Bill Geiger

My uncle went to West Point Military Academy, Was the second US citizen to be a licensed pilot, So I thought my knowledge would help everybody, So I became an Eagle, an American RAF pilot. We all signed up September 1940, keenly poised, But did not attend school at Glendale until December, In California where we flew in formation, noised, And did some night flying and acrobatics, I remember. Then we went to England, a very big adventure, You were pretty pleased with yourself, I thought, I felt obliged to do my part in this conjecture, And I just hoped I could do it, ‘cos I was bought. We didn’t feel that we were serving England only, Just everybody, it was for everybody, my piloting, But I got much guts and courage from old Blighty, ‘Cos the British people were resilient in suffering. They would work all day and quench fires at night, And sleep in the London subways, not embarrassed, And brought me breakfast if I landed with a plight, Away from home, they’d send me back harnessed. The first mission was pretty scary, but you’d get it, And then you’d be proud doing what you knew, But in the summer of 1941 we lost 9 pilots, were hit, And I went back for another, gave the Nazi’s a cue. I was hit, over water which I hated, was scared of, But I tried and tried to open my canopy, couldn’t, Until at the last when the plane was near the shove, My friend Gussie pointed to the corner, was prudent. So my glass covering opened and I escaped glad, Parachuted down down into the sea to be picked up, By a German boat, they sent me away as a man mad, To a concentration camp, for over three years, yup.