Centenarian Oscar Masters will tell you the secret to turning 100 is rather simple.
“You have to make it to 99 and be careful the whole next year,” the Arnold resident said.
Masters turned 100 on Nov. 18, 2024.
He celebrated his birthday at the Meramec-Arnold Elks Lodge in Imperial, and Arnold city officials honored him on Dec. 5 for his longevity and his service during World War II, with Arnold Mayor Ron Counts presenting Masters with a proclamation.
“I call this a unique opportunity because we have the chance to meet a member of the Greatest Generation,” Counts said before the presentation. “We are not only meeting a gentleman who belongs to that generation, we are also honoring our own World War II hero. I think he is a hero to all of us.”
Also at the Dec. 5 meeting, Arnold Veterans Commission member Charlene Herrin, a retired Army major, recognized Master’s service in the U.S. Army Air Corps, which is now the U.S. Air Force.
“It is an honor for me and the rest of the Veterans Commission to honor Oscar,” Herrin said.
Growing up
Masters, who was born Nov. 18, 1924, in Cape Girardeau, said his family moved to the Festus area when he was 4 and then to a home off Montebello Road in Imperial when he was 8.
Masters graduated from Herculaneum High School in 1942.
“That was the closest high school,” he said.
Masters said he was working for Laister-Kauffman in St. Louis helping to make two-piece trainer gliders and wanted to be a pilot after graduating high school.
He said he passed a 250-question exam a few days after graduating, and a day after taking the test, he passed his physical at Jefferson Barracks to join the Army Air Corps.
Service
Masters said he initially was sent to Sheppard’s Field in Wichita Falls, Texas.
“It was 113 degrees,” he said. “You couldn’t drink the water.”
After spending about 30 days in Texas, Masters said he was sent to Oregon as an aviation student before going to Santa Anna, Calif., where he qualified to be an Air Corps cadet and start flying planes.
Masters began his career flying B-17 Flying Fortress bombers.
“On the B-17, we didn’t have enough heated suits, and my unit didn’t get heat suits,” he said. “We suffered through the cold. I swore if I ever get out of here I am going to the Bahamas where it is hot all the time.”
Masters was switched to the B-29 bomber when the fighting in Europe started winding down.
“They switched me off the B-17 to the B-29 because it was more adaptable for the Pacific,” he said. “It had a longer range.”
Masters said he never flew missions in the war because he was always training, adding that he was among the crew that were training to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945.
Masters said no one knew the bomb was going to be dropped, and he and others didn’t understand some of the training they received until the bomb was dropped.
“What you did on a bombing run, you would turn downwind and get out of there as fast as you could. They had us train to turn upwind,” he said. “We got called into the main theater building at 10 a.m. (Aug. 6, 1945), and they said, ‘You have been wondering what you are doing. Well, at 2 o’clock this afternoon, they will announce to the world that we dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima.’ Everybody said, ‘What the heck is that?’ When we saw the mushroom cloud, we knew why we were turning upwind and not downwind.”
Masters said he was no longer on active duty from 1946 to 1958, when he was discharged and could have been called to active duty anytime during that period.
“It is a real honor for us to have you in our city and being a part of us,” Counts told Masters when presenting the proclamation. “We appreciate everything you have done.”
Arnold
Masters and his wife, Adele, 91, moved to Arnold in 1958.
“There was no Arnold then,” Masters said. “You had to have water delivered.”
Masters said he and his brother, Rodney, started a silica sand mining business in 1948 on property off Hwy. Z in Pevely. Silica is used in glass manufacturing and in construction industries.
“We started our own business with a wheelbarrow, pick, shovel and a little crusher,” he said.
Masters said he and his brother sold the business in 1972, and he continued to work at the quarry until 1993 when he retired at 68. The Unimin Corp. now owns the quarry.
Masters said Arnold started changing when I-55 was constructed.
“It was amazing to watch,” he said. “Once I-55 opened, it really started to develop. They started building houses like crazy. There were subdivisions springing up everywhere. I got to see it (Arnold) grow from nothing to what it is today. It is quite the city.”
Turning 100
Adele said at least 120 people attended the open house at the Meramec-Arnold Elks Lodge to celebrate her husband’s birthday.
“I think one of the best things about the party was that our whole family was able to get together,” she said. “It was the first time we were able to do that since we got married (in 1953). Everyone has lived in different places, and everyone was never here at the same time.”
Masters said along with being careful, the secret to making it to 100 is by staying active.
He said he bowls every Tuesday at Imperial Bowl, and he golfs twice a week, weather permitting.
“I never liked to just lay around,” Masters said. “I don’t believe in sitting and doing nothing.”