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Interviewee
Carroll, Richard
Document Type
Oral History
Date of Interview
3-22-2004
Abstract
Richard Carroll was born on 19 October 1920 on a farm near Rosemount, Minnesota, the youngest of eight children. He went to local schools, graduating from Rosemount High School on 1937. Dick briefly attended a business college, then worked on the family farm before enlisting in 1942 in the Army Air Corps. He earned his wings in January 1944, and was assigned to B-24 Liberator heavy bombers as a co-pilot. Along with the rest of the B-24s ten-man crew, Dick arrived in Italy in July 1944 and was posted to the 459th Heavy Bomb Group, 15th Air Force. On 2 July 1944, on a mission to Budapest, Hungary, Dick and the rest of the crew were forced to bail out when their plane developed engine trouble. Shot by Hungarian civilians when he landed, Dick spent July through December 1944 at a military hospital in Budapest recovering from a serious wound. When in December 1944 the hospital was evacuated due to the advancing Red Army, the Germans took Dick and other POWs from this facility to Dulag-Luft, a processing facility near Frankfurt/Main. After a brief stay Dick was transferred to Stalag Luft I, located in Barth, northern Germany; he remained here until the camp was overrun in the first days of May 1945 by advancing Soviet troops. Dick then spent several months recovering from his POW ordeal, and was finally discharged in late 1945 with the rank of captain. Again a civilian, Dick returned to Rosemount. He got married (1945, wife Martha), and helped raise a family. Dick worked many years for the VA and other federal agencies, including the Air Force Reserve; he retired in 1978. At the time of this interview (March 2004) Dick lived in Eagan, Minnesota.
Copyright
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced without the written permission of Concordia University Library or Thomas Saylor, Department of History, Concordia University, St. Paul.
Recommended Citation
Saylor, Thomas, "Oral History Project World War II Years, 1941-1946 - Dick Carroll" (2004). Oral History Project: World War II Years, 1941-1946. 13.
https://digitalcommons.csp.edu/oral-history_ww2/13
PDF Transcript of Interview with Dick Carroll