- Date Of Birth: July 28, 1921
- Date Of Death: October 17, 2018
- State: Colorado
Glenn Edward Nations, 97 of Longmont, CO, formerly of Rogers, AR, died October, 17, 2018. He was born near Plainview, TX, the oldest of the five children of Sam and Roberta Nations. Glenn grew up in rural west Texas through the depression in the 1930’s and attended Snyder High School, graduating in the spring of 1938, started college at Texas Technological College and joined the Texas National Guard in November of 1938. In September of 1939, he enlisted in the US Army Air Corps at Fort Bliss, Texas and was sent to March Army Air Base at Riverside, CA for basic training. He was transferred to Elmendorf Field in Alaska for aircraft armorer and automatic flight control training. World War II started while Glenn was stationed in Alaska. Glenn returned to California as an Aviation Cadet to attend navigation training and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant Navigator on November 21, 1942.
By December 1942, Glenn was with the 319th Squadron, 90th Bombardment Group, 5th Air Force in the southwest Pacific. He was the navigator of a B-24 Liberator, flying forty plus combat missions in WW II, leading navigation on some missions out of Australia and New Guinea. On December 1, 1943, his plane was shot down in the Pacific and he spent 26 hours on a life raft until rescued by a PT boat. The survivors were taken to the coast of New Guinea and were the first patients in new portable hospital tents close to the front lines. After three weeks Glenn returned to the US where he saw the end of WW II from American soil.
Glenn continued his military career after WW II, flying combat missions in the Korean War and serving until August of 1960, retiring as a Major from the US Air Force.
