Presentation Date: August 25, 2019
Colonel Jack Krout, United States Air Force
Jack was born in 1924 and raised in the Bitteroot Valley of Montana. His father was an alternate Forest Ranger stationed in the primitive area of Idaho and Montana. The family lived on a hardscrabble farm in a small 3-room house with an 8’ lean-to on the back side. Jack was the oldest of seven children, five boys and two girls. There wasn’t enough room in the house so Jack grew up in a 12’ wall tent on a tent platform. On the tent’s mercury thermometer, he never saw it colder than 40° below zero. Not until he was flying a B-24 did he realize that mercury freezes at - 40° Fahrenheit. His maternal grandmother lived with them and taught him to harness a horse and to plow a straight furrow.
Jack graduated from the local high school and went to work as a Forest Service Headquarters guard, commissary clerk, and short string packer on the Moose Creek Ranger District, stationed at Bear Creek Ranger Station. He supplied lookout stations with emergency runs and picked up the parachutes and fire equipment left by the smoke jumpers after they put out the fires.
In mid-September 1942, Bert Waldren, the alternate Forest Ranger at Moose Creek, came up the river to shut down some lookouts. After supper, Bert asked Jack what he planned to do with his life. Jack replied, “I thought I’d follow my dad and work for the Forest Service.” Bert said, “Your dad and I are the last that will ever get this far without a college education.
Jack applied to and was accepted by the University of Montana at Missoula, Montana.
The Government Offices and President Roosevelt had decided the next war would be fought like the Spanish Civil War and that all draftees and enlistees would be IQ tested. Anyone scoring over 150 would be assigned to the Air Arm of the Army or Navy.
On 6 Dec 1943, Jack and Laddie Winklebach (packer from the upper district) were told to register for the draft. They both refused and went to the recruiting office to enlist. They were told to catch a bus to the train station the next morning and get a train to the Butte Recruiting Office. There, they were tested and given a physical examination. Jack was sent to the Army Air Corps; Laddie was assigned to the Artillery Corps. Jack went to Fort Douglas, Utah, was issued his uniform, and received orders to Basic Training at Wichita Falls, Texas.
When the trainees completed Basic, they were told they would be trained as Glider Mechanics. Jack was assigned to Alliance Army Airbase in Nebraska. He assembled the first CG4A glider to fly and was told he would be co-pilot for the test flight.
The glider was hooked to a C-53 by a 100-yard nylon rope; there was a crosswind on the runway. The C-53 pilot started its engines, tightened the tow rope, and began the takeoff roll. But the glider’s pilot let it drift off the runway. The C-53’s co-pilot released the tow rope and the rope’s 10 lb. connector came back through the glider’s fiberglass windscreen between Jack and the pilot.
Unhurt, Jack got a tow vehicle and pulled the glider to the hangar. He wired a piece of Plexiglas to cover the hole and they were ready to complete the test lap. The flight was noisy and bumpy until they were released at 5,000 feet.
On approach for landing, Jack deployed full spoilers as directed by the pilot. The glider came down like an elevator into a cornfield a mile short of the runway. Jack cut the field fence, got the tow vehicle, and pulled the glider back to the hangar.
He immediately went to the orderly room and applied for aviation cadets. He was accepted and ordered to the Southeast Command for primary training in Americus, GA, flying the PT-17. From there, he was sent to Greenwood, MS for basic flight training in the BT-13. His next destination was Columbus, MS for twin engine advanced training in the AT-17.
8 Sep 1944 Jack graduated as a commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Air Corps, US Army. Rated a pilot, he was required to participate in regular and frequent aerial flights.
8 Sep 1944 Ordered to Fort Myers AAB, FL for B-24 Co-pilot School.
Nov 1944 at Lemoore AAB, CA for assignment to a B-24 crew training unit.
Nov 1944 at Tonopah AAB, Nevada for B-24 Crew Training (Crew 327)
12 Apr 1945 Jack graduated and was granted a 15-day furlough prior to overseas deployment to bomb Japan.
20 Apr 1945 Jack asked permission of his CO to marry and a five-day extension of his furlough.
24 Apr 1945 Jack married the prettiest girl he knew. He had originally met her during his first week at the University of Montana.
27 Apr 1945 Jack returned to Tonopah AAB, NV with new bride to find Crew 327, its Flight Crew Chief, and Jack were ordered to Mountain Home AAB, MT to fly B-32s.
29 Apr 1945 Ordered to March Field, CA to fly F-7s, a B-24 variant with three large radars.
8 May 1945 Germany unconditionally surrendered.
1944-1945 Japan was secretly sending balloon-borne explosive and incendiary bombs across the Pacific at high altitude to randomly attack the US and Canada.
May 1945 Major General LeMay was transferred from Europe to the Pacific to bomb Japan with B-29s.
Jun 1945 General LeMay ordered a massive bombing mission: 150 B-29s from China and 150 from Tinian. En route, they encountered a 250 mph headwind (what we now call the jet stream); 90% of their bomb loads fell into Tokyo Bay. That night on the air, Tokyo Rose thanked the US Army Air Corps for the lovely fish dinners they had furnished to the people of Tokyo and Yohahama.
Jun 1945 The F-7 mission was cancelled because it was confirmed that the firebomb balloons were launched from the Japanese home islands to ride the jet stream into the US and Canada.
6 Aug 1945 The first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan.
9 Aug 1945 The second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.
15 Aug 1945 Japan surrendered unconditionally.
2 Sep 1945 Peace Terms were signed on board the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay.