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[Double Lab]

Wow, what a small world Frank and Jeff. That's a really cool picture of your Dad, Frank. I can see where you got your good looks from. One of my dear friends, shooting and hunting mentor, flew 17's in the 8th over Germany. A whole different breed of men they were. I'm sure you are both very proud of your fathers. God bless them all.

[TOOL MAN]

Roger that DC.....a small world indeed!! I hope Frank and Jeff are swapping PM's as we speak. That stuff raises the hackles on the back of my neck!

[Jeff Christie]

I don't know how to post pictures here but if you google the words flight crew 4009 you will get a photo of my father's 6th BG crew. The old man is in the kneeling row of officers- furthest on the left. Enlisted crew members are in the rear. If you look closely no one is wearing anywhere near the same uniform. My father even has cowboy boots on. It was a great war!!

[Fishtail]

I worked with a guy 'Bob' for several years back in the early 90's. He was a draftsman. He was very small, maybe 5'3" and the nicest guy you could ever meet. He died about 10 years ago and my father made an offhand comment that his obituary made note of his many WWI decorations. What? Well, it turns out he had been a tailgunner in B-17 and had flown many missions over Germany and had over 30 takedowns to his credit. Never knew it when he was alive, I wish I had know so I could have thanked him and maybe heard a few stories.

[Double Lab]

Jeff;
Quite a mission your Dad flew over Japan. I can't even imagine the nerve it took to maintain their course under those conditions. Those were some ballsy guys. You should be very proud. Thank God we had them when we did. My Dad fought in the Pacific and I wish I had some photo evidence of his service. He's still kicking at 94 and very rarely speaks of his experiences during the war. They really were the greatest generation.

[Richard Flanders]

I just finished a book called "A Higher Call" about the B-17 that was riddled over Germany and lost much of the tail section and was almost shot in half and still going on 2.5 engines. A German fighter pilot, Franz Stigler, risking execution if caught, took the high road and escorted it over the German coastal flak batteries so no one shot at them and got them out to sea. The 17 made it back to base and the pilots met in the US long after the war and became like brothers. It's an incredible story and very very well written. It will have you in tears at points. I highly recommend it. I can't say I've read a better WWII book.

[Ben Rawls]

I can recommend "A Higher Call" also. It's more about Stigler and his experiences than the B-17 crew. Shows a side we don't get much word about. I can remember German POWs picking peanuts in the field in front of the house and eating lunch under the pecan trees out back. My grandmother cooked for them and some ate what she cooked ;some ate what they brought with them from the camp. South Alabama had POW camps all over the place. My five uncles all served in combat and all survived-very lucky. One was a copilot in "Shoo-Shoo Baby". He finished out MacDuffy's last 9 missions and then went on to pilot "Peacemaker". When the restored plane was rolled out at Wright- Patterson he was the only one of the crew who could still get in through the nose hatch. All of his crew was still surviving at that time.
He went on to get a PhD in agronomy and specialized in peanuts and hot peppers. He was very well known in Latin America for his pepper work. Never flew anyplace if he could go any other way.
He never talked about his experiences until he was in his 60's and then very little. Bert Stiles mentions one of his missions in his book "Serenade to the Big Bird". They were room mates at Royston.

[Setter Man]

Just finished "Unbreakable" the story of Louis Zamperini who was a B24 bombardier in the Pacific. After being a top track and field athlete at USC and in the 36 Olympics in Berlin. He crashed in the Pacific, spent over a month in a raft, was captured by the Japs and spent months being starved, beaten and humiliated by his captors. He was in a camp when the bob a were dropped and his description of how the Japs reacted was very interesting.

For anyone interested in WWII I recommend the book highly. These were remarkable men with incredible stories the likes of which we will never see again.

[OH Osthaus]

My wife and I were talking about the stuff it took to be a bomber crew member just last night. Out to dinner and were talking about her father. He passed when she was a teen and she knows little about his service except that he was a bomber pilot, and that his plane shot down on a mission to Germany. He somehow evaded capture (later found out two crew members were killed, the rest finished the war in a stalag). it took months but eventually he returned to England and flew again. He also served in Korea and eventually retired from the reserves a Lt Colonel.

No one in the family knows the details of his "adventure" other than that- the only thing that remains is a letter stating his plane was lost and he was listed as missing.

[Cold Spring]

Yeah Tool Man, sorry for the delay. I was out at the cabin for a few days picking huckleberries and checking out things for grouse season. Looking good so far. I came home last night with a sore tummy from all those berries. It couldn't have been the mountain water in the cocktails. Jeff and I have been trading PM's and I have to tell you guys he's pretty modest. He did a wonderful story on meeting up with the gent who was the CFC gunner on his Dad's Superfort "Little Jeff". Story is in the 6th Bomb Group June 2014 Newsletter and it's a wonderful and touching piece of writing.

I agree 100% with the comments on the "Higher Call" and Stigler's story. One of our sons gave me the book a few months back and I pored through it right after that.

Here's another pic, taken on a mission about 3 months after the fighting ended on Iwo Jima. Looks pretty tranquil down there although the flight was headed to or from its own fight.