SOUTH BUFFALO TWP — At home, U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Joseph Hager is more likely to be remembered for his blueberry patch than his exploits on the battlefields of Europe during World War II.

And it’s likely that’s how Hager, a quiet and humble man, would have wanted it. But the truth is that the South Buffalo Township man, who loved hunting, fishing and mowing grass, was a member of one of the most storied combat units in the war.

On Sunday in Sarver, Hager and his unit, the 8th Air Force, will be honored at a Memorial Day service at Sower’s Chapel, 100 Iron Bridge Road. The 11 a.m. ceremony will include an honor guard, patriotic music and refreshments.

Like many soldiers in World War II, Hager found himself drafted in the early stages of the war. One of six children in the family, Hager and two of his brothers were drafted together. His brothers ultimately served in the Navy.

Hager served in the Air Force. He went on to became a staff sergeant and machine gunner in Squadron 453 of Bomber Group 323, in the 8th Air Force. In “The Mighty 8th,” Hager flew missions in a Martin B-26 Marauder — a twin-engined medium bomber that required skill and precision to fly, and was known early in its time as “Widowmaker” because of numerous accidents during takeoffs and landings.

The plane was used mostly in Europe, which is where Hager and the 8th were operating on July 31, 1943. A group of bombers took off that morning from an airfield bound for targets in the north of France and the plane Hager was in came under anti-aircraft fire.

Hager’s son, Bob, said his father only talked infrequently about the mission, but told him that it had been chance that put him in the air that day.

Hager hadn’t been scheduled to go in the mission, his son said, but the regular belly gunner for the plane had taken ill, and the pilot — a man Hager respected as one of the squadron’s best — asked him to take his place.

“He was rather guarded about the specific events that happened, but he always talked very favorably about his time in the service,” said Bob Hager.

German flak demolished most of the plane’s wings and fuselage, sparking a violent fire that cut Hager off from the front of the plane. He would bail out of the aircraft at about 3,500 feet over a French wheat field, and take German small-arms fire on his way to the ground, watching the plane explode overhead.

Laying in the field, his ankle shredded by a machine gun bullet, Hager and another gunner, Staff Sgt. William Crowe, were found by members of the French Resistance, who spirited the men into a nearby forest, dressed their wounds and gave them civilian clothes.

A third gunner from the plane, Staff Sgt. James P. Berry, wasn’t so lucky. Berry was captured by German patrols sweeping the area after the plane’s destruction, and his fate remains unknown.

For Crowe and Hager, July 31 was the start of a harrowing month spent on the “Comet Line,” a 1,000-mile escape route from Belgium to Spain that European resistance fighters used to guide stranded Allied soldiers away from German-controlled territories. The two men were moved mostly via train on their route through France and Spain, where they were reunited with their unit and subsequently flown to Africa and London.

Both would take a tour of 14 air bases in England, adding their tales to what was fast-becoming one of the most renowned Allied combat units in World War II.

The force led the Allies’ daylight bombing campaign against Nazi Germany from 1942 to 1945, flew 440,000 bomber sorties and ultimately suffered about half of the U.S. Army Air Force’s casualties in the war. Collectively, the soldiers of the 8th earned 17 Medals of Honor, 220 Distinguished Service Crosses, and 442,000 Air Medals.

Bob Hager said his father was proud to be a part of that legacy.

“He was a very humble man, and he would not really have liked a lot of extra attention drawn to him,” Bob Hager said. “But it was his pride that he had for the 8th Air Force. He was very glad to be part of that unit.”

Home in America, Hager continued to serve in the U.S. Air Force, as a gunnery instructor, until being discharged on Oct. 29, 1945.

For his service on July 31, 1943, he was awarded a Purple Heart and the Distinguished Flying Cross — awarded to soldiers who distinguish themselves by “heroism or extraordinary achievement,” in aerial operations.

Bob Hager said his father’s great love, during his time in the military, was teaching young soldiers the ins and outs of aerial gunning.

Sometimes that meant Hager ran afoul of his superiors, when he clued trainees into ways to game the system.

One of his favorites, Bob Hager said, was to prompt young gunners to aim for the tow rope which connected an aerial target to a tow plane that was leading target practice. If the soldiers could hit, and cut, the rope, the training run would be cut short because the target would fall from the sky.

It was something the brass hated, but young soldiers loved.

“He got in some trouble for doing it, but it built a tremendous amount of confidence in the guys he was instructing,” Hager said.

After his discharge, Hager returned home in South Buffalo Township and took a job as a foreman at the Allegheny Ludnum Steel Corp. in Brackenridge.

Hager, who was married and had two sons, died on June 23, 2015, at Allegheny Valley Hospital in Natrona Heights.