Joel Urice was born in Oklahoma in March 1924. He grew up in a small town. Everything moved slower back then. Urice’s father was German and moved to Oklahoma when he was three years old. His father worked in old fields. His mother was the daughter of a Baptist preacher and her mother was part Native American. Their family was fortunate during the Depression [Annotator's Note: Great Depression; a global economic depression that lasted through the 1930s]. His father was able to keep a job throughout the entire period of the depression. They moved a lot because they had to go where the work was. Urice went on a plane for the first time when he was five years old. He started school at five years old. They moved to Oklahoma City [Annotator’s Note: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma] in 1929 because there was a prolific oil field there. His father drilled oil in Northern Texas. They found helium gas. Urice learned to drive at a young age.

Joel Urice moved to Taft, Texas during his junior year of high school in 1940. It was a different culture of people. He graduated in May 1941. That summer, he worked in the oil fields of Texas. In September 1941, he went to the University of Texas at Austin [Annotator’s Note: Austin, Texas] as a medical student. He worked in the summer to earn money for school. Pearl Harbor happened in December 1941 [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He was 17 years old. He was automatically exempted from being drafted because he was in school. He was not 18 years old until after Pearl Harbor. Urice dropped out of school to join the war effort. He was inducted into the Army on 11 November 1943. He chose the Air Force. He was rated higher as a bombardier and navigator. He went to basic training in Amarillo, Texas. He went to Arizona as a cadet in 1944. In March 1944, the Army eliminated 50,000 cadets. Urice was in that group and he picked gunnery school. While there, he developed scarlet fever. He graduated in August 1944. He was given a 10-day leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] and was then sent to Tampa, Florida where he was supposed to be assigned to an air crew. They were flying every day. The crew had to get comfortable in an airplane. They flew to Goose Bay, Labrador [Annotator's Note: Labrador, Canada]. Then they flew to Iceland. Finally, they went to an RAF [Annotator’s Note: Royal Air Force] field in Wales.

Joel Urice was assigned to the 100th Bombardment Group [Annotator’s Note: 351st Bombardment Squadron, 100th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force] in England. They arrived there on 29 December 1944. The weather was extremely cold. They were assigned to a hut that was divided into two parts. There were enlisted men on each end. The other crew in their barracks was shot down on a mission to Hamburg, Germany. One day a V1 [Annotator's Note: V-1 pulse jet flying bomb, German name: Vengeance Weapon 1; Allied names: buzz bomb, doodlebug] flew over the base and everyone knew what it was. They took their preliminary prisoner of war photos in order for the Resistance to know who they were. On 13 January 1945, they flew their first mission to Germany. The target was a bridge. They experienced some flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire], but no fighters approached them. The next mission was near Berlin [Annotator’s Note: Berlin, Germany]. They were flying as Tail End Charlie [Annotator’s Note: the last aircraft in a formation]. Four planes were knocked down by the flak. Their plane was hit by a large piece of flak and it left a big hole in the plane.

Joel Urice vividly remembers the belongings of the crews who did not make it back from Hamburg [Annotator’s Note: Hamburg, Germany] getting packed up. Urice was shocked when he saw the first plane getting shot down on his second mission. They were flying, and then they were falling. Urice was a tail gunner. It was a small area. He had his own hatch to bail out. The first two missions he flew in were in a B-17 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber]. The tail was an extremely cold place to be. The small windows would ice up on the inside. He was told to take a scraper and a lemon to clear the ice. They had to make sure their oxygen masks did not freeze up because they needed them at the altitudes at which they were flying. When they initially got into Germany, they experienced a lot of flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire]. Urice spotted a fighter slowly coming up behind them. The fighter got into position to attack their plane. Urice saw the plane’s wings light up and he thought it was the landing lights at first. The 390th [Annotator’s Note: 390th Bombardment Group] lost nine planes that day.

Joel Urice saw the hole in their plane before they landed. He does not remember ever discussing the missions with the rest of the crew. His next mission was to Hamburg [Annotator’s Note: Hamburg, Germany]. It was a target that no one wanted because the last bomb group had lost 12 planes there. The flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire] was anticipated to be heavy there. They had some chaff made of aluminum foil which they threw out of the plane to divert the German radars. They did not get hit by any flak. The target was an oil depot with supply tanks. When they would return from the missions, they would be interrogated and would received a cup of whiskey. The fourth mission was to target a bridge. The weather was awful. The cloud cover was so intense that they did not break out until 20,000 feet. Their pilot forgot to pay attention to his oxygen mask and it froze. He went into shock and the co-pilot had to break formation for the pilot to recover. They had to land at a fighter base. They buried the left wheel in the mud.

Joel Urice remembers the weather was terrible. They had to go through an overcast. There was an opening in the clouds over the base and they made it back safely. The next mission was to Kassel, Germany. The target was a Tiger tank [Annotator's Note: German Mark VI main battle tank; known as the Tiger] manufacturing facility. The next mission was going to be Berlin [Annotator’s Note: Berlin, Germany]. No one wanted to go to Berlin. The target was transportation and railroad yards. The flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire] over Berlin was intense. It was solid over the target. The lead squadron lost four planes immediately. The flak hit Urice’s plane. It took out the number four engine and hit another engine on that side. They immediately lost elevation and fell. They were then flying alone. They were never bothered by the Luftwaffe [Annotator’s Note: German air forces]. They flew back over Germany. There was a P-51 [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] following and protecting them. They were flying on two motors which were both on the left side of the plane. They were losing gasoline. They tossed out all of the guns except the top turret and the tail gun. They made it back to the base safely.

Joel Urice flew his seventh mission in Germany below Berlin [Annotator’s Note: Berlin, Germany]. They experienced a lot of flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire], but not many fighters. They had to land on a fighter strip in the area of Belgium. The next day, they flew back to the base. [Annotator’s Note: Urice discusses how the crew members would switch positions.] They spent a great deal of time training new crew members. There seemed to always be a problem flying in the winter. The crew became a close-knit group and they did not get to know other crews. The closeness helped them go on another mission. Urice’s crew was credited with 13 missions. They only flew every third mission as the lead crew.

Joel Urice remembers the plane “Our Gal Sal” [Annotator's Note: a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber in the 100th Bombardment Group], and the main crew who flew it. As they finished their last mission, VE-Day [Annotator's Note: Victory in Europe Day, 8 May 1945] was announced. They started to break up crews after this. They flew a few practice missions. They were in the process of moving B-17s to Germany to then be transported to Asia to aid in the war against Japan. Before their crew could get transferred, VJ-Day [Annotator's Note: Victory Over Japan Day, 15 August 1945] came and everything changed altogether. The crews and command groups were broken up by the points system [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home]. The older ground crews and personnel started getting transferred back to the United States. Slowly, their crew was assigned to leave at different times. Urice remined there until the closing of the base. They sent Urice to Germany in November 1945. Camp Lucky Strike [Annotator's Note: one of the transit and rehabilitation camps in France named after popular cigarette brands; Lucky Strike was near Le Havre, France] was a big holding area for soldiers. Eventually, he ended up in Kassel, Germany. Kassel was in ruins in the downtown area.

Joel Urice was assigned to an apartment with another 100th Bombardment Group member in Germany. He had enough points to go home [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home]. He did not leave for 30 days. They were served by young German women in the mess hall. When they took a trip to the coast, there were always men trying to trade for cigarettes. Urice did not want anything to do with the military when he returned home. After VJ-Day [Annotator's Note: Victory Over Japan Day, 15 August 1945], everything was disjointed. There was no chain of command for the gunners who were left there. [Annotator’s Note: Urice discusses what happened to the members of the crew after the war was over.] He was not assigned to anything while he was in Kassel, just in a holding position. Once he made it back to the coast, he was loaded onto a liberty ship [Annotator's Note: a class of quickly produced cargo ship].

Joel Urice was a leading NCO [Annotator's Note: noncommissioned officer] on the troop carrier. It took 13 days to get back to the United States. Urice spent most of his time above deck. They came in by the Statue of Liberty and docked. There was a Red Cross [Annotator's Note: Red Cross, an international non-profit humanitarian organization] canteen there and they got coffee and donuts. They landed in late January 1946. Urice was sent to Fort Dix, New Jersey. He was fed steaks and ice cream. Urice went to New York City [Annotator’s Note: New York City, New York] to meet a friend. They went to jazz clubs. He went back to Fort Sam Houston, Texas and was quickly discharged. He was asked to sign up for the reserves, but he said no. He did not want anything to do with the Army once he was discharged. His mother picked him up after he was discharged. His mother came to visit him before he left Savannah, Georgia to go overseas.

Joel Urice was changed by the war in a lot of ways. He developed maturity. He did not like the conditions they lived under. He did not like the lack of making his own decisions. The G.I. Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment] was a welcome thing. He was discharged on 6 February 1946. He spent his time working while he waited for the next semester to start. Urice worked on a drilling rig. He made 40 cents an hour for a 40-hour week. He tried to keep in touch with his crew members. He was not interested in talking about his experience in the service. They kept in touch by writing letters. He went to the 100th Bombardment Group reunions.

Joel Urice used to resist being interviewed. He thinks if they have heard one story, they have heard them all, only the names have been changed. [Annotator's Note: Urice enjoyed giving his interview to The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana.]