Everett M. Mann
Staff Sergeant
Army Air Force
1943-1945

      Everett Milton Mann was born 25 September 1919 in Cherry Valley,  Arkansas, the son of John Brutus and Bessie Dye Mann. He was raised with two brothers: Robert and Myron and one sister, Elizabeth. He graduated from the Cherry Valley High School. In 1942, Milton married Margaret Mi1am and they have one son, Terry Lynn and one daughter, Beth.
     Milton was inducted into the Air Force 9 January 1943 at Camp Robinson, Arkansas and served in the 8th and 9th Air Force. He wrote the following resume of his wartime
experience:
     "After I was inducted, I was sent from Camp Robinson to Shepherd Field AFB in Texas. Was trained in Glider mechanics at Laurenberg and the Maxton AFB in North Carolina. Without ever getting leave home, we were sent to England. We started out on
a Dutch cattle boat in a convoy of Victory Ships -developed engine trouble and limped back to port alone, to learn on arrival the convoy had been attacked by Germans and most ships were sunk. We were then sent over on the Queen Elizabeth, packed so tightly we slept out on the deck. We were assigned a British golf course as home. We were the 26th Mobile Reclamation and Repair Squadron. We arrived to a sea of enormous wooden crates. There were no barracks and no mess facilities at Crookham Commons, England. Despite the foul weather and inadequate tools we were in business building gliders for the coming Normandy invasion. We used the empty glider crates to build a town. Four men lived in each crate. We cut out windows and doors, put in a stove and called it home. We built several mess halls requiring seven crates each. We built a headquarters building, post exchange, barbershop, tailor shop and a fire station. We were known as Shanty Town, U.K. We worked 15 hours a day, seven days a week. We assembled gliders under the worst possible conditions, exposed to rain, mud, cold, fog and windstorms with buzz bombs going over our heads aimed at London. Sometimes fog was so bad we could not see the end of the wing we were working on. No one complained, just did their job. The gliders were used in the Normandy, South France, Holland, Bastogne and Wesel  invasions. We had one tool which was the only one in England and when it was needed at another base, I accompanied it and never let it leave my side. I went to several countries  as its escort. Once we heard it was planned that gliders would land troops and equipment in front of General Patton in Paris. General Patton cursed as only he could and said if they landed those crates in front of him, he would order his tank commander to run right through every one of them. (The mission was scratched.) I was sent home to go to Japan when Japan surrendered. "
    Milton was discharged from the Army Air Force 17 November 1945 at Barksdale Field, Louisiana. He earned the European African Eastern Medals; the Good Conduct Medal; Victory Medal and three Letters of Commendation.
    In addition, it is noteworthy to state that Mr .and Mrs. John Mann had three sons in the Armed Forces at one time. Staff Sergeant Milton Mann in England with the Army Air Force; Private Robert Mann with the Signal Corps in Sardinia, who spent 16 months overseas and Seaman Myron Mann in the Fiji Islands.
    Milton returned to his family in Cherry Valley and spent the major part of his active working career as a Rural Mail Carrier. He retired in 1984 and now spends his time hunting, fishing, golfing and gardening.