PORTRAITS OF COURAGE: Hank Nosek

Two nights after dancing the night away in Tijuana, Mexico, Hank Nosek enlisted in the Army Air Corps at the age of 18.

Nosek was living in San Diego and driving back from Tijuana on Dec. 7, 1941, with his girlfriend when the noticed a lot of traffic on the bridge.

“We saw a lot of servicemen on the road and stopped to pick up a couple sailors,” he said. “We asked them what was going on they said, ‘You haven’t heard? The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.”

Nosek went to work that night and told his boss that he was going to enlist the next day, even though he had a deferment because of his job. He was an apprentice toolmaker at a consolidated multi-aircraft facility.

“They couldn’t talk me out of it,” he said.

He was sent to training at Sheppard Field for a short time and then went to Camp Edwards at Cape Cod, Maine. There they were issued all their equipment – winter gear, summer gear, a rifle, gas mask – and given shots. They were told they were going to Louisiana to do maneuvers, but Nosek noticed they were walking on a gangplank and knew they were on a troop ship. His suspicions were confirmed when he noticed a plaque that read “His Majesty’s Ship: The Queen Mary.”

“We were on that ship 40 days and 40 nights,” Nosek recalled. “The food was terrible. It was slop.”

There were 10,000 American soldiers aboard the ship, which could reach a speed of 28 knots, or 32 mph.

“We noticed we were avoiding icebergs,” he said. “And then we were back down in the Virgin Islands. We refueled there, changed captains and learned a sub had been tailing us.”

Another refueling stop was in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, inspired a few soldiers to plot an escape to the mainland on one of the many passing boats, whose owner agreed to bring them back. About four men managed to jump out of a portal before a guard on the ship was alerted.

“I didn’t get close to getting out,” Nosek said, although he was part of the group. “I think if I could have gotten out, I would still be there.”

The ship then headed to Durban, South Africa, where it was tailed by another German sub. A contingent was dropped off there. They received fighter escort and were also guarded by a Brazilian boat that followed them when they left the port. The Brazilian boat was sunk by a German sub.

Then, the Queen Mary crossed the Indian Ocean and docked in Australia, where Nosek got off. He did mechanical work on the P-49 and P-38 Lightning.

“We almost had to remanufacture the airplane,” he said. Eddie Rickenbacker helped them with the aircraft after having been released from a hospital in Brisbane – he had spent three weeks at sea after his B-17 crashed.

“He put his know-how into the crafting of the airplane,” Nosek said.

Nosek was then transferred to the 433rd Fighter Squadron of the 475th Fighter Group, the Blue Devils. He started doing some flying as well as mechanical work. The unit was based out of New Guinea. While Nosek didn’t fly in any combat missions, the fighter group had 500 kills in less than a year, including some by Charles Lindbergh.

In December 1944, Nosek was sent back to the United States to help work on the P-61 Black Widow. After the war ended, he stayed in the military, serving in the U.S. Army Air Force and then the U.S. Air Force. He was involved in both the Vietnam and Korean wars. He eventually served as a Russian language intelligence officer and retired after 25 years in 1966.

“I matured,” he said about his time in the service. “It was a good influence on me.”

He came to Alaska in 1968 after his mother passed away. He worked in the aviation industry and owned his own air service in Willow at one point.