Page 84 - South Mississippi Living - November, 2017

GOLDEN YEARS wartime experience
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WWII VETERAN
recalls the Black March of 1945
84 SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living • November 2017 FOR MORE REFLECTIONS OF THE GULF COAST >> www.smliving.net
story by Susan Ruddiman photos courtesy of Jack Oyster and photos by Susan Ruddiman
hen Veterans Day comes around each November, Jack Oyster, 95, doesn’t dwell on his wartime experiences. Instead, he thinks of others who made great sacrifices.
“It’s one thing to get through that ordeal, get back home and have closure,” he said. “But the families who had members missing in action never had closure. That’s bad. I reflect on these men who are
missing in action since I was a prisoner of war myself.”
As a member of the Greatest Generation, Oyster was the youngest of six children born in Washington, D.C., in 1922. When he was two, his family moved to Bethesda, MD.
His mother was widowed during the Great Depression, so she went to work as the town’s postmistress. Oyster was working for a telephone company when he was drafted during World War II.
“I turned 21 the day I was inducted into the service. The sergeant said, ‘Happy Birthday,’ and I said, ‘Up Yours,’” Oyster said with a laugh. “The sergeant turned out to be a
good guy because he let me get into the Army Air Corps.” Oyster was sent to radio school at Scott Field, Ill., and
then assigned as a radio operator to the 34th Bomb Group with the 18th Bomb Squadron. His group was stationed out of Mendlesham, England, where they flew missions over France and Germany in B-24s and B-17s. Oyster was the radioman on “Mean Kid.”
“We were considered the lead crew, so we would lead either our squadron or the whole group,” Oyster said.
He had a couple of harrowing missions, but always made