Born in Iowa in 1918 Chester Mersman was the eldest son of a farmer who was to move his family to California ten years later. He used to follow his father at work sometimes riding the plough and from an early age showed an aptitude for all things mechanical. In 1932 at the height of the depression his parents separated, his mother taking the two girls and the two boys going with the father. Difficult times for everybody. In California they managed to buy a service station and store to support the mother and his father started building cabins for tourists. Chester remembers listening to Franklin D. Roosevelt's inspired speeches and how his programme of publicly funded projects helped lift the country out of the Depression.



They were aware of the problems in Europe and Hitler's rise to power but hoped the USA would not be affected. Meanwhile Chester volunteered for one of the New Deal conservation projects because - as a bonus - they were given free evening classes in aircraft construction. After three months he got a job with Consolidated Aircraft and was able to get his own place in San Diego and to help his parents financially. He was to work at Consolidated for the next three years as a sheet metal mechanic, it being a reserved occupation. Eventually being rated A1 fit and not wanting to be drafted he decided -following Pearl Harbour - to volunteer.



He joined up in San Diego and, opting for the Air Corps, was immediately because of his experience in aircraft construction, sent to the Air Force base at Victorville California to work - he assumed - on planes.However they were only there for 30 days before being sent on to an authorised training school in Nebraska which lasted five months ' learning the nuts and bolts from the ground up'. He enjoyed the course which ran 3 shifts of 8 hours every 24 - everybody who made it got promoted PFC- but was less happy with the square bashing. From Nebraska he was posted to a 30 day course at Chaute Field Illinois where they concentrated on engine maintenance.



From Illinois they were shipped to Salt Lake City - four days and three nights on an overcrowded train - for it appeared 'toughening up' but they were never given any information. There is no time scale but from there it was on to an air transport base in New Mexico where they expected to be put on a flight for overseas; instead of which it was another long train journey, this time to New York and straight to the quayside. Chester recalls that it was the winter of 1943/44 and they travelled in convoy a 'mini hell'. He froze on deck preferring that to being seasick down below and still not being told anything official, but guessing the British Isles when they saw aircraft with RAF markings. They left the convoy at some point, docked at Swansea in South Wales and immediately entrained for Burtonwood, with 18,000 men the largest US holding camp in England.



From Burtonwood he was sent to the B-24 base at Alconbury; his tasks to modify the life rafts. However just a month or two later he was moved again, this time to a Strategic Air Depot (Honington?) where he found himself 'stuck in spark-plug cleaning shop'. After an appeal to the CO Chester managed to get himself transferred to a more interesting role; the major overhaul and inspection of B-17's and B-24's. His crew leader was regular army who hadn't been properly trained in the job and it was left to Chester and other schooled draftees to do the actual work of top line maintenance.



The social life of the base consisted mostly of drinking and he was not very happy with that, nor did he smoke so was able to sell his ration for 10/- a carton. He got invited to local homes because he had cigarettes to sell and it was nicer if the guest wasn't drunk. He recalls going to London and being distressed by the sight of small children in the air raid shelters.



One evening he was all alone in his quarters - everybody else was out drinking -and learned that there was a dance on at the base. That night he met his future wife 'I liked the attitude of the British girls.....much more serious thinking' Her parents initially refused permission for them to marry, her Mother wrote to his Commanding Officer requesting that Chester be posted elsewhere. Her father - a lay minister- did come round eventually, after Chester extended his tour by three months, and they were married in his father-in-law's Baptist Church in Peterborough. They returned to the USA in 1946 but visited England frequently thereafter.