SALUTING OUR WAR HEROES: STORIES ABOUT THOSE WHO SERVED
Putting career on hold to help win war
By Lou Michel
Buffalo NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Published:March 26, 2012, 12:00 AM

Updated: March 26, 2012, 8:15 AM

Never underestimate the power of a mother and how far it will reach in your life.

World War II veteran and Silver Star recipient Frank A. Matthews begins his story of military service by recalling his mom, who worked as a cleaning lady in the home of Alfred H. Kirchhofer, who at the time was managing editor of The Buffalo Evening News.

One day while cleaning, Mary Matthews asked Kirchhofer if he would consider helping her oldest son advance in life.

“I was employed making the first turn signals for cars at KK Specialty Co. on East Ferry Street,” recalls Frank Matthews, known as Matty. “Then I got the call from Mr. Kirchhofer and met with him. He said I could be a photographer, engraver or printer, and I chose printer.”

It turned out to be a good decision for the 21-year-old, but before his career as a printer could gain momentum, Uncle Sam borrowed him for a while.

“I’d received an 1-A notice from the East Aurora Draft Board, and I went to them and asked how long it would be before I was drafted,” he says. “They told me by the end 1941.”

Rather than be told the branch of the military in which he would serve, Matthews decided to take control of his destiny.

“I walked over on my lunch hour from the newspaper to the downtown post office and enlisted in the Army Air Forces,” he remembers, adding that it was the branch where “I wanted to be.”

“It was the best decision I made,” he said. “I got through it.”

But just barely.

Inside a B-24 Liberator bomber, nicknamed “Eager Beaver,” he and his crewmates often limped back home to their air strip at Port Moresby, New Guinea.

On bombing runs to various Pacific islands where the Japanese maintained military installations, the Eager Beaver frequently endured enemy fire.

“The sky was so black at times with anti-aircraft ack-ack that we felt we could step out of the plane and walk on it,” Matthews says.

And when the flak wasn’t thickening the air, there were agile Japanese fighter pilots shooting at the American bombers.

“One of my crew members narrowly missed death,” Matthews recalls. “His handgun was in a shoulder holster, and it stopped a bullet from a Japanese fighter plane.”

During another close call, Japanese gunfire exploded the radio inside the bomber, and the radio operator never recovered from the shock of the hit.

“They didn’t call it ‘posttraumatic stress’ then,” Matthews says. “They just sent him back to the States. He couldn’t fly anymore.”

On many of Matthews’ 51 bombing missions, the apprentice printer who had set newspaper type with hot lead back home was given the chance to discover what kind of mettle he was made of.

But there is one mission that sticks out.

The Eager Beaver had been on a roll, shooting down five enemy planes after having completed a successful bombing run. Matthews was credited with 1z kills.

Then, suddenly, the plane became unstable.

“Our pilot told me he had no control and that the cable to the rear rudder must have been shot out,” Matthews says. “I dropped out of my top gun turret and walked to the back of the plane on a catwalk. As soon as I got to the bomb bay, I saw the cable hanging.

“I got the two waist gunners to help me pull the cables back together, and then I began splicing it with more cable and two clamps.”

With the plane still under heavy attack, the repair job got complicated.

The waist gunners frequently returned to their positions and defended the plane while Matthews used his bare hands to keep the rudder operational.

“As the cable moved,” he says, “I went with it, holding it together.”

Eventually, with the help of the waist gunners, Matthews spliced in the new section of cable and returned to his turret. By the time the plane touched down, the No. 3 engine was dead, and the craft’s fuselage was raked with more than 50 holes from flak and machine gun bullets.

And consider this:

During the harrowing flight, Matthews had flown without a parachute. That’s because his other duties on the aircraft, as flight engineer, required him to respond quickly throughout the plane. The parachute, he said, just got in the way.

Was he frightened?

“I probably was scared and didn’t know it.”

For his bravery in saving the 10-member crew, he was awarded a Silver Star, the nation’s third-highest medal for valor.

When he returned home a war hero, Matthews said, Kirchhofer made sure he was able to resume his old job. But let’s not forget the woman who had helped Matthews get the job in the first place, his dear mother.

“When my mom was too old to clean for the Kirchhofers,” Matthews says, “she remained good friends with Mr. and Mrs. Kirchhofer and would go to their home on her scheduled day, and they would sit and have coffee.”

Even though she could not carry out the demanding duties of cleaning, she still received her wage, for the Kirchhofers thought that highly of Mary Matthews.

Her son would end up retiring as assistant supervisor of the composing room at The Buffalo News after some 45 years of service, having made his family and his country — and his newspaper — very proud.
 -----
Frank A. Matthews, 91

• Hometown: Griffins Mills
• Residence: Elma
• Branch: Army Air Forces
• Rank: Technical sergeant
• Specialties: Top turret gunner and flight engineer on B-24 Liberator bomber
• War zone: Pacific
• Years of service: 1941-45
• Most prominent honors: Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters
lmichel@buffnews.com