Steele, Elbert B-17 Pilot
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- Опубликовано: 7 апр 2020
- Steele volunteered to join the Army Air Corps during his first year of college. Steele was sent to Camp Kearns for basic training. Steele would find himself back in college, being sent to the Utah State Agricultural College as part of a college training detachment. Steele was sent to Santa Ana, California for classification testing and was given the chance to become a pilot. His pilot training was conducted at Cal-Aero Academy in Ontario, California, going through the three steps in pilot training: primary, basic, and advanced. After completing his training, Steele was sent to Hobbs, New Mexico to be assigned a crew. Steele became the pilot for crew #34, 569th squadron. After completing their phase training in Tennessee, the crew were sent to Boston to board the SS Ile de France and sailed to England. The crew left the States in December of 1944 and were assigned to the 390th Bomb Group in Framlingham, England. Steele had his first combat mission in February of 1945. Steele would go on to fly 21 combat missions, plus two missions for Operation Chowhound, which was a food drop to feed the starving Dutch people.
Elbert Steele is my great grandfather. After the war, he became an engineer in the aerospace industry, he contributed to the design of the engines for the B-52 bomber, which is still in use by the U.S. military today. He was always most proud of the food drop missions that he flew.
I can still remember being in his house when I was a kid. I've since graduated myself from that same university that he attended so many years ago with my own degree in aerospace engineering, proud to follow in his footsteps.
I found this video by searching for information about him, and it's priceless to me. Thank you so much for preserving this.
My grandpa died in 2010. He was a great man and I'm proud that he's my great grandpa.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts about your grandfather. My impression of him from the interview was that he was a very kind man.
@@raymondmcfalone26 Thanks for all your hard work creating these wonderful and irreplaceable videos. This is Mark Steele, Elbert's youngest son. Max, thanks for linking to this on FamilySearch.
Thank you for sharing this, I found it on my family history. It is wonderful to hear my great great grandfather speak again. To hear his history and feel his emotions!
You're welcome. Elbert was a wonderful guy to interview with an amazing story, especially about the food drops.
God Bless You Elbert. Thank You.
The sparkle in his eyes from the 50 year reunion, Holland gave him much pride!!
Thank you for unwavering service for Country.
That’s amazing… I lived in Leiden for a year and the people of Leiden and The Netherlands are great people!
Flying into Flak and 20mm Messerschitt cannon fire takes bravery. The ME-262 jets were so fast they couldn't hardly see them, much less shoot at them. Thank you for your service.
God Bless you sir and thank you for your service.
Thank you Sir, God bless you ALL 🙏
You were such a cute little kid , Elbert. To think you grew up to fy those planes you were drawing in school.
My goodness what a national treasure
You do such a great job with these interviews.
It is so sad to have grown up around these heroes and there are so few of them still with us. I miss them so much.
A tremendous thank you for you and everyone who do these interviews.
Glad you enjoyed it! And thanks for watching.
Bravo ! A hero !
The Dyersburg base is actually about 6 miles away at Halls. Some of the buildings are still there and the concrete strips. They have an airshow there every year usually with a B 17 as one of the featured planes.
Randolf is and was in San Antonio, Texas
Watching these veteran's videos, I'm starting to wonder whether the Depression was overblown... no one seems to have gone through any particularly hard times, unless they are lying
Well they weren't whingers. If you weren't there you don't know.
Watch more of them.
@@brachio1000 I watch one a night. I think I'm addicted -- they're great stories, although some are better storytellers than others
@@redtobertshateshandles what are whingers? I dispute the fact that humans can't appreciate things unless they actually experienced them. Lots of people say that, but its illogical and counter-factual
@@redtobertshateshandles but I will admit its an easy way to end any argument, that's why so many use it
It sounds like he has a bit of Parkinson's. His speech reminds me of Muhammad Ali's at the latter stages of his ability to talk
Hope you live as long as him. Plenty don't.
He was 80 when this interview was made. No Parkinson's, but plenty of aging going on.
Put the playback speed at 1.25.