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The phantom renegade: 90-year-old vet recalls service in World War II

  • Published
  • By by Senior Airman Madelyn Brown
  • 60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  As a 17-year-old, retired Lt. Col. Bill Getz paid part of his tuition to a private military high school by working in the kitchen.

On Dec. 7, 1941, the senior was completing his kitchen police duty when the superintendent of the school informed the room that Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was under attack.

The next day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt dubbed the Pearl Harbor attack as, "a date which will live in infamy." The events on that Sunday morning impacted all Americans, and altered the fate of Getz and many of his fellow cadets in the class of 1942.

"In the hearts and minds of the cadets, at least some of the juniors and seniors, was the thought that the events that were happening would forever change their lives," Getz said. "They did."

At the age of 90, Getz recalls his later teen years.

"Once I finished flying school, I learned to fly a B-24 bomber, and was assigned a crew," he said. "I was 19."

In World War II, Getz flew combat missions with the 491st Bomb Group, 2nd Air Division, 8th Air Force, which was stationed in England. The B-24J Liberator #42-110186 served as the epicenter of the crew's life as they lived, fought and worked around the aircraft.

The ship was marked with a crew-designed coat of arms, along with a French motto intended to mean "The Spirit of Those We Love" and the name of the plane, "The Phantom Renegade" written in fractured French, Getz said.

In the first hour of June 6, 1944, Getz and his crew were unexpectedly awoken by an orderly well before any sign of dawn.

"We knew D-Day had arrived because it had been rumored for days and we had been flying missions at a frantic pace," he said. "We knew this was a big mission, but were not thinking about the historical significance. Our thoughts were on survival that day."

The Phantom Renegade's mission on D-Day was to bomb a German munitions depot at Coutances, France, a short distance from the Normandy beaches. Getz and his crew flew two missions that day, but bombs were dropped only once because bad weather obscured the target on the first mission.

"The weather was terrible," Getz said. "We were in and out of clouds. It was quite dangerous. Even though we were flying at a lower than normal altitude, we couldn't see the target and had to turn back."

Later that day, 25 aircraft from the 491st Bomb Group took to the air for a second attempt. The bleak weather had not changed much and only nine made it to the target. Getz led a lower element formation of three aircraft and, despite the austere weather conditions, successfully bombed the target.

"The second time around we did see our target, dropped our bombs, and made it back," Getz said.

On the way back, the lieutenant had the rare opportunity to look out of his B-24 windshield down at the English Channel.

"The B-24 windshield doesn't provide a wide field of vision," he said. "When I did get a chance to look down as we were flying over the English Channel there were so many ships postured on the water I had the thought that a person could walk from England to France without getting their feet wet."

Getz flew 31 B-24 missions in 62 days during his time at the 491st Bomb Group. He flew a second tour in a P-51 aircraft as a scout for the bombers and was promoted to captain before he was old enough to vote. In his 20 years of military service, he flew 21 different types of aircraft.

Today, Getz devotes part of his time to speaking with high school students about the advantages of a military career and the historical missions in which he participated. He also writes novels, and is currently working on his fifth.

Seventy years after D-Day, Getz insists that history of equal importance is happening in the military today.

"Nineteen and 20 year olds don't think about what they're doing at the time as a part of history," Getz said. "Everybody is a part of history. There are crucial events occurring as we speak that will shape the nation's future, but will be history tomorrow."