Passion for planes took off with sights, sounds of World War II

EDMOND — The Army trucks churned dirt and spit out dust as they barreled down the rural road during World War II.

Suddenly, soldiers sprang from the trucks, ducking into trees lining either side.

It was about then that Bill Van Osdol, a boy in his mid-teens, heard what seemed to be a mix of a hornet's nest buzz and a clap of spring thunder.

The airborne commotion was that of an A-20 twin engine bomber.

The aircraft, which caused Van Osdol's heart to pound, had come from the other side of the river and was now spreading a smoke screen. The soldiers would use it as cover while making their charge.

Now let me give you some geographical direction.

The dirt road was the county line between Northwestern Oklahoma's Alfalfa and Grant counties. The soldiers were stationed at what is now Kegelman Field, Vance Air Force Base's auxiliary airfield about seven miles north of Jet.

Back then, it was a busy base and was just across the dirt road from the Van Osdols' farm, where they raised cattle and turkeys and grew alfalfa hay.

The soldiers and pilots were participating in an exercise that brought the plane over the Salt Fork River to provide the smoke screen.

Van Osdol, 79, was born and raised near the town of Jet.

Growing up across from that base, Van Osdol acquired a love for planes that carried him into the end of World II, up in the air later as a flight instructor, back to the ground as an author of fiction and nonfiction war-related books and onto two Navy ships as a psychology professor — as recently as last month.

Physically, Van Osdol and I were sitting in his hangar at the Myrick Airport, east of Interstate 35 between Waterloo and Seward roads.

It was as if he had allowed me to step into his aviation-fueled life. Airplanes here. Airplanes there. Airplanes everywhere.

"Those are Spitfires, those are what saved the Battle of Britain,” he said, nodding toward framed photos on the west wall.

"That's a B-17 Flying Fortress,” he said pointing to a picture on the south wall behind me.

"And that over there is a picture of a B-17 I was on 10 years ago,” he said walking toward the east wall. "That was during the 50th anniversary of the Air Force, and the photo was taken near Mount McKinley.”

In two adjacent buildings are a 1968 Cessna Cardinal and a 1945 Aeronca.

Back in the room we were in, just beyond my right elbow, was an airfield of its own. Actually, it was a table bearing about 200 miniature model airplanes — a combination of war, civilian and experimental aircraft.

"I ran out of room,” he said.

Pick out your favorite and tell me why?

Van Osdol reaches for a little blue F-4U Corsair.

The laminated card on the table gives me the facts about this plane, including: "This World War II fighter was a very successful aircraft for the U.S. Marine Corps.”

But why did you pick up this plane?

"I like the looks of it and the sounds of it,” he said. "And we had them on our ship.”

Bingo.

Van Osdol thinks back to the day when as a 13-year-old he was in study hall at Jet High School listening to Franklin Delano Roosevelt on the radio following the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

"From that point on, it was the objective of almost 100 percent of the boys in our school to join the military when they were old enough,” he said.

Van Osdol graduated in May 1945, went to Enid days later to sign up and that summer was sent to boot camp in San Diego. He would end up on a ship, but wouldn't see any action, he said. That ship, the USS Barnes, left San Diego on April 13, 1946, and from there went to Panama and then to Boston where it was decommissioned later that year.

"That ship was about 540 feet long, and it was an aircraft carrier,” he said. "That's why I really like that plane.”

After the carrier was decommissioned, he was assigned to another ship. They crossed the Atlantic to European ports for a year "where I saw the terrible destruction of WW II.”

Van Osdol went on to pursue a life in education, earning a bachelor's degree from then Central State College in Edmond in 1952, a master's from the University of Oklahoma in 1961 and a doctorate from OU in 1964. He began a career as an educator at Central State College in the fall of 1964 and was there until retiring in 1993 from the University of Central Oklahoma.

During that time, he did many other things, including teaching flying lessons, co-writing introductory textbooks on special education and leading travel tours for Bentley Hedges.

The latter furthered his interest in World War II, which in turn led to books: "Famous Americans in WWII,” "Famous Faces of World War II: A Generation of Patriots,” and then "From Whence They Fell,” a fiction novel set in World II.

But don't think he's just living in the past. Van Osdol twice has been involved in the Program at Sea college education program where professors go on board a Navy ship and teach college classes.

About seven years ago, Van Osdol taught on the USS Abraham Lincoln for eight weeks. In March, he taught on the USS Ronald Reagan.

"My room where I slept was on the same deck as the pilots, and that was right under the flight deck and the catapult,” he said. "The first time or two you hear the planes it's like ‘Wow.' Then after that it's just loud, and they're flying 24 hours.

"But it's still great.”

That right there is the connection between a military maneuver along the county road of his childhood and the passion of planes which feverously burns today in Van Osdol at land, in the air and at sea.