Franklin County World War II veteran approaches his most emotional mission at 103
This mission will be an emotional one for veteran Joseph Baloah. At 103 years of age, Balogh is still active and on his feet.
Posted — UpdatedAs a young man in Detroit, he worked with the Ford Motor Company - at a time when they building B24 aircrafts for the war effort.
He was willing to serve in the war, but not on the ground.
"I was more interested in being a pilot than being an officer," said Balogh.
Balogh went through cadet training in the Army Air Corp. In 1944, he was shipped off to southern Burma.
"The severe hump and the bad weather situations was where we lost most of our airplanes," Balogh said.
He and his crew were about to drop artillery down to a U.S. ground force. It was at that point when Japanese Zeros started firing.
"And a Zero got us from behind and shot our fighters down," Balogh said. "We did bail out, but got home safe. We avoided the Japanese."
A separate mission close to the mountains of China, turned tragic.
"We couldn't jump out of the airplane," Balogh said. "We were down too low. So we had to crash into rice paddy fields and we lost our co-pilot."
"No pilots can come home," he said. "Attrition rates on pilots was terrible."
"It will be very interesting to see where they served and what they did," Balogh said. "They were lucky to stay alive. We were a group. We are a brotherhood who just worked together."
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