SPANISH FORT, Ala.— Veterans Day was Tuesday, a day to remember those who fought for our country.

Westminster Village, Spanish Fort’s retirement community, is home to several residents who fought for the United States during World War II.

For many there, the holiday hits closer to home.

Russ Bartlett, a retired U.S. Air Force cadet, and Maurice Picheloup, a retired first lieutenant in the  U.S. Air Force, both served in World War II; but the two didn’t know each other until they met at Westminster.

Death brushes

Bartlett, a Waterbury, Conn., native, served in the Army Air Corps  before its name changed to the Air Force a few years later. A volunteer, he was commissioned in June 1943 and traveled to China, Burma and India during his stint in the forces, until the war was over.

“Everybody was doing their part to fight for our country and I wanted to do my part,” he said, referring to the war that began after Germany lost WWI, was forced to surrender land and could no longer have armed forces. Adolf Hitler—who was voted into the political party in 1933—had promised to make Germany a great place again, before attempting seizure of land from other countries. German forces then raided the Polish frontier with troops and tanks on the ground Sept. 1, 1939, according to the Naval Historic Center’s official Web site.

On Sept. 3, 1939, WWII began in Europe when Neville Chamberlain, prime minister of Britain, declared war on Germany, the site said.

The war was fought by the Axis and the Allies, two major alliances. The Axis included Germany, Japan and Italy. The Allies included Australia; Belgium; Brazil; Canada; China; Czechoslovakia; Denmark; Estonia; France; Greece; India; Latvia; Lithuania; Malta; The Netherlands; New Zealand; Norway; Poland; South Africa; United Kingdom; United States; USSR; and Yugoslavia, the site said.

Germany surrendered May 8, 1945 after Hitler committed suicide. Europe announced the end of the war on this way. The war was over in Japan Aug. 15, 1945, when they surrendered.

Japan formally surrendered Sept. 2, 1945, which ended WWII for the world when the surrender was signed aboard the U.S.S. Missouri battleship in Tokyo Bay, the site said.

Barlett didn’t see a whole lot of enemy fire during his two-year stint in the war—“We lost very few planes,” he’ll tell you—but he himself had a few close calls that are not unexpected for a soldier in wartime. 

Like when a Japanese plane flew right behind his aircraft; he managed to navigate the plane into a thick cloud, and lost the enemy.

Mother Nature wasn’t so kind, either; it rained “like a monsoon” in Burma, with more than 14 inches of precipitation per day, he said. The weather at the India/Burma border was such a burden, at one point, that his plane that carried 7,000 pounds of canned sardines nearly collided with another plane ready for take-off. His plane was totaled.

And mechanics, well, weren’t so popular, in his mind, when his Curtiss P-40, a single-engine, all-metal attack aircraft, caused problems—as torque does, when the propeller rotates in the plane’s opposite direction.

“That was the scariest thing I ever did,” he said. “I just prayed and pulled the stick back.

“I knew for sure I was going to die.”

He shut his eyes and awaited the crash—but, whether miraculously or by happenstance, it never came.

The control operator—who apparently predicted a similarly negative fate—simply said, “Wow,” Bartlett recalled.

Facing the dangers of war, Barlett welcomed a return home with his family; the feeling was mutual.

Upon returning to  Washington, D.C. he phoned his mother—who’d been at the hospital—and said he planned to visit her.

Her enthusiasm was practically palpable, he recalled:  “She was hanging out the window of the hospital when I drove up.”

Bartlett moved many times before he settled in Spanish Fort with his wife, Fran, about three years ago.

From NOLA to S.F.

Picheloup, a New Orleans native, was commissioned in February 1943 and spent time in Guam until he was “turned loose” in January 1946 after the war.

He had just graduated from Tulane University and was sent off to fight for his country after he was “grabbed off the back of the truck.”

“Fly low and slow,” his grandmother said, before his leave.

That advice, sound in several situations, couldn’t prevent the unpredictable wartime predicaments—like flying  a plane whose engine falls out, a horrific hypothetical that Picheloup actually experienced. He and the crew members had aborted their mission during the ordeal, but weren’t so optimistic of a safe landing.

“We just knew we were going down,” he said, crediting ground forces for a safe return. “The intelligence section just did a beautiful job getting us to land.”

After his service—and nine days on a boat later—he was let off in San Diego; upon return, he bought civilian clothes and drove up the California coast on Highway 1. 

“It’s a beautiful drive,” Picheloup said. “It’s such a gorgeous place.” 

He and his wife, Priscilla, eventually settled in Spanish Fort after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005.

In retrospect

Both men said they can strongly recall what happened in the war from more than 63 years ago, but they don’t think about this time of their lives too often.

The men—both members of the Ancient Aviators of South Alabama, which meets once a month—agreed that a day is due for those who risk life for country.

“It’s an important day for Americans to appreciate all the guys did to support America,” Bartlett said. “The respect of our country is drifting and we don’t like it.”

“You can’t realize it unless you’ve been involved in it,” Bartlett said of war. “It’s just disgusting that we (all of the world’s countries) can’t get along.”