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Podcast: Veterans Chronicles
Episode: SSgt Lester Schrenk, U.S. Army Air Forces, WWII, POW
Description: Lester Schrenk joined the U.S. Army Air Forces on his 19th birthday in November 1942. Even though he still sees perfectly today, he was told he could not become a pilot due to poor eyesight. So this Minnesota farm kid was assigned as a ball turret gunner on a B-17 bomber crew. At 5'11", he was much bigger than most men tasked with squeezing into that very tiny space. Roughly a year later, he was deployed to Europe.In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Schrenk tells us what the missions were like for a ball turret gunner and...