Courtesy photo Ken Robinson, front row, far right, was a turret gunner engineer aboard a B-17 during World War II. Robinson sits with fellow recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Ken Robinson flew in 30 missions over Europe before he received an honorable discharge for his service during World War II.

"I think about the war more and more now that I am getting older," said the Ventura man, who will turn 86 Friday. "It was a horrible thing, seeing all those guys lose their life. But it was something that had to be done."

Now, more than 60 years after he flew his first mission aboard a B-17, Robinson recalls his time spent in the Army Air Force.

Robinson said he remembers looking up to his uncle as a role model when he was old enough to understand his service in France during World War I.

"I don't know that it was so much about thinking of him as a hero as it was about being grateful for what he sacrificed for us," Robinson said.

The same gratefulness applies to another uncle whom Robinson never met.

"Another one of my uncles never made it home from World War I," he said. "I never got to know about either of my uncles' service in the war, because the one that survived never talked about it. But I have always been grateful."

Robinson's father worked in Santa Paula before he moved the family to Oxnard in 1930 for a job as a ranch hand on a farm. Robinson attended Oxnard High School and graduated in 1940. He immediately found a job working at Lockheed Aircraft Co. in Burbank as a master router operator.

"I remember hearing about Pearl Harbor when it was bombed," he said. "We all knew we had to get into the war at that point, and I knew I was going to be a part of it."

Robinson enlisted in the Army Air Force in September 1942 and was sent to the Las Vegas Army Field, now known as Nellis Air Force Base, for basic training and gunnery school.

From there, Robinson was sent to Atlantic City, where he was stationed and assigned duties as a gunnery instructor.

After several months of serving as an instructor, Robinson was sent to advanced aircraft mechanic school at Seymour Johnson Field in North Carolina, and then to advanced gunnery training at Fort Myers in Florida.

"We stayed in Florida to receive our crew assignments," he said. "I knew my turn to be in combat was coming soon."

In spring 1944, Robinson was assigned duties as a turret gunner engineer with a B-17 crew attached to the 8th Air Force. Eventually they were sent to England.

When Robinson and his crew reached the southern shore of England, he was assigned to more advanced training to prepare for aerial attacks over France.

"We knew a big invasion of France was coming up, but we weren't quite sure when it would happen."

On June 6, 1944, Robinson no longer had to wonder.

Early that morning, Robinson and his crew received orders to fly over the beaches of Normandy and drop bombs just inland of the beaches.

"I will never forget what the (English) Channel looked like that morning," he said. "It was just alive with boats, and from the air it seemed like you could walk across the entire channel just by stepping on the boats."

After they hit their targets, Robinson and his crew were sent back to England just as Allied troops made their way to shore.

Five days later, Robinson's crew was on its next mission over France.

"Our plane was hit on that mission, and we lost two of our engines and our supercharger," he said. "We were the lead plane, and my pilot was not about to let us go down without fighting. We had to lower our altitude to just 10,000 feet, but we were able to make it to the landing field in Cherbourg without losing the plane."

But they did lose their navigator, who was killed when their B-17 was initially hit.

"Those kinds of losses always stay with you," he said. "We were a team, and it is never easy to lose a member of that team."

For the next six months, Robinson and his crew flew mission after mission over France, Germany and Belgium. In December 1944, Robinson returned to the United States and was sent back to gunnery school in Texas, this time aboard a B-29.

"They eventually sent me back to Las Vegas to become an aircraft mechanic until the war ended," he said. "I worked on different planes, making sure they were functioning properly for training missions here at home."

When he returned from Europe, Robinson received the Distinguished Flying Cross for completing his 30 assigned missions. He was discharged from the Army Air Force in October 1945 and returned to his family in California.

Robinson worked on a farm in Montecito with his father until 1954, when he was hired as a school bus driver.

He retired in 1982 after 28 years of service.

"The war is something I will never forget, and at the time it was sometimes very hard to think about," he said.

"But I will always be glad to have been able to be a part of it and defend our country."

— Of War and Life is a twice-monthly column by Jannette Jauregui that tells the stories of Ventura County's veterans. Veterans who want to share their stories can contact her by e-mail at jmjaureg@callutheran.edu or by mail at Jannette Jauregui, c/o Ventura County Star editorial department, P.O. Box 6006, Camarillo, CA 93011. The information included in this report is based on the recollections of the veterans.