U.S. ARMY AIR CORPS

Richard Pease

Richard Pease of Lamoine served as a crew chief on a C-47 plane that was shot down over Erfert, Germany, during World War II.

“We were carrying Jerry cans full of gasoline supporting Patton’s army,” Pease said. “And we went down in flames. All of us got out.

“I helped pull the radio operator out of the escape hatch under the pilot.”
The pilot was able to land the plane so the troops did not parachute out, he said.

After landing, the radio operator opened a door and the backwind fanned the flames into the pilot and the rest of the crew, said Pease. “He got burnt really bad,” said Pease, who suffered burns to the right side of his head, including his ear.

“I wasn’t supposed to be on that flight either,” Pease said.

His assistant did not feel like flying that day, so Pease went instead.

The next day, Pease and the other men were flown to General Hospital in Paris. He does not remember how long he stayed in the hospital, but he was awarded a Purple Heart during his stay.

From the hospital, Pease was sent to a “replacement depot” in England, where he processed troops who were going home. “I never went back to my outfit,” said Pease.

Pease belonged to the 98th Troop Carrier Squadron. He enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Force on Nov. 5, 1942. He trained at Fort Devens, Colo. He had basic training at Cochran Field in Macon, Ga. From there, Pease attended airplane mechanic school in Gulfport, Miss., and finally moved on to Douglas AirCraft in Long Beach, Calif.

Pease traveled overseas on a French luxury liner, the Louis Pasteur, landing in Liverpool, England.

As crew chief, his job was to make sure the plane was in working order.

“I flew, but I had no jobs in the air,” Pease said. However, one of the officers would jokingly tell the paratroopers before they boarded that Pease would shoot them if they didn’t jump. “Of course, I had a shoulder holster with a .45 in it,” Pease said.

“We jumped paratroopers the day after D-Day, which happened at night,” said Pease.

Pease, 82, was honorably discharged in June of 1945, having earned the rank of technical sergeant with five stripes.

He traveled from Europe to Boston on a Navy transporter ship. From Boston, he went to Camp Myles Standish on Cape Cod, where Pease said he was too “land-sick” to eat the steak dinner prepared for the veterans.

By July 2, he was back home in his native Portland. On July 26, Pease married his first wife, Laura John, who had been his high school sweetheart.

She had wanted to marry before he went to war, Pease said.

“I said no because I didn’t want to come home with missing parts,” he said.

Pease went to work for the telephone company and the couple had two children: Judy Moore, who is married to City Councilor John Moore, and a son, who died in 1968.

Pease retired from the phone company in 1982 after 37 years of service. His wife, Laura, died in 1989. Pease married his current wife, Ruth, in 1991, after they were introduced by a mutual friend. Pease has two grandchildren and six great grandchildren.

— Jennifer Osborn