Bill's Web Site......

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billrunnels said:
The 303rdbg Site is being closed by the founder on December 1. He hasn't said why but I think he feels it has served it's purpose. There are only two of we WWII Vets still active,The site was founded to honor his father.
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I should say a number of the younger participants and a few others are suggesting new management but I don't think that is going well. My feeling is that he has the right to do what he wants. The web site is steep in history and good for second generation research.
 
Bill,


I have a few questions if you don't mind. I had never seen the web site you pointed to, shame that, I really enjoyed reading it once you pointed to it. That is an excellent source.


When I read the page on the Howard C. Lacker crew I notice the mention of special passengers on 7 missions.


The VI passengers are easy enough to understand. And the RCM passengers also, although it appears the aircraft used for that mission was not a specifically configured aircraft.


But what are the YRO passengers? The Y Radio Operators? Were these MI8?


I have acquired the majority of the RCM gear that would have been in use in late 1944 / early 1945. I am in the process of building a working example of a suite of RCM gear, although more oriented towards the Ferret birds, and acquisition / analysis, than the regular bombers and protection.


Thanks,


T!
 
Sorry but I do not have an answer for you. However the think the YRO would fall in the radio specialty section.
 
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Peter Gunn said:
Why is the site closing if I may ask?
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No one seems to know at the present time. The Site Manager just announced the December 1 closing with out giving a reason. He has not responded to questions regarding the announcement.
 
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Hi Bill,
Are you sure about the 303rd BG Association web site 303rd Bomb Group (H) - Molesworth, England closing? A search for your content is here 303rdBG Custom Search Results I think your content there remains safe, with no planned closure.

The web site that is set to close on 1 Dec 2017 is the Army Air Forces Forum ArmyAirForces.com Forum
This web site, forum/blog was conceived in 1998 during the relatively early internet days by Scott Burris who remains owner and administrator. Originally it was simply called Heavy Bomber Forum but rapidly changed names to the AAF Forum. I had the pleasure of serving as a moderator there for about two years. First over the sub-forums of the 216th AAF Base Unit (Sp) & 509th Composite Group, then the final year for the overall forum.

In about May 2015 the web site experienced a catastrophic "Crash". Although the administrator assured members that previous/earlier content was safe and backed up on servers "somewhere" a way to reincorporate that data in the existing forum was never found. The AAF Forum that exists today only represents about two years of content established after the 2015 crash, with no moderators except the owner/administrator. The seventeen (17) years of earlier content remains missing but still with the assurance it is safe with plans for a future archive. Since the 2015 crash membership an participation have been on a steady decline. It remains unknown why Scott Burris has selected 1 Dec 2017 to pull the plug on this forum which was still providing a research platform particularly for new members starting their research of family AAF veterans.

What currently exists on the AAF Forum is a mere shadow of what once existed. I am still sad to see the lights turned off in this manner with no apparent effort to pass the torch to someone else willing to carry it forward.

Scott M
 
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You are correct, It is the ArmyAirForces.com Forum that is closin
Hi Scott.....Thanks for your response. As you may know I have been active on the ArmyAirForces forum for a number of years. I had my own web site on Yahoo and they wanted to charge so I was going to let it go. Scott Burris had a link of my site and when I ask him to cancel it he asked if he could transfer the copy to his Site. So what you see as 303rd he created. I assumed it will be lost on December 1 so I have archived the pages. I continue to hope we will hear more from Burris.

Regards............Bill
 
Thank you, Bill.
I believe your content on the 303rd BG web site remains safe as long as Gary Moncur keeps that site active.

As to your content on the AAF forum in checking the 303rd BG sub-forum your WW II Memories page no longer appears to be present. Perhaps before the 2015 crash this was pinned to the top of that sub-forum but it is now gone.

I am pleased you have found a new home and friends on this forum who appreciate you sharing your WW II AAF 8th Air Force combat and other none combat experiences during the war. You and Jim S Peters (ETTG) 348th Squadron, 99th BG, 15th AF were our last active AAF veterans able and willing to share your first hand knowledge. I have not heard from Jim in quite some time but hope he is well. Perhaps if able he can participate on this forum as well.

As to the future of the AAF Forum under new/different management I am in the dark along with everyone else. Perhaps some arrangement can be made to continue but for now Scott Burris remains silent. Possibly from the ashes of that forum a phoenix will be born, time will tell.

Warm regards, Scott M
 
Your response has refreshed my memory. It was Gary Moncur that requested the copy of my web site, not Scott Burris. Thanks for helping to clear this up. It all happened so long ago...............Bill
 
Correction........The 303rd is not closing, the ArmyAirForces forum is closing December 1, 2017. Sorry for the error.
 
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Welcome to the Forum and thank you for your service
I look forward to having you here with us (you'll see its a great group that really enjoys history and aviation)
 
AAF Forum closure update. Mike Simpson, President of the Heritage League of the Second Air Division has taken on the responsibility of archiving some of this AAF Forum content. Please understand this is not presently a continuation of the AAF Forum simple archiving of some content. The Heritage League "forum" landing page is here Forums - HeritageLeague as might be obvious the 500 series and 800 series bomb groups are not represented. This would omit content from the 509th Composite Group and 801st Carpetbaggers for instance. Frankly with the AAF Forum catastrophic crash in mid 2015 much of this content was already lost (although all this content was reported to be safe on independent servers no actual evidence has been presented that this is still accurate).

The other drawback of this Heritage League "rescue" is that none of the AAF sub-forums such as Heavy Bombers, Medium Bombers, POWs, All hands Club, etc are not included so there remains a considerable amount of missing content/data from the "current" AAF forum which represents the last two years. The continued existent of the pre-2015 crash data/content remains in question, at least to me, and if the "old" forum data and content is included in this data transfer to the Heritage League.

That having been said, hats off to Mike Simpson and the Heritage League having prevented disaster with what would have been complete loss of this AAF WW II content. Mike has posted a message here Data transfer to the Heritage League of the Second Air Division which might be of interest to members here as he is seeking aid with manipulating this massive data transfer. Time is short, only 8 days remain before the lights go out at the AAF Forum.

Happy Thanksgiving Day to all, if that is included in your calendar.

Scott M
 
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