During WWII, Frank McCormick served with the US Army Air Corps as part of the China-India-Burma (CBI) war front.  Despite having a degree from Penn State, Frank first served as an enlisted man.  Shortly, Frank became motivated to apply to the officer corps to make more money.  He wanted to get married, and so a career as an officer seemed more lucrative at the time.

While in India, Frank commanded a truck and jeep supply outfit that provided shipments of arms and other supplies “over the hump,” as they say, from India across the Himalayan mountain range into the interior of China.  At the time, Burma was occupied by the Japanese, so airlifting supplies over the mountains was the only way to aid the Allies fighting in China.

Married just prior to being shipped from California to Asia, it would be four years until Frank could spend an anniversary with his wife.  “I spent a lot of time from home,” he recalls.  “I left the States from the west coast and returned to the east coast.  It was a one way trip around the world.  When I crossed the International Date Line, I lost a day of my life.  After all these years, I never got it back.”

On July 29, 2015, we filmed our 11th episode of Veterans and Their Stories at MCA-TV in Moon Township, Pennsylvania.  On this day, Frank McCormick (Army Air Corps, WWII) and Dave Barker (Marine Corps, Vietnam) joined us to share their stories of serving in the military.

Veterans and Their Stories is a production of Moon Township Community Access Television.   The talk show features interviews with veterans from Moon Township and surrounding communities.  Veterans and Their Stories is hosted by Moon Township resident Beth Feather, who is also the MCA-TV community producer for this program.  This program is co-produced with the Veteran Voices of Pittsburgh Oral History Initiative, in partnership with the Veterans Breakfast Club.