Home > Meet the Authors > Rudy DePaola

Rudolph "Rudy" Depaola, born Baltimore, Maryland, July 26, 1925. Enlisted U.S. Army Air Corps from high school 19 July, 1943. Basic training, Kessler Field, Biloxi, Missouri. Gunnery School, Harlingen, Texas. Crew training, March Field, Riverside, California. Assigned as tail gunner to Robert E. Grey crew. They picked up a new B-24 bomber at Fairfield Souson, California and prepared to fly it to the Southwest Pacific. Here he became gravely ill and was left behind. Finally caught up with crew several weeks later in Nabzab, New Guinea. After combat training missions assigned to a Bomb Group in the 13th Air Force in November, 1944. Flew twenty-five missions from Moratai (in Halmaharas) against Philippines, Borneo, and other islands. After war, went to college on G.I. Bill. Became a teacher and later a principal. After retiring from public schools, he became a principal in a Catholic High School and, later, a adjunct professor at a local university.