WWII veteran, nearing 100, served as B-17 waist gunner

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – Staff Sgt. James Boring served in World War II. He was born and raised in southeast Kansas but moved to Wichita and attended East High School before being drafted.

“When they drafted me, I wanted to be a Marine because all my cousins were, but the Corps was filled up, wanted to be a paratrooper, and they told me that’s too light, said all we got left for you is the Army Air Force,” Boring said.

His training started in Utah, then continued in Colorado. Boring said in each place, he was always put on KP, or kitchen patrol. At Buckley Field in Colorado, now Buckley Space Force Base, he learned the logistics of his new weapon.

“We took a .50 caliber machine gun and cleaned the Cosmoline off them, took them apart, put them together, must have done it for a week, and then, they blindfolded me, and you could take it apart and put it together, you passed,” Boring said.

His training continued in Nebraska, where his crew was formed. Then they went to Arizona where they practiced shooting markers on the ground. After more training in El Paso, he’d eventually get to Dover, Delaware, his last stop before heading to war.

Boring was shipped to England in 1944, serving in the Eighth Army Air Force in the 368th Bombardment Squadron as a waist gunner on a B-17 called “The Ruptured Duck,” flying missions over Germany.

“Bad part of flying over those places is they’d shoot flack back up at you, and then hit the airplane sounded like hail hitting a tin roof,” he said.

Boring spent nearly two years in Europe, and spent time in North Africa after the war.

“About the end of the war, Germany had jets, and I got to shoot at a jet, and they were fast,” he said.

Boring returned from the war in 1946. He and a cousin spent time in Idaho, working in a silver mine, getting their pay in silver dollars before he returned to Wichita.

“I would get married to my girlfriend that wrote to me while I was in the service overseas,” he said.

Boring said during the war, his future wife, Nadine, had worked at Beechcraft. She worked alongside another woman Boring knew, and she asked Nadine to write to him. They married in 1947. She passed away in 1969.

Boring started a new career after the war.

“Went to Kansas City to electrical school, government paid for it,” he said. “I’ve been an electrician ever since,” he said.

One of his jobs included wiring the runway lights on an extended runway at Wichita’s airport.

During Boring’s time off, he kept statistics for WSU Athletics. He started in 1965 and continued until 2010, taking notes on home basketball and football games, and track and field competitions.

“I think I went to the ball games and then they recruited me to do all this stuff because they were short at that time of anybody keeping score,” he said.

Boring also stayed active by water skiing.

“Weekends, we’d go down to Table Rock and have a good time,” he said.

Until the doctor’s orders put an end to that.

“When I got to be 90, they made me quit,” Boring said.

Now, he keeps busy with his senior bowling league, spending many Thursday mornings at Derby’s bowling alley.

“After we got through bowling, we would come to the house here and have dinner and play cards for about three hours,” Boring said.

Boring’s 100th birthday is coming up in November. He says he plans to spend it in his recliner.

He looks back on his time in the service fondly.

“I enjoyed every bit of it, except the early mornings when you’re on KP [kitchen patrol]. You got to eat good, but it wasn’t my favorite thing to do,” Boring said.

Decades later, he’s had to say a lot of goodbyes.

“The worst part of it is all your crew. I used to send them Christmas cards, and they’ve all died, and most of them, wives have died, and it’s very sad,” Boring said.

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