Morgan Molloy was in the US Army Air Force as part of the 41st Bombardment Group which had seven squadrons armed with B-25 Mitchell medium bombers. Morgan belonged to the 820th Bombardment squadron where he was a tail gunner in a 6-man crew; a pilot, co-pilot, navigator, radio gunner, waist gunner and tail gunner.

 

After bombing, strafing and island hopping in the Gilberts, the 41st returned to Hawaii for training. On 7 June 1945, the Group took a position on Okinawa at Yontan Airfield near Kadena.

 

“We landed in Kadena which is one of the air strips and from there we flew to other strips,” said Molloy. “We bombed from different air strips - southern Japan and China both. We had gone to China for a couple of missions, but mostly our missions were into southern Japan because that’s where the invasion was supposed to have been in a couple of months. They didn’t tell us what the missions were. We just bombed ammunition dumps, rail yards and encampments and that’s about it.”

 

When asked to relate his experience as a tail gunner, Molloy said, “Well I can’t describe it then, because they told you what you were going to do, but I can describe it now. I wouldn’t want to be one. When I joined the crew anyway, they just said you’re the tail gunner because you’re an armor gun. That’s what you trained for and that’s what you are going to do. And you didn’t kick and of course, I wanted to fly anyway. I didn’t want to walk.”

 

“When you completed your mission and got back, you had interrogation,” continued Molloy. They asked you what you saw, what happened on the mission, were the bombs dropped in the right location. When you got back to the base, you’d chit chat a little bit with the people you were living with in the tents. That’s about all. You didn’t get drunk, but they did give you a shot of liquor when you got back. It wasn’t Bourbon.”

 

Two vivid memories for Molloy were going home and dropping bombs. “I don’t think too much went through our minds at the time,” said Molloy. “Just hoping we could get through the mission and get back. Afterwards, we were glad to get back in one piece. If they told you to go, you went. If you were patriotic enough, you went.”

 

When fighting on Okinawa subsided, the Group struck targets outside the Ryukyu Islands, including Chiran Airfield in Kyushu which was a base for special Kamikaze training. They stayed on after the Battle of Okinawa at Machinato Airfield and from there they saw the mushroom clouds from Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

 

“We didn’t know what it was, had no idea. We had never seen anything like it before,” said Molloy. “Someone took a picture of it. We didn’t really know what it was until we got back.”

 

In talking to Molloy about his time as a tail gunner with the 820th Bombardment Squadron, it was evident that some of the memories were painful.

 

“Sometimes I like to forget it to tell you the truth. My wife encouraged me to spread more about it. She was a teacher and thought that World War II was so important because there were so many countries involved and there isn’t too much being taught in high school, colleges or elementary schools about the war. But I don’t know. I just want to forget. It was three years out of my life. Even though I was patriotic enough to go, I want to forget it, really.”

 

But in the end, Molloy says, “I made it.”