Henry Kolinek was born July 28, 1925 in Green, Texas, a small community near San Antonio. His father had been a WWI infantry veteran and during the Depression he ginned cotton and did some carpentry – anything to support the family. Henry attended a local 3-room school and for fun he went squirrel hunting with his .22 calibre rifle. After graduating high school he attended Texas A&M in 1942, and he did not do well at the time. Because of that Henry was drafted out of college at age 18, and his military career began at Ft. Sam Houston and Wichita Falls. Henry wanted to be a pilot, so at the first opportunity he opted for the U.S. Army Air Corps. As he did not pass his pilot training, he attended gunnery school in Kingman, AZ. Henry was assigned to a crew in Lincoln, Nebraska and then transferred to Rapid City, S.D., and not long after he was transported overseas on a troop ship. The transit took 12 days between the US and the UK. He was assigned to the 384th Bomb Group, 544th Bomb Squadron, based out of RAF Grafton-Underwood, near the small community of Kettering. He was in England from July 1944 to January 1945, and he flew 37 missions (two were aborted). At first they were bombing bridges, factories and roads in France, all in support of the troops on the ground in Normandy. He experienced flak, fighters and the freezing temperatures, as did all the airmen. Henry was a tailgunner in his crew, and by the time they joined the war they had the benefit of P-47 and P-51 escorts, so while the dangers were there, the dark days of the 8th Air Force had passed. Even so, Henry saw planes shot down, and his navigator was killed by a flak burst on one of the missions. When he completed his 35-mission requirement Henry returned stateside, and he said that he had no problem readjusting to civilian life. He worked with his father and attended Texas A&M on the GI Bill. In 1947 he married Dorothy who led him from College Station to his faith in Waco, Texas; together the two of them raised their family and found their place in postwar America. Crestwood students were fortunate to zoom with Henry in September 2024.
