This is an IHeart podcast.

This is Lee Habib, and this is our American stories, and we tell stories about everything here on this show, from the arts to sports and from business to history and everything in between, including your story. Send them to Our American Stories.com. They're some of our favorites. Between the Korean and the Vietnam Wars, U.S. Navy Captain Royce Williams flew over 220 missions.

The following story was classified as top secret because if the word got out that the Russians

were now engaging our troops in the Korean War, World War III could have easily broken out.

For more than 50 years, Captain Williams didn't tell a soul, not even his wife.

Nobody knew what this 27-year-old South Dakota did that day over the skies of Korea.

Until now.

Yes, born more or less to the Foss Klan of South Dakota, which is rather famous.

My mother was one of 13.

My dad, who was the mail carrier on motorcycle, he was in World War I, and then settled near where he was born in South Dakota, town called Wilmot.

Very patriotic upbringing. He was large in the local legion, commander of the unit at times.

And I grew up engaged in the community. I took on scouting as a serious matter and was our community's first Eagle Scout.

But I turned out to be an awfully good farmer.

And though my brother and sisters pretty much worked for my dad in the grocery business,

I worked for a lot of family, a lot of

uncles and their farms. And then when I moved to Minnesota, I was sort of on demand and

farming. And I worked for my uncle at a resort. Mother didn't worry much about me.

She came out one time because we weren't back as expected and she found out that

we had been in the trestle of a railroad track and the train was coming and we ducked down below the rails and

the road underneath in the wood supporting the bridge and we were safe but mothers don't like

those sort of things. I was full-time engaged and very athletic.

I played in all the sports and lettered in all of them.

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