By the grace of God

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Greg Steele
  • 93rd Bomb Squadron
Barksdale AFB La. --  You've probably seen him around base, but never took notice, unless he became an obstacle standing between you and your destination. He might seem unaware of his surroundings, but only because he's focused on each step, which is short, unsteady, and at 91, he's not the image of grace and vitality. This wasn't the case in 1941.

For the sacrifices Claude McCrocklin made for his country, the 11th Bomb Squadron at Barksdale Air Force Base, La., dedicated a conference room in his honor. During the ceremony, the commander, Lt. Col. Heath Wharton, told all in attendance Claude's story. As we watched a video of World War II Airmen climbing into their B-24 bombers and taking to the sky, tears began to run down Claude's cheeks; the same was happening to many of us in the crowd.

"It's only by the grace of God that I made it out of that plane," he said. "It's only by the grace of God that I'm still here." Born in January 1921, McCrocklin grew up during rough times in Fouke, Ark., a life hardened by the Great Depression, but instilled with a set of moral values consisting of God, honor, and country. In 1941, Claude was able to attend Centenary College in Shreveport, La., on a football scholarship, but like so many of his generation, the events on December 7, 1941, would change his life forever.

After hearing the news that his cousin had been killed on the U.S.S. Arizona during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Claude tried to enlist into the Army Air Corps as a pilot, but at 190 pounds, he was 10 pounds over the limit to fly.

"So I went home and all I ate was bananas," said McCrocklin. "A week later I tried to enlist again and this time I made it." In 1942, Claude was sent to Pre-Flight school in California, with the hopes of becoming a pilot. When the classifications were handed out, he was selected to be a bombardier, and he was not happy about it.

"I told them I didn't want to be a bombardier, but they said there were plenty of pilots," said McCrocklin. "They said you're either going to be a bombardier or a private in the Army, so I became a bombardier." The Army Air Corps needed the best and the brightest to operate new highly accurate, highly classified bombing equipment. Claude was then sent to Advanced Bombardier School where he would learn to use one of the most Top Secret and most sought after technologies of the war--the Norden Bombsight. The Germans had the bombsight because they had taken them from some of our aircraft that had been shot down, but they didn't know how it worked.

"All bombardiers had to take an oath to destroy the bombsight before it could fall into enemy hands, or die before giving away the secrets to its codes," he said. Claude had no idea that someday his belief in that oath would be tested.

Commissioned as a Flight Officer in the Army Air Corps, 1st Lt. Claude McCrocklin was assigned to a B-24 Liberator bomber crew of the 744th Squadron in Cerignola, Italy. He was involved in some of the most historic bombing missions in the skies of Europe, over Italy, Austria, and Germany. On April 2, 1944, a day he wasn't scheduled to fly, he was told at the last minute that a bombardier was needed for a mission. He scrambled as fast as he could, grabbed his gear, was driven out to the flight line and climbed up into the aircraft. It was then that he noticed he'd forgotten something. There were thirteen souls aboard his B-24 that day prior to takeoff, and only twelve parachutes.

"I told the pilot I didn't have a chute and he asked me what I wanted to do. I knew we couldn't abort the mission, so I told him let's go," said McCrocklin. Some may call it luck, but Claude believes that just before takeoff, God intervened. "A guy on the ground pulled up in a jeep and stuck his head up the hatch. He said he had an extra parachute and asked if we wanted it," said McCrocklin. "I told him yes, so he handed it up to me and off we went."

The mission that day was to destroy a ball bearing factory in Steyr, Austria, which was synchronized with other 8th Air Force bombers who were hitting Berlin, Germany. During the mission, Claude's B-24 was attacked by six German Me-109 aircraft, causing catastrophic damage. As the burning aircraft plunged to earth, Claude struggled to make his way to an open hatch, finally reaching one and bailed out.

"When I was falling, I thought more clearly than I ever had in my life," said McCrocklin. "I had no sensation that I was falling, but I could see the ground rushing up to me." He struggled to deploy his chute. When he finally did, the parachute malfunctioned and was not fully inflated. He was still falling too fast. Again, God intervened as his parachute caught the top of a tall tree, bending it over and slowly dropping him into a snow bank.

Alive and uninjured, he was captured by a group of local villagers who beat him with sticks and dragged him away to be hung, but before this could happen, a patrol of German soldiers arrived and took him from the villagers, essentially saving his life by recapturing him. Now a prisoner, he was eventually taken to the Luftwaffe Camp Stalag Luft 1 at Barth, Germany, where he spent the remainder of the war as prisoner number 4211. "The Germans knew I was a bombardier and wanted to know how to work the bombsight," said McCrocklin. "They said if I told them they would release me. They even offered me a chance to fly with them and said I could kill Russians, but I said no, and no matter what they did to me, I never told them how it worked."

The prison camp was designed to hold 2,500 prisoners, but when Claude arrived, there were 10,000 British and American airmen imprisoned there. He occupied his time by planting a garden and drawing sketches of the camp and countryside to aide in escape attempts.

On April 30, 1945, the Russian army liberated the camp, and eventually, B-17s from England were sent to pick up the Allied prisoners of war. Claude was honorably discharged in September 1945 and was finally able to go home.

"People ask me when I fought in World War II," said McCrocklin, "I tell them, last night." War, and the brutality of it, is something Claude has struggled with since the day he was liberated. He dreams of his time in the prison camp, and often in his sleep, he struggles to get out of a burning B-24, fighting his way to an open hatch, finally bailing out and waking to find himself on the floor.

"When you first go to war, you're excited, ready for the fight, ready to do the job you were trained to do," said McCrocklin. "But over time, you start thinking about what it is you're doing, especially when you look through your bombsight and see the faces of the people you're about to hit." He still sees those faces in his dreams.

When asked about Mr. McCrocklin, Wharton commented, "His life has been filled with more action and adventure than any Hollywood movie could ever capture. We are incredibly blessed to share in the remarkable story of his trials in World War II and his life as an airman. He is an inspiration to us all and is a shining example of faith, patriotism, service, and sacrifice."

At 91, all of Claude's friends have passed, and he's the last remaining member of his squadron. "It's lonely when you get old. People see me as just some old man, hardly able to get around, and I don't consider myself a hero," said McCrocklin, "but when I come to base, I know I'm somebody, and I know I'll always have family and friends here."