Quote from Stephanie Brown:
"It came to pass that I heard from Stephanie Brown and Diane Glase that Wilbur Brown became the top gunner for his aircraft; but Donna Jeppi relates that he was the flight engineer."
Stephanie,
Thank you so much for posting Brianna's wonderful account of your grandfather's (?) story. We'd like permission to post this on the kasselmission.com website. We would need permission from Brianna as well as from her parents, since she is a minor.
For the most part, it is amazingly correct in its facts, as far as the 445th Bomb Group in general is concerned. Many parts of the Wilbur Brown story, we never have known, as our organization has not been in contact with your family. (The "Brown" name is hard to find, even in these days online!) I'm writing a book about the mission, and wonder if Wilbur Brown ever wrote down what happened, other than the narrative report he made at the time for the Air Force. Did he write about his treatment at the hospitals, etc?
By the way, the flight engineer doubled as a top turret gunner, so there is no discrepancy.
I'm so happy to read that Wilbur did finally get his diploma. I'd be interested to know of the conditions spoken of when he regained his eyesight. Do we have an original account from him? Please contact me
kmhs@kasselmission.com
Thank you for sharing this, and congratulations to Brianna on a wonderful paper.