Those Were the Days: Warren Hasse

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Warren Hasse and I had become good friends after high school and college. I had gone back to Pampa as the assistant basketball coach to Terry Culley. Hasse, as everybody called him, announced all of our games being the owner and sportscaster of KPDN Radio.

In 1966, I gave up coaching and went into the insurance business in Bryan/College Station, Texas, where I have remained for fifty years.

Every time I would go to Pampa, I would always have a nice visit with Hasse. About ten years ago, we were sitting in his den reminiscing and I noticed a small model WWII B-17 bomber sitting on his coffee table. So, I pointed to it and ask him, “What’s the story behind your WWII bomber?”

Without any hesitation, he says, “Oh, I flew 35 missions over France and Germany. I was the nose gunner in a B-17, the #1 work horse of all the bombers in WWII!” He said the pilot of each plane got to name their plane so his was called “Hilda” after his wife.

There were 11 men in each crew and so many were killed during your flights that your friendships almost became nonexistent because they were here to today and gone tomorrow. 

There were only three out of the original crew that lived ... the pilot, and bombardier and Hasse.

I asked which was the worse trip. He answered it was mission #23. “We were so shot up with one motor down, the other on fire, six crew members down, and we had to tie the tail to the front half with our parachute cords to hold the plane together.

“We barely made the White Clift’s of Dover before crash landing with no wheels down, and when we got out, we kissed the ground!” Hasse’s injuries were cuts from broken glass when a bullet came through the glass nose.

After 35 missions, Hasse was sent to different airbases as an instructor. After the war, his squadron (250 aircraft) had a reunion every five years until 2010. Second question: Do you happen to know what ever happened to your B-17, “Hilda?” ‘’Yes, it made two more years before it was eventually shot down.”

Our conversation ended with him saying, “The good lord was certainly watching over me and I just hope I have lived a life pleasing to Him!” I told him he had touched more lives than he could ever imagine.

Footnote: I had known Hasse for over fifty years when we had this conversation. In all those years he had never told anyone what you just read ...