It is the summer of 1942. It is a mild, sunny day in Hemet, Calif. and the only sound that can be heard near the local airport is that of roaring engines. The feeling of hurried preparation for war is in the air and eyes are firmly set on the sky. Two-engine, open-cockpit airplanes are shifting in every direction; stalling, looping and rolling through the bluest of sky.

“Would you like something to drink?” Suddenly I snap back into reality and my eyes are met with the pleasant sight of a cozy kitchen in Foley, Ala. I’m seated at a kitchen table across from an older gentleman with neatly combed white hair, a white buttoned up shirt and bright blue eyes that smile at me through a pair of spectacles. This man is a WWII veteran, Mr. Lorren Perdue. His wife, standing behind him with her hands on his shoulders, was the one who offered the kind question. “No, thank you,” I replied.

Mr. Perdue, after recently celebrating his 90th birthday, has just retired from a life filled with enough excitement and stories to fill a novel. And on this day in March 2012, more than70 years after the beginning of WWII, I had the pleasure of reliving a number of these stories with him.

Lorren Laslie Perdue was born in Montgomery, Ala. on Jan. 17, 1922. He lived a quiet childhood on a farm on the outskirts of Montgomery with his parents, one brother and two sisters.

“We had a cow, chickens and a garden where we would grow our food,” Perdue said, reminiscing about his childhood years. Perdue would catch the bus to Sidney Lanier High School each weekday and when he was not in school, he would help build houses the war. Because there was no Air Force yet, Perdue set out for the Army Air Core and was stationed at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, the first Air-Force base in Alabama.

After a short time here, Perdue, along with his classmates, was shipped on a train to a military base in Nashville where they were tested mentally and physically to determine which area of the country they would go next for pilot training.

“I remember they posted a sheet with all our names on it on a wall outside that said where we were going.” Perdue said. “When I found my name, I saw Hemet, Calif.”

Perdue then boarded another train that took him to the small town in California right outside of Los Angeles. Here, he began training to fly airplanes through book work and flying exercises. He and his fellow students would practice stalling, looping and rolling in two-engine, open-cockpit airplanes and did so for two months before moving to a small town called Marfa in Texas to upgrade to bigger planes.

After months of training, Perdue began flying missions in 1943, throughout the Eastern Hemisphere of the world, dropping paratroopers and supplies to U.S. troops fighting in the war and bringing back the wounded and dead. Perdue was so gifted and successful in his line of duty that in less than two years, he received a direct appointment as Second Lieutenant from the well-known General Henry Sands, Jr. With this appointment, Perdue was given the responsibility of flying to each of five islands around New Guinea on which the five Air Force squadrons were stationed, and evaluating daily operations.

Just five days after his appointment, Perdue was called into his general’s tent.

“He told me how disappointed he was in my performance and began yelling about how badly I had been carrying out my job. Then after about 10 minutes he reached down in his desk with a big grin on his face and pinned captain bars on me right here,” Perdue said, poking me on the left side of my chest and chuckling. “He told me how proud he was and then he promoted me to Captain.”

And Perdue’s success did not end there. He went on to fly in live combat on many missions. During his duty, “Colonel Perdue served in the Asiatic-Pacific Theatre of Operations participating in six major campaigns, completing 354 Combat Missions with 688 Combat Hours in C-47 and C-46 aircraft,” as his Announcement of Retirement states.

“Most people don’t believe I flew that many missions but it says it right here,” Perdue said with a hearty laugh when holding up the certificate.

One of these missions includes the famous Battle of Leyte against Japan – the largest battle in the Pacific during WWII. Perdue was also the first pilot to land in Tokyo following the war—a mission he undertook to fly civil engineers over Japan to inspect air fields.

On most of these missions, Perdue was accompanied by his famous war dog companion, Ace. “Acey Boy,” as Perdue calls him, was an Australian Shepard that the pilot trained using an army K-9 training manual when he was not flying combat missions. Ace flew more than 500 hours with Perdue during his missions in the Southwest Pacific, guarding the pilot’s plane when he was away and his tent when he was asleep.

After retiring following the time he served in WWII, Perdue spent a number of years with the Air Force ROTC staff at Oklahoma State University and also spent a few years flying around the country, serving as a motivational speaker for young pilots. He later came out of retirement and served over-sea missions in Labrador from June to September 1956, in England from July to October 1957, and in Greenland from March 1959 to March 1960.

After his remarkable accomplishments in the Air Force, Perdue returned to Alabama to be with his family and use his degree in business he obtained in 1950 at the University of Alabama to teach classes on Real Estate, a business he grew interested in when building houses in high school. He continued to teach all over the southeastern United States and by 1993, had already taught 77,000 students in the state of Alabama. Over the years he slowly cut back from his rigorous schedule, at one point consisting of teaching a class almost everyday of the week.

Now, after retiring from his teaching career on his 90th birthday, Perdue has decided to enjoy the quiet life once again, only this time in Foley, Ala.

After discussing his exciting life, the smiling WWII hero said, “I’ve definitely been a busy man.”