Air veteran now at ease

Like many other young American men, when Dick Goldman got word on

Dec. 7, 1941, that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor, he joined

the armed forces. Goldman applied to become a flying cadet in the

Army Air Corps and was accepted in January 1942, shortly after war

was declared on Japan.

Goldman, now 84, spent 3 1/2 years serving as a bombardier and a

B-17 navigator.

He remembers D-day (June 6, 1944) vividly -- how the English

Channel was so busy with ships and other pieces of equipment, it

resembled the San Diego Freeway as it is today during rush hour. He

flew two missions that day, the only time he ever flew more than one

mission in a single day. Goldman came home in September 1945. A few

months after he returned, he met his wife, Anna Betty Goldman, now

79, on a blind date.

His niece, Susan Goodman, compiled her uncle’s stories from the

war and put together a book for the family in 2001.

The Goldmans, who have spent the past 25 years living in Corona

del Mar, will be celebrating their 58th wedding anniversary this

week.

The Daily Pilot’s Lindsay Sandham recently sat down with Dick

Goldman to hear about his experiences fighting in World War II and

his romance with his wife.

That seems pretty gutsy, enlisting in the Army after something

like the Pearl Harbor attack, when the country is about to go to war.

I wasn’t really unique; it happened to a lot of people my age at

that time. It was a pretty special event in the history of our

country, of course, Pearl Harbor. The country was very much stirred

up by that, and patriotism was pretty rampant at that time. Everyone

that was eligible volunteered for it, so I really wasn’t that unique.

Over the period of the war, I think there were 12 million people in

the service.

How did you go from enlisting to becoming a bombardier and a B-17

navigator?

What happened was I enlisted, and you go to Cadet School ... and I

was sent to a classification center, which was right over here where

Orange Coast College is -- the Santa Ana Army Air Base -- in 1942,

and they give you a test to determine what you’re best at. Then we

went through training, and we went overseas.

And I understand that you and your crew had a special name for the

B-17 that you flew.

Yes, it was called “Nick’s Place.” Henry Nichols was the pilot,

and we named it after him.

You must have met Anna Betty shortly after you came back from

fighting.

We met on a blind date in 1946.

Did your friends set you up?

Yes, Anna Betty had a friend ... I was with another friend down at

the beach together, and we met a couple of girls on the beach, and

the other friend, my friend, made a date with this girl and she says,

“I have a friend that you might want to meet.”

So we went on a blind date, and we went to the Pantages Theater in

Hollywood.

Did you know that you wanted to marry Anna Betty from the moment

you met her?

No, not really. She grew on me, like a wart.