One Small Town Boy

This first-person account describes the vivid and compelling World War Ii experiences of Jack Goetz, who flew twenty-five missions with the 544th Squadron, 384th Bomb Group based at Grafton Underwood, England, in the early stages of the air war over Europe from mid-1943 to early 1944. During his combat tour, he flew on B-17 bombers over German-occupied Europe as a gunner. These were hazardous missions that resulted in high casualty rates among B-17 flight crews. Jack had his share of close calls, including a crash landing in a crippled bomber and a ditching in the English Channel, which resulted in the death of a close friend and crewmate. After completing his combat tour, he volunteered to be a member of the flight crew that took a group of combat correspondents to the Pacific to cover the end of the war in that theater. His B-17 was the second American aircraft to land in Japan just as the war ended, and he was among the first Americans to visit the atomic bomb-blasted city of Hiroshima.

Jack Goetz flew 25 missions as a gunner on B-17 bombers with the 544th Squadron, 384th Bomb Group, based at Grafton Underwood, England, in the early stages of the World War II air war over Europe from mid-1943 to early 1944. Jack survived a number of close calls, including a harrowing mission over Schweinfurt, Germany, that ended in a crash landing back at Grafton Underwood, and a ditching of his damaged B-17 in the English Channel that resulted in the death of a crewmate. After completing his combat tour, he volunteered to be a member of the flight crew that took a group of combat correspondents to the Pacific to cover the end of the war in that theater. His B-17 was the second American aircraft to land in Japan as the war ended, and he was among the first Americans to visit the atomic bomb-blasted city of Hiroshima. He lives in Pennsylvania where he has resided since returning from his WWII service. Gerald Meehl is a research scientist and author or co-author of four books on WWII in the Pacific (Pacific Legacy: Image and Memory from World War II in the Pacific, Abbeville Press, 2002; Pacific War Stories: In the Words of Those Who Survived, Abbeville Press, 2004; Fast Boats and Fast Times: Memories of a PT Boat Skipper in the South Pacific, Authorhouse, 2008; One Marine's War: A Combat Interpreter's Quest for Humanity in the Pacific, Naval Institute Press, 2012). His father, Paul Meehl, was a crew chief in the 384th Bomb Group with Jack, but in a different squadron, the 547th, from 1943-45. Gerald received his PhD from the University of Colorado, and he was on the science team of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. He lives with his wife Marla in Boulder, Colorado.