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As 103-year-old Captain Art Palmer recounts his wartime tales, he leans forward in his chair, his voice strengthens, his hands fidgeting back into battle.
His memory seems unusually clear for his age. He can remember the specific time he woke up after being shipped to North Africa (3am). He remembers everything he ate in eight days on the run after being shot down in enemy territory—a tablespoon of wild strawberries.
Art Palmer’s family experienced the Dust Bowl in South Dakota. Art is the boy with his finger in his mouth.
Art was born in South Dakota on September 21, 1919, into a self-employed family of six children. Money was always tight, but in his boyhood there was enough food, 100 cows and his two pairs of horses. After that, a drought lasted his five years. The wind picked up. Dust obliterated the sun. Their farm has become worthless. His father sold their machines for scrap.
At 17, Art hopped on a freight train and headed west in search of work. He picked cherries and hops near Yakima. When the weather got colder, he found a job at the grocery store and returned to high school to graduate.
Art Palmer during World War II.
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Attack on Pearl Harbor. Joined the Army Air Corps, the predecessor of the U.S. Air Force. After 16 months of training, he was sent abroad with the 98th Artillery Group, first to Casablanca and then to southern Italy, where Art piloted his B-24 his Liberator.
50 was a magic number. If the man flew his 50 combat his missions, he was sent home. Art survived 49, but it wasn’t easy. Once, over the Alps, an enemy shot at the rudder of Art’s plane. He slipped and returned the uncontrollable aircraft to base. Another time, Art witnessed three of his bombers collide under heavy artillery fire. The plane in the middle “fell like a cigar,” recalls Art.
A bomber squad led by Art Palmer. The art is on the top and middle.
Art catches a cold, so the crew completes their 50th mission without him and returns home. On his 50th in Art, he volunteered to be a West Gunner with an unfamiliar crew.
June 26, 1944, clear and bright dawn. Art got nervous and skipped breakfast. In his workhorse, he was tasked with bombing a heavily defended Vienna factory.
While running through heavy anti-aircraft fire, an enemy shell ripped through the nose of his plane and exploded. Art felt intense heat. He grabbed a fire extinguisher, but the flames engulfed the plane “like a blast furnace,” Art said. He and his two others parachuted into enemy territory. The rest of the crew didn’t make it.
A telegram tells Art’s parents that he has been shot down.
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Survivors gathered on the ground with the intention of walking to Yugoslavia. Eight days later they were captured, interrogated and sent to Stalag Luft 1, a Nazi prisoner of war camp near the Baltic in Germany.
Nearly 9,000 American, British and Canadian troops were crammed into prisons designed for half that number. Luftwaffe was in charge. They were part of the regular German army and not as tough as the Schutzstaffel (SS) who controlled the Auschwitz and Dachau extermination camps. Beatings were rare. Red Cross parcels were occasionally distributed. Prisoners were sometimes allowed to play softball.
The Nazi prison camp where Art Palmer spent 10 months.
Still, food was never enough, and guards could send prisoners to cells on a whim.
[InJanuary1945allRedCrossparcelsstoppedMonthshavepassedArt5’8″tall50lbsweightlossOnoneoccasionathickfogsentaflockofduckscrashingintothebarrackswallTheprisonersscoopedupthefaintedwaterfowlandatethem[1945年1月、赤十字の小包はすべて停止しました。月日が経ちました。アート、身長5フィート8インチ、50ポンド減量。ある時、濃い霧がアヒルの群れを兵舎の壁に激突させました。囚人たちは気絶した水鳥をすくい上げて食べました。
[InlateApril1945alltheguardsmysteriouslydisappearedThreedayslaterSoviettroopsbrokeintothecamp”drinkingvodkaandbrandishingpistols”[1945年4月下旬、警備員全員が謎の失踪を遂げました。3日後、ソ連軍は「ウォッカを飲みながらピストルを振り回しながら」キャンプに押し入った。
he was finally free.
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After the war, Art spent three years recovering from an injury to his back.
Art was one of the first POWs sent back to the United States. But he battled tuberculosis and constant back pain from eroded vertebrae resulting from malnutrition and bacterial infections. He spent the next three years in a military hospital. Surgery and his Stryker frame helped.
He also suffered from constant “what if?” bitterness. What if he didn’t catch a cold and was sent home with his own crew? Instead of getting hung up on his frustration, he chose to move on with his life.
Art graduated from the University of Denver in 1954 with a degree in chemistry. He married his sweetheart Darlene in 1960 and had three children. Art worked in pharmaceutical sales until his retirement in 1986. Darlene passed away in 2014.
In the early days after the war, Art Palmer suffered from bitterness, constantly asking “what if?” Instead of getting hung up on his frustration, he chose to move on with his life.
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Today Art still lives in his own home. Although he gave up his driver’s license at the age of 101, he remains active in his Rotary club and has lunch with his friends. He is Art gardens and he still runs his own rotary tiller. He limits his fat, sugar and stress. He often jokes. What is his secret of joy today?
“For a long time after the war, I was bitter and angry. But I learned to focus on myself. I took a genuine interest in the people around me, my family and friends, they are the most important things.”
“I have learned to focus on myself,” says Art Palmer. “I cared deeply about the people around me, my family and my friends. They are the most important things.” (Ben Bender)
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