Mount Ayr Record-News
Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa
Thursday, November 26, 2015, Page 10

SSgt Calvin Adams was born and raised in the Hatfield, Missouri Area. He enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps in 1943 at Bethany, MO.

Calvin went to basic training in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and Radio School in Sioux Falls, SD and St. Louis, MO. Calvin first trained on the B17 Bomber, then was transitioned to the B29. He was then shipped to Tinian Island in the Marianas where they were tasked to drop bombs on the well protected Japanese mainland.

Calvin stated that the fighters could not escort them to and from the mainland while they were bombing from Tinian. The Japanese fighters had their way with the bombers when they lost their American fighter escorts and, thus, produced numerous American airmen and aircraft losses.

Once Iwo Jima fell and the bombers could be launched from there then the fighters could stay with the bombers round trip and things got a little better.

SSgt Adams stayed in the South Pacific after the war and flew POW supply missions into Japan until his discharge in October of 1945.

Calvin returned to the local area where he worked as an automobile salesman for Andy Johnson and Glendenning Motors. Calvin currently resides in Mount Ayr, IA.

  Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, December of 2015