HUGHESTOWN, Pa. — World War II veteran Pat Solano of Hughestown, age 95, spends a lot of his time adding things to his garden around his home. Newswatch 16 found out that if you want to learn more about his time as a flight engineer with the other members of his bomber crew during the war, all you have to do is ask.
"None of us were 20 years old. Gave us a brand-new bomber flying over the north Atlantic, landed in Prestwick, Scotland, left the plane there. They put us in a band group and within a week we were bombing Germany. 19 years old and we flew 23 combat missions," Solano recalled.
Solano specifically remembers March 18, 1945, the day his plane and more than 1,000 others bombed Berlin.
"You could see bombers all the way to a point in front and bombers at a point behind them. That's how many bombers were going in on that city."
Solano says after the war was over in Europe, he and his crew were training to head to the Pacific to continue fighting Japan, but the plan was canceled, and he was sent to Africa for the Casey Jones project to remap the war-scarred Mediterranean coast. Little did he know that was likely because leaders knew a different plan would likely end the war.
"Nobody knew what the biggest secret in the world. And I don't know how they kept that all so quiet, that atomic bomb, or worked on that thing. I don't know where in Arizona or someplace. It was amazing. But when that bomb (was dropped) we were surprised as anybody about that."
But Solano says what surprises him the most is how much he and his brothers were able to accomplish at such a young age.
"When the war ended, none of us were 21. Just think about that. none of us were 21. Look at the kids today. I got my grandkids and I give them my, I joke with them and I tell them, 'Look what I did, and you guys can't start the lawnmower.' But it was a different time."
Regardless of the changes, Solano says he is thankful for his family and the career he had working for a total of 11 Pennsylvania governors after the war.