A Tribute to Ironworker Bill Hack—and all U.S. Veterans

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/05/31/a-tribute-to-ironworker-bill-hackand-all-us-veterans/


Berry Craig

Berry Craig is a professor of history at the West Kentucky Community and Technical College in Paducah, a member of AFT Local 6010 and the author of "True Tales of Old-Time Kentucky Politics: Bombast, Bourbon & Burgoo" and "Hidden History of Kentucky in the Civil War."

by Berry Craig, May 31, 2010

Chester W. “Bill” Hack had survived bloody air combat and the fiery crash of a B-17 bomber into the English Channel.

The Kentuckian was stateside teaching aerial gunnery when he volunteered to fly combat missions again.

Nazi fighters and anti-aircraft fire forced Hack’s bomber to crash into the sea on May 29, 1943. “When we ditched, I was dazed,” said Hack, an 89-year-old retired member of Ironworkers Local 782 in Paducah, Ky.

But when I smelled my hair burning, it gave me the strength to live.


World War II combat veteran and dedicated union member Bill Hack.

Hack was barely 22 on the day he came closest to losing his life in World War II. It was his third mission against the Germans in a big, olive-green, four-engine bomber the Army Air Force called a “Flying Fortress.” Hack’s plane was nicknamed “Barrel House Bessie.”

Jeff Wiggins, a United Steelworker and president of the Paducah-based Western Kentucky Area Council, AFL-CIO, says “Bill is one of my heroes.”

“He fought for our freedom in Europe in World War II, and he fought for the freedom of working people to be able to earn a good living in our country.”

In 1997, Hack received the W.C. Young Award, the highest honor the council bestows. Hack represented his local on the council for many years.

FULL story at link.