Charles N. Stevens

Memoir of an 8th Air Force Bombardier

About Our Speaker for the April Meeting

Charles (He has always been called "Norm") grew up in Inglewood, California, graduating from Inglewood High School in 1942.

In April 1943 he joined the Army Air Corps as a cadet. After being classified as a bombardier at the San Antonio Classification Center, he received, preflight training at Ellington Field at Houston, Texas; Gunnery training at Laredo, Texas, and graduated as a 2nd Lieutenant from the bombardier school at Midland Army Air Base, Midland, Texas in December of 1943.

After a leave and time spent in Salt Lake City, Utah in. an officer pool, he was sent to Alexandria, Louisiana for B-17 crew training. It was here that he met the rest of his crew, a group he was to stay with throughout training and in combat at Polebrook, England. After Alexandria his crew was sent to Kearny, Nebraska to pick up a brand new B-17G to ferry across the North Atlantic. They landed at Valley, Wales where they left the plane. The crew was assigned to the 351st Bomb Group at Polebrook, England near Peterborough, arriving there just after D-Day in June of 1944. From Polebrook they flew 34 missions over Germany, occupied France, Belgium and Holland. Among the targets were Hamburg, Kiel, Ludwigshaven, Pennemunde, Munich, Stuttgart Augsburg, Schweinfurt and Weimar. Several missions were called to France to bomb airfields, V-I launching ramps and positions that would aid our troops on the ground.

He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal with 3 clusters, the European Theater and World War II medals. While at Polebrook he was promoted to 1st Lieutenant. The entire crew survived the missions, however, the ball turret gunner was severely wounded on our 3rd mission and was hospitalized, and the co-pilot suffered a severe leg wound on their 30th, both from flak.

After returning from overseas he took intensive training as a radar bombardier at Langley Field, Virginia and Williams Field, Arizona. He was ready to join a B-29 unit to the Pacific when the war ended.
He attended U.C.L.A. after the war, graduating with a B.A. in Psychology in 1949. He earned a teaching credential after completing an extra graduate year. He taught at Barstow, California for 2 years, then at Montebello, California for 31 years. He taught science, mathematics and, after earning a Masters Degree in English, American Literature at Schurr High School in Montebello. He retired in 1984.

During his retirement he has traveled extensively, read constantly and has written volumes about his travels, experiences in the service and everyday life. He has joined several writing groups. He published his memoir about his experiences flying with the 8th Air Force, called An Innocent at Polebrook: A Memoir of an 8th Air Force Bombardier.

It has been well received by Air Force veterans and the general public. He has given many presentations about his book in public libraries and to service clubs.
He has two grown sons and lives with his wife, Dolores, in Monterey Park, California where they have resided for 33 years.