Gilbert Belair, Age 21, Graduates from Officer Candidate School

My name is Sherry Lewis and this is a website about my stepfather, Gilbert Belair. His incredible service to our country as one of the "Greatest Generation" needed to be documented digitally for all to see, and preserved electronically for all time. So here it is. Go Gil!!!!!

Veterans Recall World War II at Wings of Freedom Tour

Photo Caption: Villages resident Gilbert Belair piloted a B-17 Flying Fortress similar to the one on display in the Wings of Freedom Tour at Ocala International Airport. Belair flew 11 missions over Germany during World War II.

Friday afternoon, Gilbert Belair found himself inside a B-17G Flying Fortress for the first time in more than six decades. "You never get tired of looking at a B-17, because it takes you back in time to a place you spent a couple of years of your young life," the now 85 year-old former B-17G pilot said as he gazed up at one of the two vintage aircraft visiting Ocala during the annual Wings of Freedom Tour.

The Village of Santiago resident's love affair with the old warbirds began unexpectedly, as most love affairs do. Standing in as an infantry lieutenant stateside training infantry replacement, Gil Belair glanced up into the sky and saw one of the World War II bombers flying overhead, and decided he was in the wrong place.

"I said, 'I think I'd rather fly than walk'" Belair recalled. And by the middle of 1944 - the weight test passed by eating six pounds of bananas and filling his pockets with stones -- Gil Belair headed for England.

However the trip wasn't an easy one. The crew ran into several severe storms, and since Belair had no navigation equipment and "had to fly using celestial navigation over the ocean." he couldn't alter the route to avoid the storms.

When the plane landed safely in Wales, the mechanic took one look at it and said it would never fly again. But the 21 year old Belair did. He flew the final mission before the end of the war in Europe.

And Friday, through a Christmas gift from his son Scott Belair more than a year ago, Belair and his wife Judy got to go on his 12th mission in a B-17G. "It was the chance of a lifetime," Judy said. "Gil couldn't keep the grin off his face."

"You can't imagine the feeling for us," Belair said after his flight. "It was just a wonderful experience."

By: Katie Tammen, Daily Sun, February 9, 2008

Gil's 305th Bombardment Group Reunion

Gil is the young man in the green jacket on the left. Ed Higgins, Lee Hammer and Del Quick had all passed away, but Gil noted that it was great that they had all made it through the war. Gil has always said that his crew were all very good at their jobs and were caring and courageous comrades.

Gil's Enlisted Reserve Corps Identification Card

Gil enlisted for the duration of World War II plus six months.

Gil's Primary Training Graduating Class in January, 1944

Gil was transferred from Camp Shelby, Mississippi to the Air Corps in October of 1943 to pre-flight in Nashville, Tennessee where he qualified for pilot training. This is a picture of Gil's graduating class in Primary Training, Americus, Georgia in January of 1944. Gil is 2nd from the right in the first row.

Gil's B-17 Flying Fortress Crew

Clockwise from upper left, Navigator Lee Hammer; Co-pilot Ed Higgins; Flight Engineer Ernie Rossi; and Bombardier Del Quick.


From Primary Training, Gil went to Basic Traning. Upon completion he was assigned to Advanced Twin Engine training. Gil was then assigned to Transitional Training in B-17's at Gulfport, Mississippi where his crew was assigned to him for the duration of the war.

Love That Plane!

The B-17 Flying Fortress, Chelveston, England, 1944

Gil's Home was a Quonset Hut until VE Day, May, 1945

Gil picked up his B-17 in Georgia, flew it to Bangor, Maine and then on to Wales where a mechanic looked at it and said it would never fly again. It had been through several severe storms, and Gil had to fly celestial over the ocean and avoiding weather was not possible. Upon arrival, Gil and his crew were assigned to the 305th Bomb Group at Chelveston, England. This Quonset hut was home until VE Day, May, 1945.

Gil's Pilot Flimsy - 17 April 1945

Gil was in the Lead Squadron - Liftboy. You can see his position in the first group, second from the right on the last line of aircraft.

Mission Day....

Upper left: Ground crew loading bombs with a little help from a canine friend. Upper right: Time for takeoff - every 30 seconds. Bottom left: Bomb Bay doors are opening. Bottom right: Landing safely at Chelveston, England.

Bombs Away, Summer 1944

This picture was taken by Gil's Waist Gunner flying high Squadron over Germany on the way to target; Summer, 1944.

"The sound was deep and all-encompassing, with no notes in it - just a gigantic, faraway suge of doom. It was the heavies...

I've never known a storm or a machine, or any resolve of Man, that had about it the aura of such gastly relentlessness...

The Germans began to shoot heavy high...ack...ack. Great puffs of it, by the score, speckled the sky until it was hard to distinguish the smoke puffs from the planes.

The formation never falters or varies but moves on as if nothing has happened...they stalk on slowly with the dreadful pall of sound, as though they were seeing only something at a great distance, and nothing exists in between."

By Ernie Pyle, Stars and Stripes, July 25, 1944

Germany Socked In Due to Weather

Gil (standing in the middle) and his crew were having a good time at the Officer's Club in Chelveston, England. The mission was scrapped due to weather, and these young fliers had not a care in the world!

Gil's Pilots Flimsey for a Mission Over Germany

This flimsey referenced the 305th Bomb Group, and Gil's position was on the left of the last row of Low Lift Boy.

In 1943, One In Every Three Men That Went Up In a B-17 Died

Gil's total flying hours were 2250, primarily in B-17's.

Gil's Report of Separation from the Military

After VE day, the 305th was part of the Army of Occupation in Germany and flew out of the airbase in Augsburg, Germany.

The entire group was transferred to Keflevik, Iceland to photograph the area all the way to the North Pole, since the U. S. had no aerial maps of the arctic at that time.

Gil's Certificate of Service to the United States of America

Following the photographic assignment, Gil was finally sent back to th United States and was honorably discharged in Atterbury, Indiana on September 2, 1946.

Thank You Gil, for Your Service to Our Country