President Roosevelt

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"A C-54 came over with President Roosevelt in it. And he came over to do whatever he was gonna do to Patton. And a bunch of generals were waiting there for him. And when Patton came up, they all walked away from him. They wouldn’t have anything to do with him. So when President Roosevelt got out of his C-54, they put that covered, whatever board over his seat in the jeep so he could sit in it. And they drove up to the generals and spoke to all of them. And he said, 'George [Patton], get in the back and ride around with me [laughs].' That was the reprimand...

We were stationed in Castelvetrano [Sicily] then, and the power pilots-. There was a big difference between power pilots and glider pilots. They got all the breaks, and we didn’t get any. They were in permanent barracks in town. We were in tents out on the airport. And we had an officer’s club set up and had a bar, and they wanted us to use our bar for President Roosevelt and General Patton and the others. And we told them we could do it if they paid us for it. So President Roosevelt – I’ll never forget it – he says, 'Boys, we don’t get whiskey sours like this at home anymore. We sent ‘em all over here to you!'"

Editor's note: "Power pilots" fly planes with engines.