Art McGann was born June 18, 1924 in Connellsville, Pennsylvania. He grew up in a family of 12 children – and 5 of the brothers were in uniform. Art grew up during the Depression and he remembers that the family had to “make do”. Pearl Harbor would change the fortunes of Art’s generation:  he graduated from high school in 1942 and enlisted right away. Two of Art’s brothers served in the US Army, two were in the US Navy, and Art was in the US Army Air Corps. He was sent to a variety of training bases across the south and west and was eventually assigned as a B-24 Liberator aerial gunner in the 13th Army Air Force Corps, 31st Bomb Squadron. His training B-24 was nicknamed “Big Buffoon”, and it was involved in a bad accident:  it crashed in a swamp, and two of Art’s crew were killed and Art was hospitalized for 19 days. After considerable time in hospital, Art headed to Guadalcanal, where he and his crew began flying missions against Japanese bases in the south Pacific.  That included an attack on Balikpapan, Borneo, which was a 17 hour 10-minute mission! Art completed a total of 43 missions:  he came home safely at the end of the war, as did all 5 brothers. In July 1945 Art was back in the US as an instructor for B-29 bombers at Del Rio, Tx. for 9 weeks. He received a 10-day leave from Pueblo, CO to marry Dorothy in Connellsville, and they were married for 78 years.  Art said that he had a hard time adjusting to civilian life, but with his wife’s help he did, and the two of them found their way together in postwar America.  Art was interviewed over zoom by Crestwood students in April 2025.