| Title |
Robert B. Clay, Bountiful, Utah: an interview by Benjamin Bahlmann, April 27, 2001: Saving the legacy tape no. 390, 391 and 392 |
| Alternative Title |
Robert B. Clay, Saving the legacy: an oral history of Utah's World War II veterans, ACCN 2070, American West Center, University of Utah |
| Creator |
Clay, Robert B., 1918-2007 |
| Contributor |
Bahlmann, Benjamin; University of Utah. American West Center |
| Publisher |
Digitized by J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah |
| Date |
2001-04-27 |
| Date Digital |
2015-09-16 |
| Access Rights |
I acknowledge and agree that all information I obtain as a result of accessing any oral history provided by the University of Utah's Marriott Library shall be used only for historical or scholarly or academic research purposes, and not for commercial purposes. I understand that any other use of the materials is not authorized by the University of Utah and may exceed the scope of permission granted to the University of Utah by the interviewer or interviewee. I may request permission for other uses, in writing to Special Collections at the Marriott Library, which the University of Utah may choose grant, in its sole discretion. I agree to defend, indemnify and hold the University of Utah and its Marriott Library harmless for and against any actions or claims that relate to my improper use of materials provided by the University of Utah. |
| Spatial Coverage |
Germany; Denmark; Box Elder County, Utah, United States |
| Subject |
Clay, Robert B., 1918-2007--Interviews; World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American; Veterans--Utah--Biography; World War, 1939-1945--Aerial operations, American; World War, 1939-1945--Campaigns--Europe, Northern--Personal narratives, American; Prisoners of war--United States; Prisoners of war--Germany |
| Keywords |
351st Bomb Group; POW; Civil Air Authority; Army Air Corps; B-17; B-24 |
| Description |
Transcript (122 pages) of an interview by Benjamin Bahlmann with Robert B. Clay on April 27, 2001. This is from tape numbers 390, 391, and 392 in the "Saving the Legacy Oral History Project |
| Collection Number and Name |
Accn2070, Saving the Legacy oral history project, 2001-2010 |
| Abstract |
Clay (b. 1918) was born in Willard, Utah. He grew up in Utah during the Depression and, after graduating from high school, he learned to fly a Piper Cub through a program sponsored by the Civil Air Authority (CAA). He recounts how he saw an Army Air Corps advertisement which said "You can take this $25,000 course in flying, and get your wings, and get to be a 2nd lieutenant." He joined in 1940 and was trained in California, New Mexico, Colorado and Montana. He was assigned to the 351st Bomb Group, and went to Europe in 1943. Shot down on his seventeenth mission, he was a prisoner of war in Denmark and Germany. After the war he received a PhD in Physics, eventually specializing in explosives research. He was part of the group of men who formed Ireco Chemical Company. 122 pages. |
| Type |
Text |
| Genre |
oral histories (literary works) |
| Format |
application/pdf |
| Extent |
122 pages |
| Language |
eng |
| Rights |
 |
| Scanning Technician |
Mazi Rakhsha |
| Conversion Specifications |
Original scanned with Kirtas 2400 and saved as 400 ppi uncompressed TIFF. PDF generated by Adobe Acrobat Pro X for CONTENTdm display |
| ARK |
ark:/87278/s6hx3bwd |
| Topic |
Personal narratives--American; Veterans; World War (1939-1945); Military operations, Aerial--American; Prisoners of war |
| Setname |
uum_slohp |
| ID |
1020291 |
| Reference URL |
https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6hx3bwd |
| Title |
Page 72 |
| Format |
application/pdf |
| Setname |
uum_slohp |
| ID |
1020238 |
| OCR Text |
Show ROBERT B. CLAY PRIL 27rn 2001 of a sudden I started losing oil pressure on my #3 engine (right in-board) o I fl ath red it. the other one. So now I had one good engine and one windmilling engine. And I was on instruments, and the little plane, our plane, was on the horizontal line of the instruments, and all of a sudden the air speed started picking up. Faster and faster. And I thought, "What is going on?" Either the blind-flying instruments were wrong or the airspeed was wrong. And then, immediately, I figured out what it was. When I was operations officer I'd get the pilots together once in a while and go over some of the engineering details of the B-17. The gyros, for the blind-flying instruments, were spun by a jet of air striking the blades of the gyros which were enclosed in an air tight tank which was continuously evacuated by two vacuum pumps on the inboard engines. So I remembered that when both inboard engines are feathered the gyros stop spinning. BEN: I see. You lost your blind flying instruments. ROB: Right. Then that air speed was correct. Instinctively, when you're picking up speed, you want to pull back on the wheel. But I knew that if you're in a tum you just roll over and soon going straight down. So I put the wheel right in the middle and just held it there and let her build up speed. The B-17's are red-lined at 260 MPH, so the pilot should never go past the redline. And the noise got louder and the controls got tighter. The airspeed passed 260 and kept going up. And I thought, "Oh, my gosh! Are were going to break out of this in time to do anything, will I see water or land one second before we crash?" 70 |
| Reference URL |
https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6hx3bwd/1020238 |
