TOM DALEY (right) tells Arlington students about his experiences aboard an Air Force bomber during World War II. Daley and Vietnam veteran Jon Treece (left) visited Tina Hiller’s eighth-grade class Wednesday as part of the students’ “wounds of war” project. (Photo by Randy Roberts)
By KATHRYNE RUBRIGHT
Staff Writer
ARLINGTON — One way to avoid the draft during the Vietnam War, Army veteran Jon Treece told a class of Arlington students Wednesday, was to enlist instead.
“I decided I didn’t want to be drafted and let them pick what I was going to do, so I enlisted and picked what I was going to do,” he said.
After basic training, Treece went to Advanced Individual Training and Officer Candidate School. He was a platoon leader for most of his time in Vietnam.
Treece and Tom Daley, a World War II Air Force veteran, were taking questions from Tina Hiller’s eighth-grade English language arts class.
There aren’t many World War II veterans left, Daley said, with more dying every day.
“I wonder when my turn’s going to come,” he said.
He wondered about death decades ago, too, when he flew on B-17 Flying Fortress bombers on missions over Germany.
“Big chunks of iron would be flying all over the place,” from anti-aircraft shells exploding at an altitude of 32,000 feet, Daley said. “They would knock these planes down right and left.”
The plus side of making bombing runs was being based in England, and being able to “get dressed, go to town and have fun” after surviving the plane trip.
In Vietnam, Treece often found himself sleeping outside on the ground, or in tents made out of poncho liners.
One of Daley’s most challenging experiences was when an engine on the bomber stopped working. The plane had three other engines and was already near the target, but the base in England said to turn back and drop the bombs in the North Sea instead. The crew didn’t understand that order, but they followed it.
“Three of the bombs stuck in the bomb bay. They wouldn’t go,” Daley said. “So we had to return to base, and you’re not allowed to land with bombs.”
The crew circled for a while in the plane, then pleaded to land as they ran out of fuel. Fortunately, they had a smooth landing.
Asked how their families took the news that they would be enlisting, Treece said his father had fought in World War II, so “I guess it wasn’t a big deal,” he said.
“It was a fact of life. You were going to go, and that was it,” he said.
Daley said his father had died a few years earlier, so for him the Air Force provided a way to send money home to his mother and siblings.
Daley said he wasn’t affected mentally by the war. When he got home, he was glad to be there and to go out dancing with girls again.
Treece said he gets treatment for the effects of Agent Orange from the VA, and while he’s aware of mixed experiences with Veterans Affairs medical services, his experience has been that “once you get in the system, they’re great” and “some of the best doctors” provide care.
The veterans’ visit was part of the students’ “wounds of war” project, Hiller said.
After reading two historical fiction novels set during World War II — “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas” by John Boyne and “Code Name Verity” by Elizabeth Wein — the eighth-graders are making posters comparing the effects of war on a fictional character, a group such as Jewish people or Nazis, and the veterans who spoke to them.
Rubright: 419-427-8417
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