“Mostly, [drawing] was a hobby for me. It wasn’t until after the war that I had any training in it.” (Audio Interview, Part 1, 8:31)

Doane Hage, Jr.

Doane Hage, Jr. War: World War, 1939-1945 Branch: Army Air Forces/Corps Unit: 423rd Bomb Squadron, 306th Bomb Group, 8th Air Force Service Location: England; St. Nazaire, France; Moosburg, Bavaria, Germany; Krems, Austria Rank: Staff Sergeant POW: Yes Place of Birth: Petersburg, VA

Determined to serve in the Army Air Corps during World War II, 20-year-old Doane Hage enlisted and set out to be a fighter pilot. He wound up an armament man with a bomber squadron and then caught a break when a vacancy opened up on one plane’s crew. Shot down over France in November 1942, he was sheltered for a time by a family of Spanish refugees. He was captured trying to cross into Spain and confined to the famous Stalag 17B, where he sharpened his drawing skills for the other prisoners, recreating scenes of their own planes going down. In his interview, Hage reveals a secret about his captivity previously known only to his family.