Jack Barber
John K. Barber, legally known as Jack Barber, is a World War II veteran who resides in Pittsburg, KS. He and his wife Jean have four children: Martin, John, David and Peter. John retired from his family’s grocery business when he was fifty years old after working for twenty-three years. John is an interesting man, and I was very thankful to have him share his experiences with me. The following interview allows us to see what it was like being a World War II pilot.
I was born in Columbus, KS March 10, 1923. Lived in Columbus for four or five years, then went to Coffeyville until I was thirteen; then moved to Pittsburg. I enlisted into the war about [the age of] eighteen, just south of Neosho, Missouri. First off, I did not want to be an infantryman or paratrooper. I wanted to fly an airplane. [My] father was a veteran of World War I and was real happy [about my enlistment]. [As a child, I enjoyed] putting together small airplanes…rubber band ones. When I was thirteen or fifteen… I got interested in gas model airplanes, and so from that I just decided I wanted to be a pilot. I had a cousin in the navy who wanted to be a pilot, and this guy helped put me in my place in World War II as a pilot.
Went to basic training
in Coomesfield, Utah. So, then from
Utah, we went to Texas and then finally overseas. [My service began in] 1941 and lasted about
three or three and a half years. 
[I was in]
the 306 Airborne, 442nd group in the United States Air Force.
I arrived in Europe, one other pilot and I, one day after D-Day; and
we were assigned to a tube carrier squadron which dropped paratroopers.
They used airplanes called C47’s, and they were DC3’s first manufactured
in the 30’s. A C47 is an airplane,
old, with two engines [and] retractable gears.
It carries about thirty passengers, twenty-five paratroopers and normally
goes about less than two hundred miles per hour, nothing by today’s standards.
Good airplanes, well, to fly in.
In a troop carrier squadron, we only flew two years, about eleven missions where we actually dropped paratroopers and got shot at. I didn’t see gruesome, bloody bodies; I was in the air. I’m so thankful to be a pilot, and stay off the ground.
I would say co-ordination [was the basis of choosing me as a pilot]. If you had the intelligence, you would end up maybe being a navigator. You might be an infantryman--wash out of the air core--which you rarely did. You’re very fortunate to have good eyes, coordination and all this to be a pilot, which I was fortunate enough to be.
I was a first lieutenant
and captain. [I was under] Colonel
Thompson’s [command]. [I was] offered
another promotion if I stayed in after the war was over to go to Japan, and
I declined. I had enough. As it turned out, within a day or two President
Truman bombed Tokyo, or wherever it was, and that war was over. 
So, none of us went to Japan.
[No particular battle changed me, but] it may have made me appreciate where we live because we were based in England and France. As the infantry moved on, we delivered not only paratroopers, [but] supplies to people. You’d be surprised how hungry you were to get fresh eggs. I had an obsession; I wanted fresh eggs. I went to various farmers and got two to three dozen eggs.
I’ll tell you that the experience of being in that war, my part and probably any veteran you’d want to talk to, infantryman, pilot, you name it, say the experience is a lot. You appreciate those you love at home, and in my case I had my parents and my wife and wanted to get home.
There was one moment, I don’t know where we were flying; but on the radio there came out that President Roosevelt had died and Vice-President Truman would be our new President, and it was [a] rather serious moment. Wasn’t the best by far, just the opposite. Now, President Truman is probably one of the best Presidents we’ve ever had.
There seems to
be something about war that attracts younger people; but when you’re old,
like I am, and been there it doesn’t scare me as long as I know what I’m doing. Being an old man, I can accept that I could
get killed; but I don’t really care ‘cause I can do this (fly a plane). 
[When] I came back [from the war] I had choices. I knew how to fly a twenty engine airplane; but there are thousands like me, and those kinds of jobs are harder to find. So, the choice of flying the airplane, in fact I didn’t even really try, ‘cause I was tired of flying. I didn’t want to fly a new airplane and learn all over again, I had enough. The first thing I had to do was finish college, which I did. A year and one summer [plus the] two years before I left. [I earned my degree in] industrial arts and business.
*[ ] indicates words were not said by Mr. Barber.
This oral history was researched and prepared by Manal Siam. Spring 2002.