Nick Reid

From the “One Room School House” to lead bombardier.

By Matthew Fleishman, BucksLocalNews.com


Less than a year after walking out of the Brooklyn Dodgers’ 21-7 win over the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds to the news that Pearl Harbor had been attacked, Nick Reid enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps, and would eventually become the lead bombardier on missions throughout Europe during World War II.

Other than his time in the military, Reid has lived his entire life in Lower Bucks County, including attending school at the One Room School House on Big Oak Road, Lower Makefield Elementary School, Edgewood Junior High School and Morrisville High School.

In September 1942, Reid knew that he needed to join the fight, so he enlisted in the Army Air Corps because it was the one branch of the military that appealed to him.

“I was just out of high school, and I thought I would enjoy being in the air,” said Reid. “It was an all-out war. Hitler, Mussolini and Japan wanted to take over the world. If we didn’t conquer them, we wouldn’t have our freedom today.”

After enlisting, Reid went to basic training in New Mexico, then after four months of cadet training at Butler University in Indiana, he went through pre-flight training, gunnery school and bombardier school, which took him throughout the Southwest.

Along the way, Reid and his bride, Bettye, were married during a military wedding in Pueblo, Colo., in August 1944. The couple spent 51 years together.

In January 1945, after completing more than two years of training, Reid was sent overseas to Southern Italy, where he was part of 25 bombing missions aboard a B-24 Liberator, knocking out bridges, railroads, air fields, oil refineries and munitions plants in Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia.

During these missions, Reid’s B-24 would be under constant pressure from heavy flak guns as they approached the target.

“I was scared,” said Reid. “We found out in the morning what type of mission it would be. Vienna had 360 flak guns. The anti-aircraft would explode and rock the plane. We were hit many times, but luckily we always made it back to the base. Thankfully, I never had to parachute out of the plane.”

During these missions, Reid eventually became the lead bombardier, due to an instance where he did not drop his bomb.

“My pilot yelled ‘bombs away’ and I looked at my bomb-site, and realized it wasn’t time to drop them,” said Reid, who has numerous aerial photographs of his bombing missions because of his lead role. “I held my bomb. Everyone else dropped their bombs, but we weren’t at the right spot. When we got back, I was asked why I didn’t drop my bomb and wound up getting promoted to lead bombardier.”

While the pilot was responsible for flying the plane toward the bomb-site, it was Reid and the bombardiers in each plane that actually guided the aircraft to the site.

“Once the navigator got us to the I.P. (initial point), the pilot would put the plane on automatic,” said Reid. “I would control the flight of the plane from my position as bombardier using my crosshairs.

After the war in Europe ended, Reid was supposed to head for Japan because he had not reached the required 35 missions, but the war in Japan ended before his crew would have taken part in the invasion.

After leaving the military, Reid spent 40 years working for a firm that distributed Wise potato chips. During that time, Reid never missed a day of work.

“Back in those days, whether I was sick or not, I had to open the warehouse and get the trucks loaded,” said Reid. “I realized around 23 years in that I hadn’t missed a day of work, so I figured I would try for 25 years. Then 25 years became 30 and 35, and then 40 years.”

Reid’s strong work ethic wouldn’t let him sit idle during his retirement, as he has worked for the last 20 years at the Pennington Quality Market, and also works at McCaffrey’s Supermarket in Lower Makefield Township.

“I thank God for my good health,” said Reid, about his ability to work continuously since the 1940s.

Currently, Reid lives in Lower Makefield Township. He and his wife, Elizabeth “Bettye,” spent 51 years together before her passing. He has two children, nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.