William G. Stanley was with the Army Air Corps and stationed in Grottaglie, Italy in 1944.

His son, Randy Stanley, a Vietnam Veteran has a list of his missions and an abbreviated account of his father’s wartime experiences. William was a bombardier in a B-24 during WWII. He’s still alive and at the age of 93 and has finally been able to talk about it. William was a bombardier with the 449th Bomb Group in the 719th squadron and flew 7 missions to Ploesti during WWII.

When his son, Randy was about thirteen, he found his father’s war diary. He read it and wondered why his dad never mentioned it. William has had nightmares for over sixty, seventy years. Randy recalls that there were times his mother would be awakened with his dad’s hands wrapped around her throat thinking she was a German. There was one mission that William recalled and on that trip there was a wingman with a group of guys that he had trained with. The entire group of men was taken out by fire. To this day, William has asked why it wasn’t him instead.

This MUST WATCH video interview youtu.be/cPjwoBi4lvU was part of a program called the Voices of Freedom and was broadcast on Memorial Day in 2012. It will bring tears to your eyes, but at the end makes you smile!

Stories are collected by Jenny La Sala www.JennyLasala.com