Harvey Horn turned 99 years old on Dec. 15.
In 99 years, Horn has lived an interesting life: He went to engineering school, met President Lyndon B. Johnson, married, served as a B-17 navigator and survived being captured by German forces in World War II.
Even as he approaches a century of life, Horn still continues to add new experiences to his legacy. Since moving to Tucson in 2021, Horn has volunteered at the Tucson VA Medical Center, where he is the oldest volunteer at the facility on Tucson’s south side.
For 55 years, Horn never went to his local VA center for any services available to veterans. After having some troubles, someone suggested he try it and he began using the VA for most of his medical needs.
When Horn moved to Tucson, he knew he wanted to continue going to a local VA center. Since the Tucson VA Medical Center needed volunteers and Horn wanted to be active, he decided to sign up to be a volunteer.
When volunteering, Horn gets to sit at the front concierge desk and help direct people coming into the center. Despite his age, Horn doesn’t have any plans to slow down, saying as long as he can drive, he’ll be volunteering.
“So long as I’m able, I will continue to volunteer,” said Horn, who volunteers about four hours a week at the facility.
Flak spills through the vapor trails from B-17 flying fortresses of the 15th Air Force during the attack on the rail yards at Graz, Austria, March 3, 1945.
Captured in WWII
Horn grew up in Borough Park in Brooklyn. After attending engineering school for a while, Horn went down to Church Street in Manhattan and enlisted in the Army Air Corps in October 1942. He was 18 years old at the time.
Horn went on to graduate from the Pan American School of Navigation and was assigned to be the navigator for John Lincoln’s crew 11-30. The crew then joined the 15th Air Force, Fifth Wing, 463rd Bomber Group, 772nd Bomber Squadron, which was based in Foggia, Italy.
On March 20, 1945, Horn and his crew were sent on a mission to bomb the marshalling yards at Amstettin, south of Vienna, Austria. During the mission, their B-17 was hit by flak while they were flying over Zagreb, Yugoslavia. Thanks to the piloting skills of Lincoln and his copilot Lorin Millard, all 10 men survived after they were able to ditch the plane in the Quarnaro Bay off of Fiume, Italy.
The crew members then got into a rowboat and started paddling before coming face to face with a German ship, resulting in their capture. Horn remembers being lined up against a wall with his crew members. Although they stood there for about 15 minutes, Horn said it felt like forever.
“We all looked at each other and we all said the same thing: we thought that they were going to shoot us,” Horn said.
In the morning, they were put on a trolley and sent to the Trieste, Italy, SS prison. Being the only Jewish crew member, Horn was put into a small room where he couldn’t see a thing. Horn slept on the cold floor, afraid about what could happen.
“I got up, looked around and nothing changed.” Horn said. “I decided I’m just going to speak my mind. You go through a period of being scared and then you get mad.”
After speaking with a captain, Horn was sent back with the other prisoners. During their time in prison, Horn said all they had to eat was black bread and coffee.
Horn along with 18 other prisoners of war then had to endure a grueling journey from Italy to Nuremberg, Germany, while being guarded by 23 German guards. Eventually, the prisoners were able to capture the guards and turn them over to the 86th Black Hawk Division of the Third Army.
After everything they endured, the crew was finally able to get on a ship back home to New York.
“As we start approaching the Statue of Liberty, everybody who could get there went to the side of the ship, and you could hear a pin drop,” Horn said. “We all knew we’re safe at home and after we passed it, we were all shouting.”
Harvey Horn, 99, a volunteer at the Tucson VA Medical Center on Wednesday. Horn was a was a navigator on a B-17 bomber in the 15th Air Force based in Foggia, Italy, in World War II, attacking targets in southern France, Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and the Balkans.
After war, college and marriage
Thanks to the GI Bill of Rights, Horn earned his degree in industrial engineering. Horn also met his wife of 54 plus years, Minerva, and lived in Monroe, New York. Horn described his wife, who died in 2021, as a giving person who would try anything, saying that even those who met her for five minutes remembered her.
With the help of his nephew, Horn made the move to Arizona. He even got the opportunity to be honored at a University of Arizona football game last season. The game Horn was honored at was the only one the Wildcats won that year.
After living the life that he has, Horn has one piece of advice: Get involved.
“You don’t have to go fight a war, but you can find things to do to make the world just a little bit safer,” Horn said.
Watch now: After a two-year hiatus, Tucson's Veterans Day Parade made its downtown return Friday, Nov. 11.
The parade route started at North Granada Avenue and West Alameda Street, then ran south to West Cushing Street before looping back around.
Video by Jesse Tellez / Arizona Daily Star.
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