Department.He attended the Buckman grade school before his mother moved to California where his step father, Mr. E.E. McDonald was manager of an Avocado ranch south of San Diego. There he attended the Monument School in a one-room schoolhouse.
When his folks came back to Portland in 1930 and lived near Union Avenue and Holladay Street Mrs. McDonald brought Henry, then 10 years old, to our Sunday School because it was the nearest Baptist Church.
Miss Helen Tjernlund, Miss Josephine Neil, O.S. Rydman, Leonard Anderson and others took an interest in Henry who at once felt at home among us.
In 1931 or 1932, the family moved to Vancouver Avenue and Russell St. and Henry attended the Third Baptist Sunday School only a block away and where his mother was a member of the church.
The Lord spoke to Henry in various ways, in the home, in Sunday School and church, in daily vacation Bible Schools, faithful teachers showed him the way of salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and his heart opened early to receive the Lord as his personal
Savior. On one Saturday when Henry was eleven, his mother spoke to a playmate of Henry's about going with Henry to Sunday School the next day but the neighbor boy said he didn't want to go. The next day when Henry went to Sunday School the other boy went down to play near the Battleship Oregon, then anchored near the Broadway Bridge. Swinging out hand over hand on one of the heavy ropes that held the ship, the boy's strength gave out as he neared the ship and he lost his hold and slipped into the river and drowned. Henry was deeply impressed by the fact that his playmate would have lived. had he heeded the invitation to go with him to "Sunday School.
Henry was baptized and became a member of the Third Baptist Church on Sunday May 16, 1933. Henry attended the Holladay grammar school across the street from out church while living on union Avenue but attended the Elliot School when living on Vancouver Avenue and Russell Street. He graduated from the Elliot School in 1934 and then attended Jefferson High School.
About this time, Henry came back to our Sunday School and was in A. Leonard Anderson's class and later in Harley K. Hallgren's Baraca Class. Part of the time he walked to church but often Mr. O.S. Rydman would stop by to pick him up and have a cup of coffee at the same time that Henry was finishing his breakfast.
Henry transferred his membership to our church, the Temple Baptist December 6, 1936 where he attended faithfully until he went away to college.
During his high school years, Henry carried the Oregonian newspaper and earned other money doing odd jobs. He was always busy at something useful.
In 1938, Henry was an honor graduate of Jefferson High School and that fall entered the University of Oregon at Eugene where in 1940, he received the Junior Certificate with Honors Privileges granted only to those students qualified to undertake special work.
While at Eugene he served as vice president of the student YMCA and in 1939, was sent as a delegate to the Seabeck Conference where the Chinese statesman, Dr. T.Z. Koo was the speaker.
During the summer of 1940, Henry was district manager of the Oregonian carriers in the St. John's area and in the fall went to California planning to enroll in Stanford University. While visiting in San Deigo with his mother's sister, Mrs. Effie Schreiber, Henry went to work for a San Diego news paper and continued until he enlisted in the Army Air Corps in December 1941.
In May 1942, Henry graduated from the Army Air Corps Navigation School and was commissioned a 2nd Lt. and on May 5 was
assigned to a
Heavy Bombardment Squadron using B-17's or Flying Fortresses.On August 10, 1942, Henry's plane left San Francisco at 7AM arriving at Hickam Field, Hawaii at 8:00 PM Pacific Time. Then to Christmas Island, across the Equator to the Fiji Islands to New Caledonia and to Australia, reaching final post at Wareeba on August 23rd attached to 19th Group of the 30th Squadron.
On August 27, at 9:30 AM, Henry's plane took off with eight other Flying Fortresses and crossed the Coral Sea to bomb Japanese shipping at Milne Bay. This was Henry's first raid. He wrote in his diary that he carried with him. "My first raid-----Due there one hour from now. Have no noticeable feeling of fear, you might call it curiosity or anxiety--more later.
On the way home--Thank God, we didn't see the boats for the weather kept us down to 1000 feet. We landed at Port Moresby after searching fruitlessly. We then gassed up and got out for home in a hurry."
From Henry's Diary