Vet flew air support over North Africa

U.S. Army Air Corps veteran Joe Rickey was a mechanic for a squadron of B-25 Mitchell bombers that flew combat missions in North Africa and Italy during the early years of U.S. involvement in World War II.

In combat, Rickey was a member of the 12th Bomb Group, 434th Bombardment Squadron, under the command of the Royal Air Force.

Rickey enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1939 after struggling to find a job after high school.

“When I graduated, we all went looking for work, 'cuz in those days, we didn't have anything,” he said.

Rickey was sent to Chanute Field in Illinois for airplane engine mechanics training — a two-year program crammed into six months — and was eventually assigned to Esler Army Airfield to learn everything there was to know about the new Mitchell B-25 bomber.

“The 12th Bomb Group was the only outfit that had those (B-25 bombers) at the time,” Rickey said.

In 1942, Rickey was married in New Orleans before shipping out to Egypt, where his squadron joined the Western Desert Air Force, under the Royal Air Force Middle East Command.

The U.S. air contingent, along with other Allied air forces, provided close air support for the British Eighth Army in its effort to drive Hitler's Afrika Korps, led by German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, out of North Africa.

“We were flying missions every day,” he said. “As many as six missions a day.”

The targets were not far from the Allied air base, he said.

“Ten miles, maybe, or less,” he said. “You dropped your bombs, strafed, then come back, get gassed up, go back out again. We did all the mechanical work on them. We kept them flying.”

After Rommel's tanks and troops were pushed back and the Axis forces collapsed, the defeated army surrendered to the Allies in May 1943.

Rickey also participated in the invasion of Sicily and Salerno.

He said he earned a reputation as a talented tinkerer. He was able to fix just about any mechanical equipment using whatever tools were available.

When the Germans and Italians retreated, they disabled the jeeps, motorcycles and other vehicles they left behind to prevent the Allies from using the abandoned equipment.

Rickey found a way to get the machinery up and running.

His handiwork was appreciated by his squadron. All of the officers and even some of the enlisted men had their own vehicles after he fixed everything, he said.

Rickey returned home in December 1943 after serving among the first Americans to do battle in World War II.

His early entry into combat earned Rickey the American Defense Service Medal.

The medal was presented in recognition of service before the U.S. entered World War II, during the initial years of the European conflict.

The medal is authorized to military members who performed active duty between Sept. 8, 1939 and Dec. 7, 1941.