1. www.TheDemocrat.com Where Tate County Meets The World
July 19, 2011
Section B
Tate Talk
Joe Molea is a fighter.
The first thing that the
86-year-old Buena Vista
Lakes resident would tell
you is that he is a soul win-
ner. Molea fights for what
he believes in: his Christian
faith.
Molea, who has an ad-
vanced form of cancer, is
also a veteran of World War
II, having served as a gun-
ner on a B-17 bomber. He
fought for the same Ameri-
can freedom that was estab-
lished by the founders of this
nation.
Raised in Akron, Ohio,
the son of an Italian im-
migrant, Molea is one of
twelve children, five sons
and seven daughters. When
the war broke out, two of his
older brothers went off to
fight. Joe says that the day
that he turned 18, he went to
sign up for the United States
Army Air Corps.
“I wanted to go to war
too,” Molea said. “I figured
if my two brothers could go,
I could go too.”
Upon enlistment and
completion of his training,
Molea was assigned to the
384th Bombard Group as
part of the 546th Bombard-
ment Squadron, stationed in
England.
He describes the excite-
ment they felt when they
first arrived overseas and
awaited assignment.
“We were like a bunch of
guys with all of that train-
ing sitting on a bench like a
football team waiting to go
out and play. It’s the strang-
est thing how you’re young
and you feel like you’re bul-
let proof or you feel like, ‘I
can’t wait to get in there and
kill those damn Germans for
all they did to us,” he said.
“We flew every chance the
weather would permit us.
There was a lot of times
when we wouldn’t fly for
four or five days, maybe six
or seven days. Each one of
those gets you anxious. Of
course we were scared ev-
ery time we went. I’d chal-
lenge a guy to say he wasn’t
scared. But we still went be-
cause we wanted to see the
war over.”
Molea says that the B-17
flights typically took ten
hours, as the “Flying For-
tress”, as they’re called, are
long-range bombers and
would fly completely across
Germany, largely without an
escort. Because they didn’t
have the escort protection
that they needed, he says
sometimes they would lose
fifteen planes and only come
back with eight.
“All of these (people we
lost) were good friends of
ours. We got to where, after
our tenth mission, we started
getting silly. We started ask-
ing dumb questions like,
‘Hey, I like that jacket you’re
wearing, if you don’t come
back can I have it?’ and stuff
like that. We’d put money in
a pot and, if there were ten
crews that did that, the ones
that came back would split
the money.”
Because the B-17 would
fly at high altitudes, some-
times 35,000 feet, the pilots
would have to take seri-
ous precautions in order to
stay warm, as temperatures
would drop to 60 degrees be-
low zero. They would have
to wear thick electric boots
they would plug in to keep
warm, and heavy gloves,
especially for those, such as
Molea, who were gunners,
having to handle the metal
guns. Molea recalls people
not wearing their gloves and
paying the price, sometimes
losing fingers to frost bite.
“A lot of times when we
came back you could watch
the doctors thump (the
fingers) right off of their
hands because they were
all black and frost-bitten,
because they did that when
we trained them not to do it.
But, you know how some
guys are. ‘Oh, you know that
can’t happen to me.’”
“We were scared to death
when we started going to
Berlin. We wanted to hit
Berlin hard because we
knew Hitler was there, and
it was right close to the time
the war was over. We’d be
going over there and planes
were constantly coming
back to reload. It was close
to D-Day. The guys on the
ground were really moving
too.”
Molea can recall one in-
stance where things didn’t
go quite as planned. Gen-
eral Patton once led his
troops into an area that was
scheduled to be bombed to
early, and the planes ended
up dropping bombs on their
own troops.
“General Patton was a
glory hound. General Eisen-
hower would tell him to
hold back until the bombers
got in there. He wanted to
be a glory hound. He’d go
in there before the bomb-
ers and we bombed our own
men one time. They got
hit hard and bad but they
still stayed there because it
was just minutes from the
town where we dropped our
bombs.”
This occurrence led to a
chance encounter years later.
“I met a guy one time in
New Orleans and I was ex-
plaining to him what I did
and he was explaining what
he did on the ground, and he
said, ‘The Eighth Air Force
bombed us one time because
we got up there too early.’
And I said, that was us,”
Molea laughed. “Boy he
was mad, he said, ‘You son
of a gun!’and I said well, we
did what we were supposed
to do and you did what you
were supposed to do. But
Eisenhower told them not to
go in until (Patton) got word
that the bombers had been in
first. But he went in.”
Molea also recalls a time
in his tour that he, an Akron
resident crossed paths with
another man, whom he had
never met, also from Akron.
Although the two did not
know each other, they had
more in common than they
initially realized.
“We sat together and we
started talking and he says
he’s got a girlfriend and he
can’t wait to go back and see
her because he missed her so
much. I said ‘Yeah, I’ve got
a girlfriend too,’and I pulled
out my wallet and he pulled
out his and we showed each
other the same girl. I’ll never
forget that. His jaw dropped
open and he said ‘You’ve
got to be kidding!’ We never
did see her anymore, even
when we got home.”
Molea’s crew successful-
ly completed 35 flights. The
famous Memphis Belle flew
25 missions with a 10-man
crew and gained fame for
keeping its crew completely
intact.
Because of their achieve-
ments in the war effort over-
seas, Molea’s home now
proudly displays a case full
of awards he was issued in
recognition for his service.
Molea also once turned
down an opportunity to re-
ceive a Purple Heart award.
The Purple Heart is an award
reserved for those who have
been wounded in battle.
“I got shot right here (in
the hand). We got hit hard
that day with flak and stuff,”
he said. “When we got on
the ground we always had to
be interviewed because we
might give our group some
information that would help
with the next mission we
go to. I was taking my silk
glove off and I couldn’t get
it off. When I finally got it
off, I had some blood there
that had coagulated on that
glove. The doctor says,
‘Well here, let me sign you
up for the Purple Heart,’ and
I said, ‘You’ve got to be kid-
ding.’ I didn’t get it. I should
have said okay because if
you got a purple heart you
got a little extra pay, plus
you get points for that and
you get discharged when the
war was over. But it didn’t
matter.”
Following his time in
World War II, Molea stayed
in the reserves and was
called back to duty during
the Korean War. He wasn’t
called into combat, he
trained those who were go-
ing into combat.
Molea loves to share tes-
timony of the time that he
was saved.
“A friend of mine that
was in the war came over
one night and said that he’d
been saved. I didn’t know
what ‘saved’ meant. I asked,
‘What do you mean you
got saved, were you on fire
or were you drowning or
what?’ and he said, ‘No, I
gave my heart to Jesus and
I asked him to forgive me
of my sins and live in my
heart.’ I asked how he knew
that because that sounded
funny, having someone liv-
ing inside of you, and he
said he didn’t know how to
explain but he experienced it
and he invited me to church
with him,” he said. ”When I
went to the church with him,
everything that minister said
fit my life to a tee. I thought
somebody told him about
me. I was 24 years old then
and that was the first time
that I’d heard the gospel. I’d
never heard that. I went for-
ward and accepted the Lord
and it was exciting for me
because I’d never heard it.”
“After I was saved about
six months or a year I started
thinking about that. Here I
am and I’ve been in this war
and a lot of guys, when the
lights went out and we were
supposed to go to sleep,
would get out of their bunk
and get on their knees and
pray. I could hear that noise
and I’d see these guys down
there and I was thinking
‘Man, those guys are really
religious. They’re on their
knees right here in the army.’
I was thinking about that and
thinking it’s funny that I’ve
been saved just a short time
and I’m telling everyone
about Jesus, and these guys
were with me for years, and
never even mentioned Jesus
to me. What if I’d gotten
blown out of the sky? Those
guys could have at least told
me. In my opinion, I think
everybody should at least
hear it, and then their deci-
sion is their own deal.”
Following his service dur-
ing the Korean War, Molea
says he went to school to
study the Bible and the once
he got a good education, he
began teaching the Bible and
says that he’s been teaching
it for 50 years now. It’s his
faith that he leans on as he
deals with cancer.
“It’s been a wonder-
ful journey. After all those
years of me living, because
if someone would have told
me when I was 50 that I’d be
alive in 2011, I’d have called
them crazy. I wouldn’t even
believe them. But here I am,
86 years old and still alive
and I’m weighing it all up.
I’ve been teaching the Bible
for 50 of those years and got
excited about it. I know all
about what’s going to hap-
pen when I die,” he said. “I
told my class yesterday I’m
not supposed to be here. I’m
supposed to be in that man-
sion that Jesus was making
for me last month, because
the doctor said I had six
months and that was seven
months ago. Whatever is go-
ing on in (my body), I don’t
know about. I do know this.
I feel so good, that I’ve start-
ed just living the life of a
normal 86-year-old man and
if I’m able to get my tractor
out and mow my lawn then
I’m going to do it. And I did
the next afternoon.”
Author’s note:As a young
man, I’ve grown up hearing
references to the people who
lived during the Great De-
pression and World War II as
“The Greatest Generation.”
Never has that been clear-
er to me than in my brief
meeting with Joe.
Joe Molea is “The Great-
est Generation” personified.
And they just don’t make
them like that anymore.
Fighting the good fight
Theron Fly
Reporter
Pets of the
Week
Senatobia Tate Co.
Animal Shelter
909 E.F. Hale Dr.
662-562-0070
Forever Homes
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My name is Bella
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My name is lurch and
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All pets adopted from
the STC Animal Shel-
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The shelter is open
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noon until 5 p.m. and
Saturdays 9 a.m. - 1
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