Dr. Nelson ("N.C") Boudreaux, Jason Theriot, Hewitt Theriot:

-Boudreaux was in school at SLI (Southwestern Louisiana Institute-now ULL) and on the weekends would go back home to court his now wife
-Hitchhiking back to Lafayette a Sunday night, they heard on the radio about the attack on Pearl Harbor
-All that night he and his cousin stayed up to listen to the radio and both decided that night they were going to join the war
-The next day they went to the Air Corps to sign up to be pilots
-Boudreaux was 19 at the time so he needed his parents’ permission first (of age was 21)
-Took him 2 weeks to convince his parents while his cousin (who was 21) had already left for Alabama
-By the time Boudreaux did get permission the Air Corps was closed for cadet training so he signed up for the Air Force and was put on the waiting list
-Failed the physical test as he was put down as colorblind but in reality he was not completely colorblind so they failed him

-Talking about a photo of his cousins that were in the war (8:30)

Enlisted into the service after failing his test (10:37)
-Went to Kessler Air Force base and for a few weeks took tests; ended up in radio school
-Sent him to a radio-gunner school in Scott Field, Bellville, Illinois
-Trained as a radio mechanic operator and in Morse code

-Once finished, was sent on to gunnery school in Harlingen, Texas
-Spent a lot of time on the range shooting skeets and training to shoot in AT-6s
-Boudreaux was made an instructor as he could take apart a .30 cal and .50 cal machine guns blindfolded; 7-8 months there just teaching
-Went and studied while there to take the colorblind test again and passed it (late 1942)

Wanted to be a flyer (18:30)
-Everyone wanted to be a flyer, even after a year of the war starting
-After finally passing the physical Boudreaux was still put on a waiting list
-Once in the system he was sent to the Black Hills of South Dakota and stayed there for a month in classes
-Was put into a cadet program and sent to Santa Anna, California; nothing but basic training and classroom work

-Cadet training was split into 4 sections:
1. primary flight training (Visalia, California)
2. basic training for larger airplanes (Bakersfield, California)
3. advanced training for specialized airplanes
4. Boudreaux chose P-38s and lastly went to twin-engine training school (since he picked a P-38)
-Went to Marfa, Texas to fly the twin-engine planes

-Around 1944 was sent to Marlin, Missouri to the C-47s in a troop carrier training outfit
-There was a large number of pilots there
-The Army figured that they would lose a lot of troop carrier pilots in the invasion so they were to be replacements

-Then sent out to Fort Wayne, Indiana for a month doing nothing before being shipped out

Left from New York City from a convoy (36:50)
-Was put in the infantry; assigned to the ship "HMS Brittany" belonging to a British fleet
-Went up to the North Sea to avoid submarines and spent 2 weeks traveling

Reached England in December 1944 (41:30)
-Assigned to an outfit in Redington at an air force outside of London
-Came into the barracks around midnight and an officer asked if any of them wanted to go on a mission with them that morning; they all volunteered
-The mission was dropping supplies to the soldiers at the Battle of the Bulge

-Assigned to as a co-pilot to a major who was a squad leader; thousands of planes were reviving up around them
-In formation headed towards France and Belgium; could see the American tanks moving into battle; the next day they broke though
-They came in low and fast as that was their only protection as they did not come in with a convoy; 500 feet
-Once they dropped the supplies they turned back around

Towards the end of the war (55:04)
-When flying out supplies, on the way back they would bring back wounded soldiers or German prisoners
-When fighting on the Rhine River pushing the Germans back, they would drop paratroopers and gliders into enemy lines
-Involved with the 101st and 82nd Airborne divisions; thinks he dropped some of the 82nd
-After they dropped they went back to England; flew for 2 hours and saw nothing but formations of planes with gliders going in behind them

When the war ended (1:00:28)
-Boudreaux was in Paris on R&R when he saw the headlines in the newspapers of Roosevelt's death
-After the war he flew troops to the Riviera for R&R
-Stayed there for a while, maybe about a month after that they started sending men home (his cousin that he initially signed up with was shot down and killed, was in the 42nd)
-By the end of the war flying planes became more of a chore and lost its excitement

-On the way home from France stopped off at in Paris and by a truck to an airport to Ireland then over to Iceland
-Eventually reached the states and rode cattle cars in troop trains home
-Was home by V-J Day

Letters from home (1:10:10)
-His mother wrote him and his wife
-Mail lagged behind and one point in England after 2 months his mail caught up with him
-Did not open them in order; never got the letter of his brother's death
-His brother (Marlin Boudreaux) in Patton's army was killed at the Maginot Line in France; saw his grave before he left for the states

Talking about why most veterans don't talk and how important it is that they do (1:13:40)

Transcription:

Dr. Nelson C. Boudreaux
Born: April 9, 1923
C-47 Pilot
ETO

I was at SLI (Southwestern Louisiana Institute) before the war. I’d come in on weekends to court my wife. I had come in one weekend, and I had lunch with the family on Sunday. I was hitchhiking back to Lafayette. In those days, people traveled by hitchhiking. So on December 7, 1941, I was in the car hitchhiking back to Lafayette, and on the radio they were saying that we had been attacked at Pearl Harbor.

When I got back to Lafayette, me and my cousin sat up all night listening to the radio. We were upset about what happened and so my cousin and I decided that night that we would join the service. In those days patriotism was there.

The next day we went to see about joining up. The response was overwhelming. Everybody wanted to join. We went to the Air Corps recruit station because we wanted to fly. A few days later, I resigned from school to join the service. It took me two weeks to convince my family that I was going. My momma really didn’t want me to go. I was 19 at the time.

I enlisted at Kessler Air Force base. I spent a few weeks there taking test. They put me in radio school and sent me to radio-gunner school in Scott Field, Bellville, Illinois. I was training as a radio mechanic operator and I learned the Morse code.

When I finished there, I went to gunnery school in Harlingen, Texas. We spent a lot of time on the range with machine guns. We were shooting skeet. We went up in AT-6’s, which was an advanced training aircraft. I could take apart a .30 cal and a .50 cal. machine gun blindfolded. So they made me an instructor.

There wasn’t a whole lot to do down there, but it was a good little service town. I made friends with a fellow named Tex and we’d go into town once a week to get a steak and supper. I stayed there almost a year.

But I wanted to fly. So I took the physical and I had to wait to get into their training system. Finally, they sent me to the black hills of South Dakota. That was the thickest snow that I had ever seen. I stayed there a month when they called me up to go into their cadet program. From there I went to Santa Anna, California for basic cadet training: drills, marching, classroom work.

From there I went primary flight training in Visalia, California. I went to a little civilian flight school and trained in a little two-seater, open cockpit, single prop-job. I flew about seven hours with an instructor before my first solo. From there I went for more training in Bakersfield, California. Then I went to advance training, where they let us choose what type of aircraft we wanted to fly. I chose the twin-engine P-38. So they sent me to twin-engine training school.

So I went to Marfa, Texas. And that is where I learned to fly the twin-engine plane. We did some night flying, some cross country flying, some formation flying, and a little instrument flying.

In early 1944 they sent me to Marlin, Missouri to a troop carrier training outfit. We were flying the C-47’s. That was the best plane ever built. The Army figured that they would loose a lot of troop carrier pilots during the invasion, and they were going to need replacements. That is why I was sent into the troop carrier.

Were weren’t too far from St. Louis, but Bellville, Illinois was one of the best towns; they people were really good to the servicemen. We’d go into town and on the bulletin board in the USO center was full of names of people who invited you to go to their house for the weekend. There was BBQ’s and parties; they would really open the doors for us.

I made friends with these two fellows. We called ourselves the three musketeers. We were sent to Fort Wayne, Indiana for a month before being shipped to the port of embarkation.

I didn’t have a full presence of mind about the hostilities that we would be facing overseas. I had such an easy time during training that I really didn’t appreciate what was going on.

We left from New York City on a ship, the HMS Brittany. It was one of the largest ships in the British fleet. We were tagging along with the infantry. We were all 2nd lieutenants. We went up through the northern Atlantic to avoid the submarines. We spent over two weeks going across.

We landed in England in December 1944. I was assigned to an outfit in Redington. There was an air force base there, about 50 miles outside of London. We were living in these Quonset huts.

The next day we flew our first mission to drop supplies to the soldiers fighting at the Battle of the Bulge near Bastogne. I was assigned to fly co-pilot for this major who was the squad leader. I didn’t know what to expect. There were literally hundreds, maybe thousands of planes reviving up the engines. We had to get up quick. As soon as we left the ground, there was another plane right behind us. We almost took off in formation. (What squadron/air force group did you fly with?)

We headed out towards France and Belgium. On the way there, we could see snow on the ground, and American tanks moving toward the battle. We came in low and fast, about 500 feet. Each container in the plane had a different color parachute: ammunition was blue, k-rations was yellow. The Germans were shooting at us with 20mm and .50 cal AAA. When we got back to England, I noticed bullet holes in the plane. That was my first experience in combat.

The C-47 was the best plane we had in the war. And the pilots who flew them were the best. They could fly that plane just like a piper cub. I didn’t spend a whole lot of time flying. I spent most of our time in trucks, hauling supplies.

When we did fly in supplies, we would come back with wounded Americans or German prisoners. Toward the end of the war, we were flying every other day out of an airfield in Reimes, France. We had finally pushed the Germans back to the Rhine River. This was the final battle line that the Germans were going to defend. There was a railroad bridge over Remagen that the Germans were supposed to blow up, but they didn’t. Our forces were trying to cross that bridge when we came in and dropped paratroopers and gliders. My squadron flew in first—we were three abreast—and we dropped paratroopers right over the area. There were 30 troopers in each plane. I didn’t know any of them. In fact, we didn’t see any of them until right before we took off. After dropping off the troopers, we turned right to head back home. I saw planes coming in, two abreast, for two solid hours. They were all carrying gliders.

When the war ended, our job was to fly troops to the Riviera for R&R. A month later we were shipped back to the States. Before I left from France, I visited my brother’s gravesite. He was killed in the line of duty trying to take the Maginot Line in France.
(Sgt. Marlin Boudreaux, KIA on Nov. 27, 1944 in Germany) My job was easy compared to the men on the ground. I thank the good Lord that I had an easy job to do…but some of them didn’t, like my brother. But we had a job to do and we did it.

I never talk much about it; I never told me my kids much about. It is a shame, because it really is a story that should be told. It was part of our lives. I’m reminded by my dad who was a patriot par excillant—a patriot. He used to make us stand when the National Anthem was played at home on the radio. I guess that is why I decided to go to the service when the Japs attacked Pearl Harbor. And after the war, I guess that I just wanted to put it all behind me.