BRATTLEBORO — Like many men of his generation, Jay Karpin went off to war.
Born in 1924, he enlisted in the Army Air Force the day after he graduated from Hicksville High School on Long Island in 1942, and he went through months of training to become a bombardier and navigator.
He was assigned to the 493rd Bombardment Group, the last bomb group of the famed Eighth Air Force to become operational in Europe.
And that is how the 493rd's - and Karpin's - first combat mission took place on June 6, 1944.
D-Day.
Three weeks shy of his 20th birthday, he was the bombardier on one of the first crews flying over Omaha Beach in Normandy that day to attack German airfields, bridges, and gun batteries inland.
“It was an incredible sight, a sight I'll never forget,” said Karpin. “So many ships and boats and people. We flew low enough that we could see everything that was going on.”
Two planes from his formation were shot down that day, a reminder of how dangerous his role was in the first successful battle in the Allied liberation of France.
Karpin said he actually flew a second mission over France that day, but it didn't get credited, since it was a few minutes short of the six hours that constituted an official flight mission.
Because of his actions that day, and the rest of his time with the 493rd, the government of France awarded Karpin with the Legion of Honor - the highest award it can bestow on a non-citizen.
His medal was delivered to his home last week, but Karpin and his family will go to the French Consul General's office in Boston next month to formally accept his appointment as a “Chevalier” (“Knight”) of the Legion of Honor.
A distinguished record
The 493rd earned the nickname “Helton's Hellcats,” after their commanding officer, Colonel Elbert Helton. The group flew 152 bombing missions over Europe, and Karpin was a part of 35 of them.
Karpin's first 13 missions were in the B-24 Liberator. He said he and his crew flew their bomber from Ford's River Rouge factory in Detroit all the way to England.
“I hated that plane,” Karpin said. “A bombardier didn't have a lot of visibility in that aircraft.”
But it was that bomber that Karpin flew for most of his missions over France, all in the daytime.
His group was reassigned in the summer of 1944 by Major General Jimmy Doolittle, commander of the Eighth Air Force, to fly in the B-17 Flying Fortress. These planes were slower than the B-24s, but pilots loved the B-17s for their ability to take punishment and still make it home.
Karpin recounted several missions where Doolittle, who made his fame leading the first U.S. bomb raid on Tokyo in April 1942, told flight crews that “missing the target was not an option.”
It was Karpin's job to make sure of that.
The pilot flew the bomber, but when it came time to approach the target, the bombardier took over the controls and made sure the bombs landed where they had to.
“We put 100 percent of our bombs on target on those missions,” he said. He credited the Norden bombsight, which had an analog computer that increased accuracy.
He flew his 35th mission on Nov. 25, 1944. For surviving the air war in Europe, and his proficiency in performing his duties, Karpin was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
He was also awarded the Air Medal with four oak leaf clusters, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with four service stars, a Presidential Unit Citation from Franklin D. Roosevelt, and a personal citation from Doolittle.
'So many ways to die'
Karpin said he knew he had beaten the law of averages. The Eighth Air Force suffered 47,000 casualties in the air war over Europe. More than 26,000 died.
“There were so many ways to die,” he said. “You've got a fully loaded bomber with 6,000 pounds of explosives and gas tanks filled to the brim. Trying to take off was hard enough, and if an engine quit on take off, you were dead.
“Mid-air collisions were pretty common, too. We flew in close formation and if it was foggy, there would be planes flying into one another.
“And then there was the flak. When one of those shells exploded, it could tear your plane apart.
“Somehow, out of the crew I went over with, six of us made it through.”
Karpin returned to the United States in 1945 to train new bombardiers on the B-29 Superfortress, the bomber used against Japan in the final year of the war. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki led to the surrender of Japan before the Eighth Air Force saw action in the Pacific Theater.
Back home
Karpin said he might have stayed in the Air Force longer if not for love. He said his girlfriend, Florence Baker, “told me, 'If you're going to keep flying those planes, I'm not going marry you. I don't want to be a widow at 21.'”
So he left the service, returned to Long Island, and married Florence in April 1947.
But Karpin didn't leave the field of aviation.
He ended up working for Republic Aviation on Long Island after the war. He was a consultant on many of the company's aircraft, and he helped develop air-to-air refueling techniques for the F-84 Thunderjet and F-105 Thunderchief.
However, he almost had to fight in another war.
Though Karpin was separated from the Army Air Force as a first lieutenant after World War II, he never had been formally retired. So, when the Korean War started in June 1950, and the Air Force needed bombardiers, Karpin got recalled to duty.
Karpin said when he reported, the officer looked at his war record, and what he was doing for Republic, “and he told me, 'We don't want you flying aircraft, we want you building them.'”
In 1958, Karpin left Republic and moved with his family to Vermont and settled in Grafton, where he served on the Selectboard and Planning Commission.
Karpin later founded Vermont Precision Products, which produced ultra-precision machined parts, including computer memory drums. The company, which started in Karpin's barn, is now located in Springfield and making optical measuring products for General Electric, Pratt & Whitney, and IBM Technologies.
Not long after Florence Karpin died at age 89, in March 2014, he moved to Brattleboro to live in a small apartment on Williams Street, above his daughter Jen's vintage clothing business, Morning Glorious Vintage.
Many honors
Shortly after his wife's death, Karpin was honored by the Air Force as part of its “Veterans in Blue” program, which collects the stories of service members from World War II to today.
Karpin said that after his interviews were filmed, he got a private tour of the Pentagon and had generals rushing out to meet him.
The realization that he's a living link to history was illustrated by a visit to the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
“Dad was there, pointing out the planes and the various parts on them and how they worked, and before long, a crowd was gathered around him,” Jen Karpin said. “Everyone wanted to hear his stories.”
And among those who wanted to hear those stories was the French government.
Over the past few years, France has been seeking out veterans of World War II who fought to liberate the country from the Germans to present them with the Legion of Honor.
“I qualified under all four criteria,” said Jay. “I flew bombing missions over France. I flew more than 25 missions over Europe. I had a Distinguished Flying Cross. And, most importantly, I was still alive. They don't award that medal posthumously.”
“It's a great honor for my father,” said Jen. “He has lived a phenomenal life.”
He is the last surviving member of his air crew, and is among around 20 members of the 493rd still alive. While he's happy to share his stories, he's still focused on today.
He's in good health, and he still works part-time as a safety consultant. He recently had eye surgery and said his vision is back to 20/20.
That improvement was good enough to get his Vermont driver's license back. He also hopes to get his pilot's license back soon.
“I've had a good life, and I'm not done yet,” he said.