseas, Mr. Ireland left active duty and joined the reserves the same day. He was assigned to the 509th Composite Group in Roswell, N.M., where he was in charge of maintenance for B-29 Superfortresses assigned there.

"We were all civilian soldiers in the 6th Maintenance Wing," Mr. Ireland said. "But we established a base record for a six-month period without a single mechanical abortion for all eight B-29s."

Mr. Ireland followed the 509th and became one of the first members of Team Whiteman.

"I was here during the ceremony when the first B-2 came in and what an awesome airplane," Mr. Ireland said.

Mr. Ireland thanked General Harencak and all the personnel in attendance for the courtesies extended.

"I really appreciate my family and the support they have given me with these sorts of things," he said.

"This has really been a pleasure," Mr. Ireland said. "On behalf of my whole crew, God bless you and thank you."