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Louis Breitenbach

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The camp had several barriers, mostly different configurations of barbed wire, but the inner barrier was a simple small wooden rail. If you crossed that, you got one yell and then it was machine gun fire. Louis Breitenbach describes the routine of the prisoners and the stern old Commandant, a strict military man. (4:42)

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They were always hungry. Former Prisoner of War Louis Breitenbach details the food situation in the German camp for downed flyers. There were ingenious desserts made from Red Cross parcel items, but the dinners served by their captors were much less appetizing. Since he did not smoke, the cigarettes from his share of the parcels gave him plenty of the local currency. (7:20)

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Sixty bombers were shot down that day, with ten men apiece on board. Louis Breitenbach was in one of those planes, the last in the formation with leaflets in the bomb bay instead of ordnance. He describes how they used aluminum chaff to throw off the German radar and how a captured P-51 paced their B-17. (4:28)

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How does a Prisoner of War occupy his time? Louis Breitenbach did a lot of wood carving, mostly of kitchen implements. There was occasional baseball or football and many men wrote on paper made from cigarette packs. In winter, the main activity was trying to keep warm with their tiny ration of ersatz coal. (4:14)

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There was Russian artillery fire getting closer when the German guards disappeared in the middle of the night. The freed Americans had to convince the Russians not to knock over their barracks and they had to scramble to find black armbands to satisfy their liberators. Soon, they were on their way, but before they could board flights to Camp Lucky Strike, they had to take care of an itchy problem. (5:21)

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Freed Prisoner of War Louis Breitenbach enjoyed some R&R in the bars of Miami Beach when he got home, but the stress of his experience finally caught up with him. Fifty years after VE Day, he looks back on those times and then ahead to the future. (3:49)

Louis Gonzalez

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Louis Gonzalez was born in the Philippines and moved to San Francisco when he was only thirteen. Before that his brother had joined the Navy when he was eighteen, so it was always in the back of his mind to follow in his brother's military footsteps. He joined the US Air Force on the buddy system with his friend Dave Rogers. After he underwent his basic training and flight training, he was ready to assist in the Vietnam War. He ended up leaving for Vietnam on December 20, 1970. (4:05)

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Gonzalez got his basic training at Lackland Air Force Base and his aircraft mechanic training was at Sheppard Air Force Base. It was around this time he married his high school sweetheart, and was at the time stationed in Tucson, Arizona. When he flew to Vietnam, he was stationed at Tan Son Nhut Air Base. While in Vietnam, he remembers that there was always a lingering problem with drug use. He tells about the first times he saw other kids smoking cigarettes laced with heroin. (7:16)

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While in Tan Son Nhut, Gonzalez had a myriad of memorable experiences which he talks about, as well as volunteering to go to Bien Hoa. While there, he had his first close call in the form of an enemy rocket attack. He was so close to the blast radius that he kept a shrapnel souvenir to always remind him of how close he came to losing his life. (5:51)

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Gonzalez talks about his specific job constructing, repairing and using aircraft and how he would get them in the best shape possible before the pilots would use them to fly. While over there, he found it increasingly difficult to help his peers cope with ongoing problems with drug use and alcoholism. (8:19)