Resource Type

Oral History Interview with Orland J. ""Bud"" Harris, August 22, 2000 (open access)

Oral History Interview with Orland J. ""Bud"" Harris, August 22, 2000

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Orland Harris. Harris went to Santa Anna, California for Aviation Cadet training in the Army Air Corps in 1942. He went to primary flying school in Visalia, California and then went to LaeMoore, California for more training. From there he went to replacement training units, flying the P-38, P-322 and P-39. Harris had take civilian pilot training for one year at college before he went into the service. He received his wings at Williams Field in Arizona 3 Nov 1943 and became an officer that day. He went to the South Pacific in a C-54, along wih about 30 other pilots, ending up in Nadzab, New Guinea with the 8th Fighter Group (part of the 5th Air Force). His P-38 missions included targets of opportunity around New Guinea, a cave on Corregidor and straffed ships on the way to Borneo, and the Philippines. Normally they flew cover missions for B-17s and B-24s but on occasion covered B-25s and A-20s. Harris was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) when he was flying out of Mindoro in the Philippines on a night mission (26 Dec 1944) attacking a Japanese task …
Date: August 22, 2000
Creator: Harris, Orland J.
Object Type: Text
System: The Portal to Texas History
[Letter from Agnes Langley Niernberger, April 22, 1945] (open access)

[Letter from Agnes Langley Niernberger, April 22, 1945]

Letter from Agnes Langley Niernberger to her family telling them that she misses them and explaining why she could not have written sooner. She tells them that she cannot write much about her travels but that she is eating well, getting a tan, and has not gotten sea sick. She suggests her family pass the letter along, since it is futile to write letters to several people when there is nothing to write about.
Date: April 22, 1945
Creator: Niernberger, Agnes Langley
Object Type: Letter
System: The Portal to Texas History