Royal return

At 89, Harold “Pop” Gilbert figured he wouldn’t make it back overseas in his lifetime.

The Canton native was a B-17 gunner in World War II, flying harrowing missions over Europe with the Eighth Air Force. In the decades after getting out of the service in 1945, he tried once to arrange a trip. It fell though, and that was that.

Until the College of the Ozarks called.

In May, Gilbert returned to London with two college-student escorts.

A few years earlier, his daughter had learned about a new program at the college that paired veterans with students for all-expense-paid trips all over the world to historic WWII sites.

“Each veteran is assigned two students, one young lady and one young gentlemen, and they really are ladies and gentlemen, believe me,” said Gilbert, who lives in Lewiston.

From May 17 to May 28, eight veterans and 16 students toured England, visiting several U.S. bases.

“The base where I was is no longer an air base, it’s returned to a farm, which it was before,” Gilbert said.

The group visited Winston Churchill’s underground war room. They were guests at both a 70th anniversary of the Battle of the Atlantic church service and parade and at a concert by the Band of Her Majesty’s Royal Marines.

“(The band) was very interesting and very excellent,” Gilbert said. “As veterans we had front-row seats at that. That was impressive for us.”

He said he feels fortunate to be so healthy that travel was still possible and fortunate to have been chosen for the trip.

“I took a lot of pictures, but they’re all still on my camera,” Gilbert said. “I’m going to eventually make a slide-show.”

— Kathryn Skelton