East Texas World War II veterans share their stories of service ahead of Rose City Airfest

Published 6:00 pm Thursday, July 1, 2021

In 1940, World War II Air Force veteran and East Texas native Ralph Coleman Graham signed up for one year in the U.S. Army.

But a few years later as a U.S. Army Air Forces member, he was involved in one of the most important battles in Europe in the fight against the Germans.

“Things were really looking tough in Europe and everywhere really but they came with a bulletin saying there won’t be anybody discharged after one year,” Graham, an Athens native, said Thursday morning at CampV in Tyler. “They said we’re in an emergency and no one’s going to be discharged until the emergency’s over. Of course, that was five years later.”

Graham and U.S. Marine Corp. Col. Joe McPhail, 99, also an East Texas native, shared their war stories at the veteran resource center CampV Thursday ahead of the Rose City Airfest on Friday.

The World War II veterans were honored for their service with an American flag that was flown over the U.S. Capitol at the Historic Aviation Memorial Museum at the Tyler Pounds Regional Airport during the air show’s Thursday evening reception.

Both men are set to fly in a military aircraft Friday at the airshow that benefits CampV.

Graham, 99, recalled the military officials requesting troops take a test to become a cadet to fly a plane. He remembered in basic training dealing with 450 horsepower motors and blacking out while on the plane.

Officials suggested a medical operation to possibly fix the issue, but the problem still wasn’t fixed. He was sent to radio school and trained as a radio operator and a gunner. He flew 33 missions over Germany.

He said January and February 1945 were the coldest months seen in Europe.

“The temperature would get down so low. That made it a little tougher,” he said. “We had to wear oxygen masks.”

Later in life, he wrote a book about his squadron, the 8th Air Force’s experience in the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944, “12 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Ghost Plane at The Battle of the Bulge.”

“That 12 minutes was the time when pulled out to fly the mission, everybody else took off and to check the plane wouldn’t go,” Graham said. “We carried it back to get another plane it took 12 minutes to do it.”

He said the fog lifted the Germans sent out their fighter aircraft and the other Air Force jets went ahead.

“Once we got rigged up and I took off and was trying to catch them, we got a notice that squadron was under attack,” he said.

Graham said the leader of the 8th Air Force, was shot down. So, Graham’s group found another crew to fight alongside.

After the battle concluded, Graham said officials reported nine of the 13 planes were shot down.

“They reported nine were shot down, but actually, they thought we were one of them. Nobody knew we had trouble,” he said. “The 12 minutes we lost tell the story, the mystery and the story of what happened to us. Nobody didn’t know it but us. Even though we told them when we got back to the base that we weren’t in the battle, we went with another bunch.”

He said the number of missing planes has never been corrected.

“Even after the war was over and they wrote the big history book, they still reported there were nine missing. There was so much confusion that day. Nobody ever thought about asking us where we’d been or what happened,” Graham said. “You don’t forget things that happen in that book. Once you read it, you’ll understand”

He said he would only speak about the battle with his fellow crew members, and he decided to write the book after the other crew members died.

“Years after we got home, we would get together and say who’s going to tell the story, and every time someone would bring it up,” Graham said. “It’s all in there (the book) just as it happened.”

On the boat to go home in 1945, Graham said the proclamation ending the war was signed. He didn’t share a lot about his experience in the war with his family.

“Nobody wants to talk about it. I never did until I was around my crew. There was not really any interest in telling a story unless somebody knew and wanted to hear it,” Graham said. “My family never really did know and they’re all gone, but they never asked.”

After the war, he spent time in the flooring business, opened his own store in Athens, and worked for Sears. He then went into the insurance business and made his own agency, Graham Insurance.

He retired in 1998 and he spends his time playing golf.

McPhail, who was born in Grand Saline and moved to Tyler in 1937, has had a love of flying nearly all his life.

“I really wanted to fly and figured the other services had transport and patrol planes that I didn’t want to fly,” he said. “I wanted to fly fighters and so I kind of centered in on the Marine Corp.”

Before the war, he said a person needed 60 hours of college and had to be 20 years old. He had a college education, but not the age requirement. Eight days after he turned 20, he was sworn in at a naval air station in Dallas.

He fought in the war against the Japanese, calling it a bitter war. He said his first mission was April 12, 1945, and his crew climbed to 22,000 feet in their jets.

“I looked down and saw a blue airplane chasing a brown airplane down below. I was going to go check it out and was probably at 22,000 feet and saw four Japanese zeros in front of me. I picked on the tail end and shooting him and he blew up,” he said. “Shooting down that first Jap was interesting for me. I did shoot down one other airplane. Neither airplane ever saw me. I came behind them and there was no dog fight like that.”

In addition to World War II, McPhail also served in the Korean War. In both wars, he flew around 240 missions. Following his first war, McPhail said he stayed in the reserve to help in any way he could.

After the military, he worked for a gas transmission company out of Houston and flew for that company for 33 years all over the world.

“It was interesting for me. I really enjoyed it. That all I’ve done was fly,” McPhail said. “I never did have a regular job.”

The last time he flew was in 1990, and he’s looking forward to taking flight as a passenger Friday.

“It’s an honor it really is. I don’t think it’s that big of a deal but not many people have done it,” McPhail said. “I feel blessed.”

He’s spent his retirement attending airshows alongside his son, who organizes the trips.