He’s a spry, lively looking man. If you met him, you might guess that he’s in his 70s or possibly 80s.
But Irvin Poff is one of the few still surviving World War II veterans in Ventura County.
"I was born in 1919," said Poff. "I am 106 years old as of now. I'll be 107 if I live to April 25th of this year."
Poff grew up in the Midwest. Even though he’s lived in Ventura County for more than four decades, you can still hear the Midwestern accent in his voice.
"I grew up in Missouri, on a single-family-farm of 80 acres, about 20 miles north of Kansas City," said Poff. "I went to a one-room school, which was taught by one teacher for eight grades."
After high school, he went to college to study soil management for a career in agriculture. Then, in 1941, the attack on Pearl Harbor plunged the United States into World War II. Poff completed his education at the University of Missouri. He worked for several months before he got the call to serve.
Even though he didn’t have a background in aviation, he enlisted in what was then called the United States Army Air Forces to become a bomber pilot.
"I was using aerial photographs for my soils work," said Poff. "That made me see what things look like from high altitude. My job involved walking. I figured I'd rather fly than walk," he laughed. "And, I'd rather be shot at from four miles down than from someone that's looking me in the face."
After nearly a year of training, his B-17 bomber squadron was sent into combat in Europe. They were based in Italy, near Naples.
Losses were high, as the Nazis used fighter aircraft and thousands of anti-aircraft guns to try to protect oil processing facilities that produced the gasoline for their war effort.
Poff describes what it was like to fly through the barrage of anti-aircraft fire. Did his plane ever get hit?
"We most always got hit," Poff confirmed. "I was always scared." He admitted that it was hard to go out on missions where many of his friends didn't return.
"I don't like to see friends not come back, but that was the way it was. Maybe you're scared, but you're still going to fly. When you see one (a plane from the squadron) go down, you know you're just lucky you weren't that once."
Poff was credited with flying 50 combat missions. While the planes he flew in were hit a number of times, miraculously, he came through the war unhurt.
After WWII, he returned to agriculture as a soil expert and land conservation official. He was married for nearly 70 years, outliving both of his wives.
Poff moved to Ventura County from Texas in 1980. He lives in Oak View, the tiny town off Highway 33 near Ojai. He has a son, step-grandchildren, and step-great-grandchildren.
Poff admitted that he’s lucky to have survived the war and is grateful to be still alive today. "I'm one of a few who went through that (World War II) and is still living," said Poff.
The 106-year-old man admits he hasn’t been in a plane cockpit for decades. He said the computers used in modern-day aviation are too much for him.
But he gets around Ventura County just fine on his own. He passed his most recent driver’s test last year, at the age of 105.
