Enlisted in the USAF in 1958

First assignment was as an Airborne Radio Operator on C-47 and C-54 aircraft out of Keflavik Iceland. Ken received his Ham license while assigned to Keflavik.

Next assignment was to Mildenhall England where he was an airborne radio operator on WB-50 aircraft.

Then on to operating radios on C-47 aircraft flying the Berlin Corridor and Congo Airlift. Ken was a crewmember on the first American aircraft to fly over the Berlin Wall in August of 1961.

After spending 5 years overseas, Ken was assigned to fly as a radio operator on the EC-121D Radar Surveillance aircraft out of McClellan AFB in California. 1965 found Ken in Vietnam flying classified missions out of Saigon on C-47 aircraft. After Vietnam he was assigned to fly as a radio operator for the Commander-in-Chief Pacific’s Airborne Command Post and was upgraded to a Communications Team Chief working for Admiral Dudley Sharp, CINCPAC.

Back to South East Asia in 1970, Ken flew on the EC-121 Seventh Air Force Airborne Command Post. Ken left that assignment with 1300 combat hours and 100 combat missions over Laos. He was then assigned to Tactical Air Command in various staff positions. In 1977 he was selected for duty with the Special Missions Airlift Wing in Washington DC. He was now a Senior Master Sergeant supervising communications of VC-135B aircraft.

BIO FOR WALTER V. LAWRENCE, WA0FVX JAN. 2010

I was born in Kemah TX. A small town on Galveston Bay, half way between Houston and Galveston TX. Graduated from High School in 1941, just 7 months before Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese. Many of my Friends were being inducted in to the Army and others were joining. I had the opportunity to join the NYA, which was a Natl. Youth Org. with the idea of “On the job training” and was sent to Corpus Christi TX., to the Naval Air Station to learn Aircraft engine and fuselage maintenance and repair. Our room and board was part of the plan plus  $8.00 a month.. After working as a student for about 2 months I was hired by the Civil Service and on Sept. 26, 1942 I joined the US. AAF, and continued my training at Ellington Field, Tex., and Keesler Field MS. When I was sent to Gunnery School at Harlingen, TX., I realized that my mechanic days were probably over, and it was not long before I was placed on a crew as Asst. Engineer Gunner on a B-24, 4 engine bomber. We flew overseas from Topeka, Ks. To Fl. in Feb. 1944. Then down the coast of So America and across the Atlantic to Dakar Africa up to Merakesch Africa then landed in England.        

By April of 1944 our crew was assigned to the 44^th Bomb Group in the 8^th AAF, as replacements for those who were lost in action. We flew missions over occupied France & Germany bombing targets as designated by the 8^th Air Force. I was on my 21^st mission and two B-24 bombers from our squadron were hit by anti aircraft fire (often called Flak) and both exploded at 21,000 ft. altitude, that’s almost 4 miles high. 3 men got out of our B-24 and 6 out of the other one. Normally we had a 10 men crew, we were 1 man short that day. It took quite a while to get to the ground by parachute and naturally when we arrived the land watch people were waiting for us. We landed in a sugar beet field just next to a wheat field. And were captured immediately. I was transported by box car to Dulag Luft, near Frankfurt and after several days of interrogation was finally placed in a hospital at Holemark, then to Obermassfeldt and eventually was placed in a prisoner of war camp in Poland Stalag Luft 4 on the Baltic sea and was a prisoner for 10 months. Was placed on forced march on Feb. 6, 1945 and was on that march for 52 days arriving in Fallingbostel Germany, at Stalag 357. Was liberated on April 16, 1945 before the wars end by an English armored Division. Was flown back to England on the 21^st and in the hospital at Oxford England for a while and released in time to be in London for VE. Day on May 8^th of 1945, I arrived in New York harbor by boat on my 21^st birthday. And was discharged on Oct 23, 1945. I served approx. 3 years & 1 mo. But when we enlisted it was for the duration however long that may have been.   

 You may be interested in the fact the most commodities during the war were rationed, including gasoline and most food items. Also 1 out of every ten persons in America were in uniform during wwii. That is quite a number of people, the rest were involved in the home front making the instruments of war, ships, of all kinds, airplanes guns, you name it, it took a real willingness to work together to do what we felt had to be done. Many years after the war, I saw an article in a magazine about a German boy in High School whose job it was to be the eyes and ears of a gun crew at Magdeburg ,Germany. Our mission that day to Magdeburg was the Krupp Aircraft factory. During an air raid, he was called out of school and ran to the Anti Aircraft guns to give the old soldiers WWI men operating the guns the information about how to aim their guns. He was 16 years old at the time. He mentioned the fact that he saw these two planes get shot down that day. So I wrote to the editor asking if he could forward a letter to the man, as I was in one of those bombers and survived. I received a letter back from him, listing all the times he had gone to the anti aircraft gun position and had researched where the bombers were coming from etc. I still have that letter and he said it well, “He congratulated me on being alive after the tragic event, but made this statement. “Let’s you and I do all we can to see that this never happens again”. That would be my advice also!