PHIPPSBURG

Albert Paine takes a matter-offact attitude regarding his remarkable service to his country.

All Paine did, after all, was serve in World War II, the Korean Conflict and the Vietnam War. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1939, later piloting dozens of bombing missions over Europe. Paine retired from the Air Force as a chief master sergeant in 1972.

“They paid me every month,” Paine said earlier this week from his Phippsburg home. “I liked flying.”

Simple as that.

It was anything but simple.

Paine, 90, who hears perfectly and smiles often, just makes it sound that way.

As he speaks, Paine lights up a cigarette. His bar, which he bought in the Philippines in 1964, is fullystocked, and he entertains

¦ VETERANS DAY Albert Paine and other members of Smith-Tobey Post 21, American Legion in Bath, will conduct their annual Veterans Day service at 1 p.m. Sunday, at the Legion Cemetery on 200 Congress Ave. See page A7 for a listing of Veterans Day activities.

frequently.

Paine drives to conventions, mostly in Pennsylvania.

“I don’t fly — they’re nonsmoking airlines,” he said. “If I can’t drive I stay at home.”

There was no such thing as a nonsmoking aircraft, of course, when Paine was in the military. He piloted B-17s during World War II.

Paine grew up in New Hampshire and later in Connecticut. In West Hartford, he lived three blocks from a Pratt & Whitney plant, and a company-owned airport.

“I used to ride my bicycle over to help them out, and they asked, ‘you want to come along?’” he recalled. “Of course I wanted to come along. I was a licensed pilot by my 16th birthday. I got my driver’s license the day after.”

Two years after he enlisted, World War II began. By that time, he had been a B-17 flight instructor for two years at a Boeing plant in Washington state.

“I kept teaching until 1942,” Paine said. “They changed my age on my record so I could be commissioned. They made me 21 and I was still 19. In those days, the company clerk could do most anything.”

Paine joined the 92nd Bomb Group. Also known as “Fame’s Favored Few,” the 92nd Bomb Group flew nearly 300 operational missions over Nazi-occupied Europe.

Missions were flown to Wilhelmshaven, a tire plant at Hanover, airfields near Paris, an aircraft factory at Nantes, and a magnesium mine and reducing plant in Norway.

Paine piloted 52 of those missions.

“We refueled in Russia and flew missions back,” he said. “I wasn’t nervous. After the first two or three, you get used to it.”

Paine learned from his gunners the success of each drop.

A few times, his B-17 took hits from the Germans. One, in particular, came to mind.

“I always made it back to England,” he said. “Once I set down in the English Channel, because we couldn’t get over the Cliffs of Dover. The British crash crews picked us up. Usually, they’d be there as soon as you hit the water.”

Following WWII, Paine became a flight engineer.

“I didn’t want to stay in the Army as an officer, so I switched to the Air Force, and I flew as a gunner in 1947,” Paine recalled. “I didn’t want to become one of them ‘ground-pounders.’ I didn’t like walking.”

In Korea, he was a flight engineer aboard a B-29 for bombing missions in North Korea. He was in charge of the engines.

On the walls of his living room, Paine has photos of the aircraft he flew on. It was a much different story on the B-29s over Korea than on the B-17s in Europe.

“It was much different terrain,” he said. “It was mountains instead of open cities. The navigator had to get you there and the bombardier had to hit it.”

Then came Vietnam, and Paine switched to flying cargo planes. He was 44, and serving in his third war.

Along the way, Paine has had four wives — beginning at age 16. They divorced prior to his enlistment. He married his last wife, Frances, in 1957 and they remained together until she passed away in 1991.

Paine, who has four sons, said he remains available.

“Since then I can’t find one who can afford me,” he said with a chuckle. “I can be had, but I’m expensive.”

Paine has lived in Maine since 2008. A close friend, John Gilliam, decided to move back to his hometown of Phippsburg, and Paine joined him. Paine then got his own place, first in Woolwich. He moved to Phippsburg last month.

He has company often, and still enjoys a drink. Visitors are welcomed by an American flag that rests on the railing of his porch.

“I like vodka and tonic,” he said. “If I’m eating, I’ll have a martini.”

On his way out to vote, Paine said driving is no problem.

“I drive an all-wheel drive Mercury Mariner that goes through anything,” he said.

Albert Paine has been going “through anything” for many, many years.

lgrard@timesrecord.com