Primo Gentili

U.S. Army 1941–1945

With pressure from his father, Primo Gentili found it difficult to find a job after the Depression. For this reason, he made the decision to join the Army Air Corps in 1941. While training at Hunter Field in Savannah, Ga., he and his unit heard of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Going on alert, they were given firearms that they weren’t trained to fire, with the chance that the Japanese might also bomb the mainland. Primo recalls his duties as an airplane and engine mechanic with the 47th Service Squadron and the 479th Service Squadron in Australia and New Guinea. Counting the number of planes that went out and returned, he mentions the many planes that were lost as well as the crippled planes that landed and the close calls when a plane had to crash land.

View in catalog