"It would get so humid, your shoes would rot overnight." (Video Interview, 58.23)

Henry James Ryskamp

James H. Ryskamp [detail from video] War: World War II, 1939-1946 Branch: Army Air Forces/Corps Unit: 793rd Squadron, 468th Group, 58th Wing, 20th Air Force Service Location: Northern Mariana Islands; Calcutta, India Rank: Staff Sergeant Place of Birth: Grand Rapids, MI

As an engineering student at Calvin College when the war started, Henry James Ryskamp thought he might end up building bridges in the Army. Instead, he took intensive training at Waldover Briggs Manufacturing in Detroit, where he learned to maintain the Army Air Force's first computerized gunnery system. He spent most of his time in India overseeing a squadron of eighteen men who took care of the new B-29s and their sophisticated systems.