PILOT SHARES MEMORIES OF D-DAY

From ajc.com:

The basement of Bob Powell's Decatur home is something different to different people.

His wife of 63 years, Betty, calls the wall-to-wall World War II memorabilia his junk room. Powell proudly shows it off as his minimuseum. Bob Powell, 86, of Decatur is one of the dwindling band of veterans who were at Normandy on D-Day. He was fighting in the air that day. He collects objects and personal stories from that time, when thousands lost their lives.

During World War II, Bob Powell flew either the P-47 Thunderbolt or the P-51 Mustang, which he had painted on the back of his pilot's jacket. 'It all went by so fast,' he says of his flights.

Powell, a fighter pilot, fought and survived during the D-Day landings 64 years ago Friday. He knows veterans like him, who once numbered 16 million strong, have dwindled to just 2.5 million men and women across the country.

"Most people in their lives hope to do something they believe was worthwhile," said Powell, an 86-year-old retired ad man who evinces a childlike awe of airplanes as he shows off models of the planes he flew into battle.

"I am so proud to have lived at a time to have the privilege to do what I was able to do," he added.

As Powell tells his story, he drifts between a row of model planes and tables weighed down with keepsakes from the war. After Pearl Harbor, he and a friend hitchhiked from West Virginia University to Pikeville, Ky. They were intent on acing the aviation cadet exam, and soon found themselves learning how to fly at bases in California and Arizona.

By September 1943, Powell's flight and combat training were done. He flew his fighter from Bodney, England, escorting bombers as they pounded targets across the northern part of Europe. His handwritten log book tells the story of his 87 missions. Those with a black swastika next to it show Powell felled or damaged an enemy plane. The same symbols, four in all, were painted on the side of his Mustang fighter.

At 2:30 a.m., flying from a darkened grass field lit only by the burning of a downed plane, Powell took off for Normandy. Even in the gloom and dark, Powell could see that his was one of thousands of planes supporting the Allied storming of the beaches.

"Imagine it: We put up a wall of airplanes from the treetop level to 30,000 feet," Powell said. "When we could see down through the clouds, it was unreal. I couldn't imagine the volume of men going in."

Powell's first mission with the largest combat sea, air and land operation in history lasted six hours. He flew back to England and refueled, returning twice to patrol areas south of the landing, to keep away enemy soldiers.

He points again to his logbook. Among the targets he hit — a motorcycle and train chugging rapidly toward the coast. Powell spent 18 of the next 24 hours in his plane. The next four, maybe five, days, passed the same way.

"Kids today might get a lesson from knowing we all just hoped we'd be strong enough to finish the mission."