WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — Crawford Hicks always wanted to do one thing.
"My mother did not want me to fly, but I wanted to fly. Didn’t want anything else but," Hicks said.
In 1942, he got his wish.
He joined the Army Air Corps a few months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and learned to fly B-17s.
"They gave me a brand new B-17. It had four hours of time on it. Brand new. They said, ‘here Hicks, sign for this'," Hicks said.
He says he will never forget the feeling he had before his first mission.
"I was so frightened that I almost got sick. I was scared to death," he said.
Hicks flew nine missions during World War II. He says he and his team bombed Berlin four times in a row.
But in 1944, one mission didn't go as planned.
They were shot down by a German plane.
"That hit me in the right wing and set the two right engines on fire," Hicks said.
He was forced to jump out of the plane and into the hands on the Germans, where he was held as a Prisoner of War for almost a year.
"I was lucky," Hicks said. "I did not have bad troubles. The prison camp in Germany was not bad for me."
He was released in 1945 and continued his service for the military until 1966.
"The Lord took good care of me all the way," he said.
Over 50 years later, Hicks was awarded the Prisoner of War Medal.
He said that one is special because he received a lot of medals for his service, but this is the first one he was awarded in person.
After some prompting from his family, Hicks decided to write a book about his experience.
He signed 'Prisoner of War' for fans and friends on Saturday at Majestic Frames.
Even after all these years, he still remembers what he told himself before every mission.
"I’d be frightened and I said to myself out loud. I’d say, ‘Lord, is today the day I get killed,' and then a peace came over me that I had nothing to do with what’s going to happen. So ‘go ahead and do it buddy’ and I did. That took care of me," Hicks said.
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