An Interview with Rune V. Mentzer

The bright, shining sun streamed through the windows of my grandparents’ dining room windows. My full stomach was content after eating my grandmother’s homemade lasagna for my large, after-church dinner. It was Sunday May 20th at approximately 1:30 PM and I was sitting in the Mentzer dining room on a soft, cushioned chair ready to interview my grandfather and World War II veteran, Rune Mentzer. He sat across from me, his Swedish blue eyes smiling and sparkling, prepared to help his granddaughter with her school assignment designed to recognize the men and women who fought for their country and to publish their wartime experiences. He hoped to share the pieces of his past and I hoped to grasp just one piece to make it forever a memory. But more than that, I hoped to glean wisdom from my Far Far (Swedish for grandfather) and learn even just a little bit more about my family history. Therefore, with an extra large box of malt balls between us, I pushed the record button on the tape recorder and began the interview.

Question: What was your rank and your branch of service?

Rune: I was a corporal in the Air Force but then I was reassigned and

became a radar mechanic.

Question: For how many years did you serve?

Rune: I served from 1943-1945, right up until the end of the war. I was drafted in 1943 during my first year of college at Bethel College in St. Paul, Minnesota. I had to return to Connecticut to receive my

assignment. However, because I was born in Sweden and then immigrated with my parents and older sister to the United States, I had to prove to the air force that I really was a citizen of the United States. Therefore, I had to wait for my papers to arrive and could not serve my country in any other way besides KP duty! Finally, after months, my papers arrived and proved that I indeed was a citizen of America by derivation. Only then could I proceed into basic training and begin to serve. The only good thing about being drafted in the midst of college was that after the war I received three years of free education! The federal government issued the GI Bill of Rights, which stated that the government would pay for the education of the men who had fought in the war.

Question: What kind of training did you go through?

Rune: First I went through flier pilot training at a base in Fort

Devons, Massachusetts but then when I was reassigned I had to go through electronic school and then radar training in the Everglades of Florida. Radar training was extremely confidential- I worked in high security huts or shacks within the Everglades and had to be checked by security whenever I entered or exited the radar shacks. The other men and I didn’t mind the actual training and security so much as the

environment! There were bugs everywhere and every morning we had to empty our shoes of scorpions. We even had a pet alligator!

Question: Where did you serve after your training and what did you do?

Rune: I traveled to Europe with the 8th Air Force squadron and then was assigned to the 453rd bombardment squadron in Norwich, England. Norwich is located in a kind of a bulge off of England with the body of water The Wash right above it. Because Norwich is right on the coast of Britain, this was the ideal position for the long range bombing

missions. My job was to service the radar equipment in the large bombers.

Question: Did you ever receive any awards or honors?

Rune: Yes, as a matter of fact I did. While I was working as a radar

mechanic in Norwich, my division participated in a number of long range

bombing missions. Whenever a mission was particularly successful at an extra long range, we all would receive bronze stars to put on our

campaign ribbons. At the end of the war I had about three or four of

those bronze stars.