During the Second World War, Bermudians served around the globe in various services: this is a story of one such local person who flew 70 combat missions over Burma for the United States Army Air Force.

Raymond Correia was born in Paget on August 1, 1921, the son of a Bermudian mother and American father.

He lived in Bermuda until the age of 15 when he went to Fall River, Massachusetts, to attend high school.

When the United States entered the Second World War, Raymond was in his first year of college, which he left at age 20 on 8 December 1941, the day after Pearl Harbor was bombed, and went to the US Army Air Force offices in Boston to take an entrance exam.

He was accepted as an aviation cadet and was sent to Gunter Field, Alabama, for military and classroom training for a period of three months.

He then transferred to the 68th Army Air Force Flight Training Detachment in Jackson, Tennessee for three months, returning to the Basic Flying School at Gunter Field for twelve weeks, followed by a final three months of training at the Advanced Flying School at Spence Army Air Force Base, Moultrie, Georgia.

Raymond was commissioned Second Lieutenant Pilot on March 25, 1943 and was transferred to the 311th Fighter Group (D) at Waycross, Georgia, on April 5, 1943.

In the summer of 1943, the 311th Fighter Group received orders to report for duty at San Francisco, where they boarded a troop carrier, the USAT Brazil, destined for Bombay, India.

In order to avoid Japanese submarines en route, the ship took 28 days to reach India. However, after the first two weeks, the ship ran out of a variety of foods and had to put into Hobart, Tasmania to take on provisions.

At Bombay, the three squadrons were taken by bus to Karachi where their disassembled P-51 planes had been shipped.

Built by North American Aviation (now part of Boeing), the P-51 was considered underpowered until a suggestion by the Royal Air Force that they be powered by the legendary Rolls Royce Merlin engine is considered by some to be "one of the most significant events in WW II aviation, as it transformed the P-51 into what many consider to be the best American fighter of the war".

It is possible that Ray was flying a variant of the P-51, which was the A-36 Apache/Invader, a "ground attack/dive bomber", apparently also called a "Mustang".

Two of the squadrons flew the A-36As, while the third was in P-51As.

Once the "Mustangs" had been reassembled, they flew to Agra and stayed overnight. The next day, they flew to their base, Dinjan Airfield, located in northeastern India, to the west of the Naga Hills that separated India from Burma.

Upon arrival, Raymond was assigned to the 10th Air Force (eventually changed to the 14th), 311th Fighter Group, 529th Fighter Squadron.

He was stationed at Dinjan for one year.

Some missions were against enemy aircraft, and others were to destroy ground targets, primarily in Japanese-held Burma.

Lieut. Correia once had to return to base during a bombing run because he was dragging a bomb, that is, one that failed to drop.

He flew over a particular area and tried to "shake" the bomb loose; when that failed, he decided to try and land and advised flight control that he was coming in dragging a 500-pound bomb.

Raymond landed successfully using a minimum of runway with the tail of the bomb hitting the ground.

Needless to day, he got out and ran like hell away from the aircraft.

There were approximately 90 pilots in three squadrons, and at the end of the year, only 20 of the original group of 90 remained: Raymond's best friend was one of the casualties.

He was returning home with no ammunition and was shot down by the Japanese over the base.

He tried to bail out, but his parachute got entangled in the tail of his Mustang. Raymond helped recover his friend's remains and kept his friend's parachute.

Raymond flew 70 combat missions during the twelve months from the summer of 1943 and was awarded the Air Medal (25 combat missions flown) and the Distinguished Flying Cross (50 combat missions flown) by the United States Army Air Force.

In mid-1944, Lieut. Correia received orders to return to the United States and managed to catch a twin-engined plane going there in a westerly direction.

The plane stopped on an island in the Arabian Gulf to refuel, and flew on to Egypt.

While in Egypt, Raymond received orders to check out Russian pilots in P-39s: that assignment took approximately three days, after which he continued on to the United States, landing in New York.

Raymond completed three further assignments. He was first re-assigned to Waycross, Georgia where he trained fighter pilots.

The base in Waycross closed and he was assigned to a base in Florida, where he went on to a base in Louisiana to be trained to fly P-51Ds for service in Germany.

The P-51D was the definitive type of the famous "Mustang" and powered by the Packard V-1650, a supercharged edition of the Rolls Royce Merlin engine.

The war was over by that time and Raymond decided to return home to Bermuda, becoming a member of the USAAF Reserves. He served as a Reserve Member for a number of years, during which he was promoted to Captain.

Edward Cecil Harris, MBE, JP, PHD, FSA is Executive Director of the National Museum of Bermuda, incorporating the Bermuda Maritime Museum. Comments may be made to director@bmm.bm or 704-5480.