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World War II Veteran
Name:
John R. Omar
Rank: Technical Sergeant
Branch: US Army Air Corps
Status: Served from 1942 - 1945
Billet: Flight Engineer and Top Turret Gunner
Military Accomplishments:
John is the eldest son of Mohammed Omar who had immigrated to America in 1913
from a village outside of Tripoli, Lebanon. After graduating in 1943 with honors
from Quincy High School in Quincy Massachusetts, John Omar, at eighteen years
old, enlisted in the Army Air Corps.
He became the Flight Engineer and top turret gunner for a B-24 Liberator dubbed
by the crew "She's Our Gal" and was assigned to the 8th Air Force,
382nd Bomb Squadron, 491st Bomb Group that was stationed in Pickingham Air Field
in Norfolk, England.
They had a couple of close calls in the training program including a difficult
landing that broke the nose wheel. Another time the hydraulics failed prompting
a call from the pilot to Omar (the crew's nickname for him) to manually crank
down the landing gear so they could make an emergency landing. The plane landed
without the brakes and skidded to within a few feet from the end of the runway.
During the Battle of the Bulge, a heavy snowstorm at the start of one mission
caused their plane to crash shortly after takeoff. Eleven of the 500-pound bombs
aboard were jettisoned into a field below. When the plane hit the ground, the
12th bomb came crashing through the cockpit bulkhead with its nose a few feet
from Omar's back. Moments after they crashed, Omar heard the pilot screaming for
help and was able to help the pilot free himself from the burning wreckage so
that they could both quickly escape from the plane in case of an explosion.
In a mission to Magdeburg Germany, they encountered a heavy barrage of
anti-aircraft flak as they were approaching the target. They lost the #3 engine
and the rudder cable was severed. Because the hydraulics system was damaged,
they could not open the bomb bay doors to release the bombs. At that time, it
was considered impossible for anyone to open the bomb bay doors manually.
Omar disconnected his heated flight suit and straddled a 9" catwalk that
ran from the cockpit to the waste door to reach the cranks that opened the bomb
bay doors. In 42 below zero temperatures, clinging precariously to the struts in
the catwalk-the only things between him and the earth below, Omar manually
cranked open the doors so that the bombs could be released. While he was
performing this task, shrapnel wounded him in his right foot.
Once the bombs were released, he then turned his attention to repairing the
severed cables so that the plane could be turned around. With the #3 engine out,
the plane kept losing altitude as they were leaving Germany. A "May
Day" call was sent out and someone gave the pilot a heading. Miraculously
they made the landing on a very short runway with no gas showing in the tanks.
The plane fuselage had been hit 44 times.
The landing site was only 9 miles from a section of the Bulge and because the
area was in a state of evacuation, the crew was immediately transported to the
Displaced Persons building in Brussels-a location that would be very significant
for Omar a several weeks later.
For his courageous actions in that mission, Omar was awarded the Purple Heart.
The citation read "For meritorious achievement in accomplishing aerial
operational missions over enemy-occupied Continental Europe, Sgt. Omar's actions
reflect great credit upon himself and the armed forces of the United
States".
After the next mission-the Berlin Run-the crew was again taken to Brussels
because of plane problems and that night John awoke with severe chest pains.
When the condition worsened, he was taken by ambulance to a hospital in Antwerp.
He had double pneumonia and was in a coma for seven days.
While recuperating, he experienced what it was like to be bombed as daily
Germans were sending buzz bombs into Belgium. A portion of the ward was actually
demolished when one of the bombs exploded over the rooms.
He remained in the hospital for 41 days. When he was finally released, he was
told to return to his base, but could not get any assistance on how he was to do
that. He left the hospital in the same wardrobe he had arrived in-his green
flight suit.
With no money and no idea as to where to go from Antwerp, he approached a
soldier loading hospital supplies on to a truck and was able to hitch a ride to
the nearby train station. At the station, two MPs gave him a ticket to Brussels.
While on the train, John was very cordially greeted and spoken to by the
Belgians in their native tongue.
When he arrived in Brussels, his goal was to make it to the Displaced Persons
building that he remembered from the airfield evacuation. Unable to speak the
language, he wandered the city aimlessly hoping to spy the building. He did this
all day with no money, food or water and was nearing exhaustion when, after
climbing some hills, he spotted the top of that building.
At the Displaced Persons building, he faced yet another obstacle-identifying
himself- because he had been gone for more than 30 days and was listed as
missing in action. The MPs finally called his squadron commander for
confirmation. When he finally made it back to his base in England, he was told
that his crew had completed their tours and had returned to the States.
He flew several more missions, a total of 29, and then the war ended. When he
returned to America, he was stationed in Seattle Washington where he was asked
to train new recruits for B-24 and B-29s, but declined as he just wanted to
return home to his family as soon as possible. Six weeks after the War ended in
the Pacific, he was sent home to Massachusetts.
There is a very pleasant postscript to this story: In 1995, 50 years after the
end of WWII, a fellow crewmember happened to be visiting in the Massachusetts's
area and decided to look up the Omar name in Quincy hoping to get some
information about him (again his crew members knew only that Omar had been
listed as missing in action in 1945).
The number he called turned out to be Omar's son who gladly drove him over to
his father's house. It was an extremely emotional reunion between these two
Veterans who had not seen each other for 50 years. As a result of this memorable
occasion, Omar was also reunited with other crewmembers and has been attending
the annual B-24 Conferences with them ever since.
Today, he and his wife Mary, reside in Quincy MA where he spends his time
reading, doing projects in his workshop, taking daily walks around his
neighborhood and keeping in touch with his 8 children and 13 grandchildren.
Sheila Malasi -
Proud Daughter of John R. Omar
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