A Recently Found Album of My Fathers Service in WWII

[T Bolt]

My Aunt (Dad's sister) recently passed away and wile going through boxes of old pictures at her house we found this. Its an album she kept of his service in the Air Corps from the time he was drafted a month before Pearl Harbor until they received a letter from him sent from the German P.O.W camp he ended up in when his B-24 was shot down in Feb 45'. Not everything is complete in it, bit I thought it might you might find it interesting.

 

[vikingBerserker]

My friend, that is awesome!

 

[meatloaf109]

Wow! There is not much to say, I know how my dad was. You have a precious record there, keep it safe.

 

[Njaco]

That is FANTASTIC!!!!!

 

[Crimea_River]

Excellent treasure Glenn and thanks so much for sharing it with us.

 

[syscom3]

That was cool! I didnt realize how many bases the airmen went to before heading overseas.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

That is very neat. Thanks for posting that.

 

[meatloaf109]

My favorite entry, (other than "dad, save the bottle") was "The Germans were good" after his first misson. There is no doubt that he was not refering to their personal habits. My own father spent his youth in the fight against the Nazi regime, I thank your father and mine, and all the dads and grandpaws out there...
Find a WW2 vet, and just say, thank you!

 

[T Bolt]

That was cool! I didnt realize how many bases the airmen went to before heading overseas.

Dad's situation was different that most. He was drafted before Pearl Harbor and trained on B-24's before being selected for pilot training. He didn't finish the pilot training though, the only part of that he talked about was the cadet training at Butler University. Some how after that he ended up as a gunnery instructor for quite a wile before volunteering for combat duty (I think he was board with Texas and New Mexico) and ended up in the 8th Air Force as a flight engineer/top turret gunner just after D-Day. When Doolittle fazed the B-24s out of the 8th he went to the 15th AF in Italy as a bomb strike photographer where his plane was shot down during a mission to Vienna. Anti-Aircraft fire took out 2 engines and disabled the feathering device so they couldn't maintain altitude and the entire crew bailed out safely when they were near the ground. All were taken prisoner shortly and he spent just under 3 months as a P.O.W.

My favorite entry, (other than "dad, save the bottle") was "The Germans were good" after his first misson. There is no doubt that he was not refering to their personal habits.

Dad didn't say much about the German fighters but he had a healthy respect for the German anti-aircraft gunners. Years and years later when my wife asked him why he had to bail out of his airplane he just told her "Too many holes"

 

[GrauGeist]

What a great piece of history there!

Thanks for sharing!

 

[A4K]

WOW! What a great find Glenn - thanks for posting!

I don't know how he spoke or wrote, but that letter looks extremely carefully worded. I can just see one of his captors standing over him as he wrote it...

 

[Readie]

Thanks for sharing your Dad's WW2 record with us Glenn.
A fascinating insight into one man's service.

I have my Dad's hand written 8th Army records ( written after the war) with reminiscent and anecdotes.
A prized possession of mine.
Cheers
John

 

[ToughOmbre]

Very very cool!

Treasure it!

Steve

 

[T Bolt]

Today would have been Dads 100th birthday.
Even though he's been gone going on 20 years I still miss him a lot.

Dad on a hunting trip back in the late 1950's

 

[michael rauls]

Wow. Awsome stuff! True treasures.

 

[rochie]

sorry i missed this first time around Glenn.

what a fantastic piece of family history !

 

[Gnomey]

Great stuff Glenn!

 

[Graeme]

 

[FLYBOYJ]

Today would have been Dads 100th birthday.
Even though he's been gone going on 20 years I still miss him a lot.

Dad on a hunting trip back in the late 1950's

Ironically my dad would have been 99 yesterday!

 

[vikingBerserker]