Jerome Krueger

Jerome Krueger was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1925, and raised with his older brother in Irvington. Krueger graduated early from high school; and, at the age of sixteen began his college education, majoring in Business Administration and minoring in Geography at Montclair State Teachers College, now Montclair State University.

Shortly after beginning college in autumn 1941, Krueger, while spending a Sunday afternoon studying and listening to the radio, was stunned to hear reports of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. He recalled that the attack was utterly shocking to him. His brother, then a teacher in Puerto Rico, was drafted immediately after the declaration of war. Krueger, while at the time too young to serve, knew that when he turned eighteen, he would have to register for the draft and possibly be drafted soon afterward. Despite this, and the shift to a wartime economy, he greatly enjoyed his college experience.

Krueger recalled that wartime gasoline rationing had little effect on him, as he had no car. He worked a variety of jobs to pay for his education, including government work programs, a part-time shoe salesman, and odd jobs posted by the school. On one occasion, Krueger went with some friends to play an extra in a show at Newark’s The Mosque Theater (now Newark Symphony Hall).

Krueger was allowed to finish his second year of college before being drafted in May of 1943. After assessment at Fort Dix, New Jersey, he was assigned to the Army Air Forces and sent to Miami Beach, Florida, for basic training. Krueger was particularly excited to be traveling so far from home, as he had never been further away from Irvington than Philadelphia. Upon arriving in Miami Beach, he began basic training, and learned to march and to fire machine guns. Krueger and his fellow recruits were quartered in local hotels that lacked air conditioning. This combined with the Florida climate in the hot summer months, lessened Krueger’s enjoyment of his training.

Over the course of his training, Krueger’s aptitude was tested in order to determine what tasks within the Air Forces he was best suited for. He was selected to become a Radio Operator; and, after completion of basic training in October 1943, was sent to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, for radio training.

At Sioux Falls, Krueger was instructed in the intricacies of radio operation and maintenance, including how to build small radios and how to decipher coded radio transmissions. Along with attending classes during the day, he and his fellow students fulfilled additional duties around the base at night. By the time his training ended in March 1944, Krueger felt well prepared to serve as Radio Operator on flight missions. Before proceeding to service duty, he briefly attended Gunnery School in Yuma, Arizona. Prior to his experiences in Gunnery School, Krueger recalled there being some uncertainty as to his final position in the Air Forces: whether he would be called to serve as radio operator, or as “belly gunner” on a bomber.

Krueger’s initial affinity for gunnery was aided by his short stature and slight frame, as he could maneuver within the cramped interior spaces of an aircraft “belly” turret more easily. Once he acquired some training in gunnery however, he decided he did not want to be selected for the position.

As part of Gunnery School training, Krueger participated in practice flights aboard B-17 bombers. Through this training, he became averse to gunnery, spurred by doubts that he could physically handle recoil and reverberation of aircraft mounted machineguns. Krueger became convinced that he would die in the line of duty should he become a gunner. In order to escape the possibility of such a fate, he and a group of his friends requested to be transferred out of the gunnery program. This request was granted, with Krueger and his comrades being transferred to Reno, Nevada, to complete their advanced radio training before ultimately being sent to the Air Transport Command in Long Beach, California, in August 1944.

Krueger recalled his posting in Long Beach as one of the most pleasant periods of his service, characterizing it as the best place in the Air Forces. He took great enjoyment from his duties during this time, as well as the base’s location. The men of the Air Transport Command were responsible for transferring newly manufactured aircraft, primarily B-24 bombers and C-47 cargo planes, from the United States to Australia for use by the Royal Australian Air Force. Krueger worked on these ferrying flights as a Radio Operator, flying fifteen hours from Long Beach to Honolulu, before hopping across various South Pacific islands to ultimately arrive at Brisbane, Australia.

Krueger loved this duty, as it allowed him to apply all the skills he had learned in his training over the course of each long flight. It further allowed him to travel the breadth of the Pacific Theater, something which he enjoyed immensely. Krueger recalled having landed with his crew in New Guinea while General MacArthur was present on the island. On another occasion, Krueger took the opportunity to visit the brother of a friend stationed on the island and agreed to carry a message back to his mother when he returned to Long Beach.

On his return from these flights, Krueger and the rest of his crew would receive two to three days off and could pursue leisure activities. Krueger was fortunate, as the Long Beach Base was extremely close to Los Angeles and Hollywood. Hollywood was always extremely welcoming to servicemen on leave, with public facilities, community centers, restaurants, and even some private homes open to servicemen, providing lodging, meals, desserts, and other amenities. Krueger recalled going to the Hollywood Canteen, where movie stars often appeared for the troops, and soldiers could dance with actress Carol Landis. Beyond Hollywood, crews on leave could earn extra money by working between flights as laborers at the nearby Douglass Aircraft Company facility which, under wartime conditions, was desperate for workers.

While the rhythm of life in Long Beach was pleasant, it was not, however, permanent. On Christmas Day 1944, Krueger and the buddies he had made in Yuma, Reno, and Long Beach gathered together for the last time at the home of the base librarian before shipping out. Neither he nor his friends knew where exactly they would be deployed, only that they would be headed for the Far East. This period was made memorable to Krueger by the fact that they all left Long Beach around the same time, if not necessarily for the same destinations, generating an aura of nervous anticipation.

Because Krueger did not know when or where he would disembark, it raised his anxiety, as several of his friends got off the flight in Calcutta, India. He did not envy them, and his brief glimpse of the city’s overpopulation, poverty and dirty streets made him happy he was
still on the plane. To escape from the fear of being separated from his friends and heading towards an unknown location and situation, Krueger filled his time as a passenger by reading.

After leaving Calcutta, Krueger’s flight continued to its final destination in Burma, where he was stationed until November 1945. The accommodations at the airstrip were primitive but not uncomfortable, consisting primarily of muddy roads and tents. The tents held six men each and, while they lacked a wooden floor, were spacious and relatively comfortable. Over the course of his stay in Burma, Krueger grew to view his tent mates as brothers and got along well with them, as well as the other Radio Operators and Flight Engineers. He quickly grew accustomed to life on the base, learning to play bridge with his fellow airmen, and bartering away his cigarette and beer rations as he did not smoke or drink. The base employed a Burmese house boy to do soldiers’ laundry in a nearby river. Krueger even completed a University of Maryland Correspondence course in Psychology shortly before his departure.

Despite the continuation of fierce fighting elsewhere in the region, the airfield was well secured, as the Japanese had already been pushed far to the south by American forces two months prior to Krueger’s arrival. He recalled not seeing any Japanese soldiers during the entirety of his stay in Burma. The greatest danger, dwarfing the threat of Japanese ground forces, for the pilots and crews flying from Burma over the Himalayas into China and India was the extreme cold and dangerous weather conditions which came with flying at such great altitudes. These conditions could result in the plane icing up, stalling, and crashing into the mountainside if not carefully monitored. Such conditions necessitated constant vigilance on the part of the crews, despite the general lack of Japanese interference.

Krueger’s job was as a crewman transporting supplies, especially oil, to allied forces in India, and Nationalist Chinese troops under Chiang Kai Shek fighting Japanese invasion in China. These missions would involve flying low, then up-and-over the peaks of the Himalayas, before descending again on the other side, thus earning them the moniker of “Hump flights.”

The “Hump flights” were not strictly for the transport of material, and Krueger took part in the transport of personnel of the Chinese Sixth Army back to their home country, including some horses attached to their Cavalry units. The Chinese soldiers, however, lacked the oxygen supplies which allowed the flight crew to maintain consciousness at high altitudes, and thus were rendered unconscious shortly into the journey, including their horses. Krueger recalled being both amazed and amused at the notion of transporting horses and cavalrymen on airplanes, especially as they lost consciousness immediately after taking off, and quickly awoke upon landing. Despite this close proximity, Krueger had little interaction with the Chinese soldiers, though he understood that their silence was partially due to the longing and anticipation to see their homeland again after years of fighting.

The Hump flights flew to various cities in China, including Kunming and Nanjing, and Krueger recalled being able to see the mountains of Vietnam, though he did not even realize it was Vietnam at the time. While in these Chinese cities, he would trade for or purchase local food to bring back to base, being especially fond of eggs. Krueger further picked up some words and phrases in Chinese during this time. Poor weather would sometimes force the planes to remain in China overnight, causing the crew to seek accommodations in usually poor local barracks. It was during one of these periods, while staying in the city of Kunming, that he received word of the Japanese surrender and the war’s end. This news was shortly followed by the sound of gunfire erupting throughout the city, confusing and shocking Krueger. He later learned that the source of the gunshots were firefights breaking out between Communist guerrillas and Nationalist forces under Chiang Kai-shek, as the Communists attempted to wrest control of the city in the wake of the Japanese withdrawal.

While the nature of the supplies changed slightly, the Hump flights continued after the end of the war. Food and blankets picked up from India and Bangladesh replaced the wartime goods in shipments to China. Due to the Air Forces policy of making personnel eligible for discharge based on accumulated points corresponding to flight hours and time in service, Krueger was able to leave the service after only two years, returning home faster than his brother, due to the high point value associated with flight hours over the dangerous China-Burma Hump. Krueger’s return journey occurred in November 1945 aboard a C-54 cargo plane on which he served as Radio Operator for one leg of the journey. Traveling east over Asia and North Africa, the flight was especially meaningful to him, as the pilot flew over Jerusalem and landed in Egypt to allow the crew to visit the Great Pyramids and Sphinx. After being delayed over the Azores by engine trouble, Krueger finally landed at Homestead Field in Florida, from where he traveled to Fort Dix New Jersey, to be officially discharged.

Following the conclusion of the war and his service, Krueger continued to pursue his education with the support of the GI Bill, ultimately becoming an attorney and founding his own law firm, which he continued to work at until retiring at the age of 90. He settled with his family in Linden, where he further became active in politics as a NJ Assemblyman. Krueger engaged in volunteer work and encouraged participation in the Peace Corps. He traveled the world alongside his wife throughout their life together, revisiting many of the places significant to his time in the service, and taking the time to learn more of the history and culture. Krueger received the Air Medal and Distinguished Flying Cross in recognition of 200 and 500 flight hours respectively.

Jerome Krueger passed away peacefully in Daytona Beach, Florida, August 1, 2023, at the age of 98.

Additional Resources:

• Jerome Krueger, elected to State Assembly in 1961, dies at 98
• Amazing Seniors: Jerry and Esther Krueger