Portraits of Courage: Walt Fergus

Walt Fergus volunteered to be drafted in 1944 at the age of 18 and had his heart set on flying.

“That was one of the patriotic things to do at that time,” Fergus said. He was in high school when Pearl Harbor was attacked and heard about the bombing the next day at school in Larned, Kan.

Fergus didn’t pass his pilot qualification test, so he was sent for training to be a gunner on the B-24 Liberator.

He went to basic training in Amarillo, Texas, and trained as a gunner in Laredo, Texas, before being stationed at Davis-Monthan Air Base in Tucson, Ariz. From there, he was sent to Italy in August 1944. It was his first time leaving the country.

Before he left, though, he was married on June 26, 1944. He and his new wife kept in touch during the war using V-mail, which at that time stood for “very censored.” Letters were photocopied, transferred to film, sent across the ocean and then printed out.

The marriage stood the test of time and the couple is still married, 64 years later.

During the war, Fergus saw his share of combat. He was decorated with a purple heart for gunshot wounds he received during one battle. However, he faced something worse than being wounded: Fergus also spent some time as a prisoner of war.

“I was a guest of the German government for three months,” he said.

During a return flight from a mission, his plane was shot down in the northern part of the Italian Alps on Feb. 15, 1945. Though he was one of the few uninjured crew members, the Germans picked him up off the crash site. He spent time at Wesel, Nuremberg and was marched to Wurzburg, where he was liberated about three days before V-E Day.

“I came back, had leave and had been told I would get orders to go to a B-29 group somewhere in Asia,” he said. “The war was over before that.”

He was discharged, but re-enlisted after 10 months and worked as a clerk typist.

Fergus also served in Vietnam doing mainly administrative work as a first sergeant in an aviation company for the Army since his specialty as a gunner was no longer needed.

He served 27 years before getting out of the service at the end of 1970 and then came to Alaska to retire.

“Two guys on the crew I flew with had been up here and talked about Alaska,” he said. So, Fergus thought he would like it. “I like mountains.”

Fergus says he’s led a very interesting life having seen Europe, Puerto Rico, Panama, Vietnam and Tokyo courtesy of the military.

However, as a reminder to all Americans, he added, “Freedom does not come free.”