The French town of St. Mere Eglise was the first to be liberated June 6, 1944, during the Normandy Campaign of World War II. Years later, Philippe Esvelin, whose parents grew up in Le Muy, decided to write a book detailing some of the lesser-known heroes of World War II: the glider pilots. His book, “Forgotten Wings,” details the history and use of gliders in the war, and Melvin Pliner of Safford is featured on the cover as well as on double pages inside.

Pliner grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y. When he was 16, he volunteered for the Citizen’s Military Training Corps and was trained in field artillery. When World War II started and America began the draft, he was certain he would be drafted, and his experience with the training corps almost guaranteed he would be sent into military artillery, and he didn’t want that.

Instead, he enlisted himself into the U.S. Army Air Corps in hopes of becoming a pilot. Unfortunately, everyone who joined the Air Corps also wanted to be a pilot, and the waiting list was long. During this time, a telegram was circulating looking for volunteers willing to become glider pilots; Pliner signed the list and began his training in Pittsburgh, Kan.

Melvin Pliner, WWII glider pilot, gazes out over Utah Beach during his trip to Normandy, France, for the D-Day Memorial services. Pliner shook hands with the leaders of several nations, including President Obama and French President Nikolas Sarkozy. Contributed photo

Being a glider pilot was a dangerous and often thankless job. According to worldwar2hist-ory.info, there were 162 injuries and 17 deaths during training from May 1943 to February 1944. In the beginning, glider riders were not issued jump boots or wings and did not receive hazard pay. A poster that circulated during that time read: “Join the Glider Troops! No Jump Pay. No Flight Pay. But Never a Dull Moment!” Glider regiments proved their mettle by constantly landing behind enemy lines, and they were granted hazard-duty pay and glider pilot wings in July 1944.

These days, when discussing his travels and his memories of World War II, Pliner becomes animated. A gregarious and humorous man by nature, he tells his stories with finesse and paints vivid pictures of his missions overseas. On one mission he flew a Waco glider into Italy; he was carrying three men and a Howitzer. He made a good landing in a vineyard about 200 yards away from a two-story house as they exited the glider they began to draw fire from the top story of the house. Shortly after their landing, another glider came down in the vineyard between Pliner’s glider and the house and immediately began receiving fire from the house as well. After a few minutes of this, Pliner suggested they roll the Howitzer out of his glider and return fire. When the three German soldiers holed up on the top floor saw the big gun rolling out, they immediately surrendered.

On his final flight mission, he flew 13 troops over the Rhine; he said his co-pilot was a washed-out cadet and had never flown a mission before. As he flew low over plowed fields, he was shot through the right forearm. His co-pilot had frozen in fear and was unable to assist with the landing, so Pliner was forced to land his glider one-handed in the fields near the Rhine. The glider landed sideways with one wing in the air and one resting against the ground; the men unloaded and took shelter under the down wing as they began drawing machine gun fire from the hedges around the field. They were eventually able to join up with a squadron of troops that came across the field and return to base where Pliner received medical treatment.

He was discharged in October 1945 and went on to study aeronautical engineering at Northrup School of Aviation in Northern California. He worked for 20 years at Sandia Labs in research and development on atomic weapons.

In 2001, Esvelin attempted to contact Pliner at his home in Safford for an interview for his book. Pliner’s wife assured Esvelin that Pliner would be attending the grand opening of the new glider museum in Lubbock, Texas, the next year. When the Silent Wings Museum opened in October 2002, Pliner and Esvelin met face to face and discussed the history of the gliders. They became such close friends that Pliner gave Esvelin his A-2 flight jacket with his glider pilot wings and officer bars. Pliner’s picture graces the cover of “Forgotten Wings.”

Pliner was recently invited by Esvelin to attend a book fair being held in conjunction with the D-Day memorial in Normandy, France. He was the only glider pilot in attendance at the ceremony where he met President Barack Obama, as well as Prince Charles, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and French President Nikolas Sarkozy. He visited the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, where Esvelin gave him a rose to place on the gravesite of Ben Winks, an American GI who was a part of the 82nd Squadron. He also spent time at the Omaha and Utah beaches, which were scenes of battle during the D-day invasion.

He visited several museums where both the Waco CG-4A and the English Horsa glider were on display. When people noticed Pliner’s glider association patch, they began asking for autographs and asking him to pose with the gliders. Pliner said, “I must have signed my autograph 800 times.”

Pliner said several young people thanked him for liberating their country. He also visited the C-47 Café where the proprietor has a vertical stabilizer from a C-47 glider on display. The cafe owner asked Pliner to do a taped interview that will be aired in the café and to sign the his name and regiment alongside others on the stabilizer.

WWII re-enactors in full military regalia saluted Pliner when they met. He said when the war was over and the U.S. military left the battlefields, they left all of the vehicles and equipment behind. Jeeps, tanks, rations and various items are used in parades and by re-enactors when they recreate battle scenes.

When asked about his return trip to Normandy, he said, “It brought back memories, and I tribute my survival to training and the man upstairs.” He has lived more life than most people will ever know. And, like the young people of France, we should all remember to be grateful to our veterans.