SSgt William Carney - a Gay Tail Gunner in the 511 BS, 351 BG, 8 AF with a Great Story

[36thIDAlex]

This is probably one of the coolest 8th AF groups I’ve come across, featuring an incredibly intimate and personal look at the life of this man through his diary and photos.

 

This group belonged to S/Sgt William Carney, a somewhat closeted gay airman who flew 26 combat missions with the 511th Bomb Squadron, 351st Bomb Group, 8th Air Force in Normandy campaign before he was grounded for extreme post traumatic stress. 

Beyond the very nice items, I found that UC Berkeley retained Carney’s entire wartime diary and photo album, which truly brought his story to life as I transcribed it. If you want to read a firsthand version of something like Masters of the Air, Carney’s diary is the one to do it.

 

Here is a link with the full diary: 
https://www.36thdivisionarchive.com/pa-eto-carney

 

The diary is over 100 pages and is written in a stream of consciousness style, telling in great personal detail the story of himself and the crew, his emotional struggles and reactions, the ins and outs and feelings of life in the 8th Air Force, and much more. 

 

The crew began their tour deciding to take every mission possible so as to finish before the European winter. Without time to really gone, the men began hating each other, with great strife making them inefficient and Carney keeping to himself. As the tour dragged on, and the men experienced many brushes with death, however, they slowly grew closer. Carney comes to love and respect the men he once hated as their shared trauma, pain, fears, and friendship truly came to make him proud to serve with them, although down three from when they started. Their tour sat as one of the top-five fastest of the entire 8th Air Force.

 

Carney details countless anecdotes and firsthand opinions about life in the Air Force. Some include: The beauty of watching hundreds of glittering B-17s fill the sky behind them. Pounding around London and other towns with his crew. How badly he aimed the first time they were attacked by German fighters. The different social dynamics of air crews and how personalities affected their influence and role. Cleaning frozen urine off the ball turret from a poorly-aimed relief effort. Holding the record for the longest in-air fart of the crew. How he shot down an FW-190 and saved the life of his radio operator after he was severely wounded on a mission over Berlin and their ship nearly crashed multiple times. Making fun of German propaganda broadcasts while waiting on the hard stand. Sitting in his bunk smoking all night paralyzed that he may be shot down the next day. The entire crew being sent to a flak house for recovery from traumatic stress. And more.

 

His tour concluded when his stress caused him to freeze amidst a crippling panic attack mid-flak. The terror of air combat had torn him apart and his pilot gently recommended he be grounded permanently. Little did he know on the next mission the crew was shot down in the North Sea, which completely broke his pilot emotionally and killed two crewmen.

 

Carney was also gay, and throughout the memoir describes the struggle with his “demonic perversion.” He repressed his desires for the most part, but is quite apparent in how he describes some other men, including the temptation to sleep with a virgin replacement pilot who was a mere 19-years-old. It is also clear through a humorous retelling of his attempt to almost have sex with a London prostitute, who he threw off him for being smelly, “flabby,” and gross. 

 

Returning home he completed his degree in journalism and spent his life as an academic, his primary career being a French professor at Berkeley. His true love, however, was writing. In the 1960s-70s he published three of the first gay erotic novels on the BDSM leather scene and in years since has been acclaimed for his efforts in creating some of the earliest public gay literature.
 

[36thIDAlex]

[Allan H.]

I think that you did a wonderful job of telling Carney's story! The work that you did to research this grouping and to transcribe the records was truly a labor of love that will have lasting effects on Carney's memory and will help us to better understand what he went through in the air and on the ground. 

Thank you for sharing this gem of a group with us.

 

Allan

[Brian Dentino]

Great grouping and simply amazing write up and research.  Really a jewel in any collection when you can put details of both personal and combat to round out to reveal both the action and the person who lived through the strain.

 

Excellent!