When Capt. Art Palmer, 103, talks about his service during World War II, he leans forward in his chair, his voice intensifies, and his hands fidget, like he’s back in combat.
. After 16 months’ training, he was sent overseas with the 98th Bombardment Group, first to Casablanca, then Southern Italy, where Art piloted the B-24 Liberator, a slow, drafty bomber nicknamed the Flying Coffin.
On a run through heavy anti-aircraft fire, an enemy shell tore through his plane’s nose and exploded. Art felt intense heat. He grabbed a fire extinguisher, but flames engulfed the plane"like a blast furnace," Art said. He and two others parachuted into enemy territory. The rest of the crew didn’t make it. The survivors met on the ground, intent upon walking to Yugoslavia.
Art was one of the first POWs shipped back to the United States. But he battled tuberculosis and constant back pain due to eroded vertebrae, a result of malnutrition and a bacterial infection. He spent the next three years in military hospitals. Surgery and a Stryker frame helped.
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