Lavon Fred, a retired grain and dairy farmer, is also a veteran of the Army Air Corps.

Growing up near Fulton, Ind., Lavon recalls at age 10 having a pony and driving a two-wheel cart his father, Claude, made. In that cart, Lavon carried cow feed as well as water to workers during the threshing ring days, and hauled hay to the barn.

At 16, in 1940, Lavon – now nearly 89 – courted his neighbor and sweetheart, Eloise Rouch. During early 1941 Lavon said he was home working on the farm, but after graduation that year he went to South Bend to get a job to pay for a short course at Purdue University.

Plans to attend school changed on Dec. 7, 1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. “January 2, 1942, I enrolled to go to the Chicago American Aircraft Institute to study aircraft building information. I went to learn to repair airplanes,” Lavon recalled.

“I was always interested in airplanes, growing up. We had a neighbor that had a son that was older than me. They got into the one-engine plane business. They would give rides in farmers’ fields. That whetted my appetite.”
After airplane mechanic school, Lavon worked in Grand Rapids at the Hayes Co., which made wings for the English Spitfire fighter planes. In July 1942 Lavon worked at the then-new Ford factory near Ypsilanti, Mich., which produced B24 aircraft.

“I liked working on the planes,” he said, and he soon entered the military; on Dec. 1, 1943, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps.

After basic training in Florida, he headed to Biloxi for more training. In February 1943, he went to Columbus, Ohio, for four months of aircraft school, then in June moved onto Akron for specialized training, learning to repair butyl rubber tires for four-engine planes.

In June, he was sent to Hills Field Utah to join the 100 Bomber Group. “In August I boarded the train to go to the East Coast to board a ship to go to England. I went through Rochester, Indiana (which is now near his farm).”
After the train ride came a long sea voyage. “I boarded the ship on August 14 and arrived at Liverpool, England, on the 29th. We went to England on a luxury liner that the government took over. They said you could have a bed every other night, but we never got one.”

Lavon eventually ended up at the Royal Air Force’s Eye Airfield and put his education into action. “I was in England in 1943; I was 21. I was over in England for two-and-a-half years” and repaired B-17s, he explained.

The Bomber Group worked on planes damaged during battles. Some repairs were made in a hanger the government owned: “There were 24 B-17 planes to a unit, with four units, so that meant there were 96 or more B-17 planes with each group. We had planes to work on during the daytime, but when they were coming in damaged, you would be surprised what we did to patch the holes.”
Working with 4x4 and 4x8 aluminum metal skin, “We had rivets, bolts and bigger things,” he laughed, and added, “it actually looked like a plane when we were done.”

Besides working at the hanger, sometimes the Bomber Group had to go out to the damaged planes. “We often had detached service. We patched the repairs on a lot of planes,” he recalled.

“On March 4, 1944, we had a big run close to Germany. They came back around 4 p.m. and not all of them made it back. Some of the planes had dead people in them. They were running out of gas and were instructed to go another round, but they couldn’t. They had no gas.”

The planes landed despite instructions, because they were out of fuel and time. “One plane was stuck in the mud, and two ran into each other,” Lavon said sadly, clearly striving to hold back emotions at this memory. “It was snowy on the ground; I don’t know the history of these planes.”

Since he was not a pilot, he didn’t get many chances to go up in the planes, but toward the end of the war he said, “I got on a B-17 and went almost to Berlin. Germany was about done. There was not too much chance of getting hit; guys wanted more hours recorded on their planes.”

Returning from England, he went home on an aircraft carrier. “The trip by ocean took 10 days,” Lavon said. “They sent me to central Indiana, (Camp) Atterbury, to be discharged. My dad came to cart me home.”

While Lavon was gone, Eloise had attended and graduated from the International College in the Private Secretary Department, landing a job at the Art Iron & Wire Co. On his return, Lavon presented her with a wedding ring.
“Dad got the ring in England,” his daughter-in-law, Julie, shared.
“I carried it in my money belt, and now we have been married 65 years,” Lavon added.

Discharged on Feb. 2, 1946, he married Eloise May 25 that year. The couple have three sons and today, Lavon is retired from farming and enjoys collecting antique tractors and sharing his stories with his family.

Readers with questions or comments for Cindy Ladage may write to her in care of this publication.