Torch Lewis a Great WWII Veteran
Written by: Mike T., Camille S., Jen C., and Chris I.
On March 28, 2001 the Horseheads Middle School eighth grade red team interviewed people from the community that had previously been involved in World War II. We asked these amazing people many questions, such as how they felt about the war and if they had any interesting stories from it. On this day though we focused on one man his name was Sheldon (Torch) Lewis. Mr. Lewis is a World War II veteran and he had many things to talk to us about. Torch Lewis was a true gentleman for sharing his good and bad memories with us and hopefully by writing this report we can honor his legacy.
Torch Lewis was born, January 29th, 1923. He grew up in his hometown of Elmira ,NY. He attended St. Patrick’s school in Elmira and graduated from Elmira Free Academy High School. Later in Torches’ academic career he attended the University of North Carolina. At North Carolina he wished to study medicine and later become a doctor. He told this to his guidance counselor at UNC and his counselor told him to come back on Monday, which would have been December 8th, 1941, but Torch was never able to make the trip back to his counselor’s office. Sunday December 7th, 1941 interfered with his plans of becoming a doctor. This was the day that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Torch found out about this tragedy after leaving a movie theater and seeing the headlines about the bombing. Though he didn’t even know where Pearl Harbor was he still felt anger at the Japanese, as did much of the nation. Anger at the Japanese and much patriotism helped him in his decision to enlist in the war and that is what he did in August of 1942.
After Torch joined the army he had to do much training before he was able to go out to any battles or even be at sea with the rest of the pilots. Since he was going to be taking off and landing on aircraft carriers he had to be able to do this. To practice this they would bring a carrier deck onto a runway and have them try to land and take off on it. Torch was able to do this so then they took him out to a real carrier and made him try to take off and land on this and he was also able to do this. Torch told us that even some very good pilots weren’t able to do this. After being able to pass all of these test Torch was sent to a real carrier where he would do real combat in the sky. In the war Torch flew a Corceair which was a type of plane in World War II. He told us that his plane had three machine guns on each wing and that one out of every three bullets that he shot was a tracer bullet so it looked like you were only shooting tracers. A tracer bullet is a bullet that leaves an illuminated or smoky trail behind it. His plane also held two missiles on each wing did though neither of them were guided missiles so he had to depend on his eyes when shooting one. In his team there were there were 28 fighter pilots. When the atomic bomb was dropped Torch was stationed on a carrier and wasn’t involved with the operation though it did end his career in the war. Along with the war came quotes such as “Thousands of Americans lost their lives so we could live” and in the war they had a saying Torch told which was “The only good Jap is a dead one.”
After returning home from the war Torches biggest problem was finding a place for himself, his wife, and their two kids to live. At first Torch was forced to live with his in-laws for a little while, while he could find a place to live. He did finally find a place. He moved in to a house on Hoffman Street in his hometown of Elmira. Also when he came back from war, he came back with a new profession. Instead of being a doctor he was now a pilot. When coming back he started his own charter business and flew for Thatcher glass in Elmira. Later, Torch went onto fly and sell jets to and for many people. He sold and flew for Jack Nicholas and Arnold Palmer their jets. His career for the last 30 years has been in jets. He said that after the war whenever he saw a Japanese person walking down the street the hair on the back of his neck would start to stand up. He also told us that he never thought that he would own a Japanese car then he told us that two years ago he owned two of them.
Torch Lewis was a great World War II veteran that’s legacy will live on for a long time to come. He went through many tough and interesting things in the hard years he served our country. Though it may not seem it, his contribution may have helped us live the life we are now living. We should all try to remember this about Torch, and all that fought in the Second World War.