Message to Leonidas

[at6]

Leonidas
If you wish to, go to the memorial section of our forums and open the PDF file of posts by Bill Runnels. He was with us for a far too short time. There you will find what makes our forum family so special. We exchanged private messages that I will never delete because I grew to consider Bill a special friend. Those of us here who came to know Bill felt a very deep loss with his passing.

 

[Leonidas]

Wilco. I did see few messages about him and seemed like a great guy. Would have loved to talk to him.

No offense to you, but why are you calling me out personally about it? (I'm fine with that, I am just curious)

 

[Marcel]

Yeah was wondering the same thing
But this post made me look at our 'in memoriam' forum again. So many friends have come and gone over the 18 years this forum has been in existance. Of only a few we know what became of them and those can be seen in that particular forum. I'm still greatfull for everybody that have touched my life in the 15 years I've been here. I've made some friends that I would never have met if not for the forum. I even met some in real life even though they live on the other side of the globe.

 

[at6]

I'm not calling anybody out. Forgive me if it seems that way. The passing of each member pains me deeply. This is my online family in a way. My private conversations with Bill were special somehow.

 

[Leonidas]

I'm not calling anybody out. Forgive me if it seems that way. The passing of each member pains me deeply. This is my online family in a way. My private conversations with Bill were special somehow.

No it's fine, I was just slightly confused as to why you decided to dedicate this thread to me.

 

[Gnomey]

Please do this. Some great stuff!

 

[special ed]

Leonidas, the reference to you is merely a result of us bunch of old farts finding a 17 year old interested in the same stuff. A little grand father, older uncle kind of thing. No put down intended.

 

[Leonidas]

Leonidas, the reference to you is merely a result of us bunch of old farts finding a 17 year old interested in the same stuff. A little grand father, older uncle kind of thing. No put down intended.

Again, you aren't putting me down!! But also a little understandable. Us younglings are so invested in video games and stuff (Well, I suppose I am as well but whatever) to really care about history and stuff. I feel like I am an outlier to everyone else.

 

[at6]

Again, you aren't putting me down!! But also a little understandable. Us younglings are so invested in video games and stuff (Well, I suppose I am as well but whatever) to really care about history and stuff. I feel like I am an outlier to everyone else.

I wish that there were more of your generation joining as you are the future of this forum after we are long gone from this world.

 

[at6]

No it's fine, I was just slightly confused as to why you decided to dedicate this thread to me.

I was hoping that you would get a better understanding of what makes this site into such a family. Bill was from the generation that educated me. Many of my teachers were war veterans from that time. In later years as an adult, they were my co-workers. I worked with one veteran from Merrill's Marauders and another person I had worked with was on the USS Minneapolis at the Battle of Leyte Gulf where he told me that 1/2 of the crew was killed or injured. My employer had served on destroyers during that war. Some of my friends over the years were Korean War veterans and Bill helped me to accept that there was no dishonor in having been 4F during the Vietnam era.

 

[special ed]

One man I worked with had joined the Army (real cavalry) in the late 1920s. After his hitch, he worked as an ice man. No refrigerators, just an ice box in the Kitchen. One apartment he delivered to was on the third floor. The ice man carried the ice on the back of his shoulder on a leather shield. This customer asked for a second block of ice and my friend slipped on the wet stairs and fell. His neck was sore for several weeks. When he was drafted in 1942, during the physical, the doctor wanted to know when he had broken his neck. He was accepted anyway.

 

[Leonidas]

I was hoping that you would get a better understanding of what makes this site into such a family. Bill was from the generation that educated me. Many of my teachers were war veterans from that time. In later years as an adult, they were my co-workers. I worked with one veteran from Merrill's Marauders and another person I had worked with was on the USS Minneapolis at the Battle of Leyte Gulf where he told me that 1/2 of the crew was killed or injured. My employer had served on destroyers during that war. Some of my friends over the years were Korean War veterans and Bill helped me to accept that there was no dishonor in having been 4F during the Vietnam era.

So have I been officially adopted into this family? And yeah, this forum seems special, and I can't wait to meet you guys even if it is virtual. I've been on the USS Midway when I was younger. Was pretty cool.

 

[ARTESH]

Time to Time, I try to review old topics that he made!

as well as other old threads!

Tha`ts a pitty for me, personally, I`ve met him too late!!!

the same goes even deeper when i hear about Iranian ones !!!

 

[aacs45]

Thank you for collecting his posts into one document. He is the reason I joined this forum (followed him here when the AAF.com Forum went away). I am saddened to hear of his passing.

 

[Marcel]

Thank you for collecting his posts into one document. He is the reason I joined this forum (followed him here when the AAF.com Forum went away). I am saddened to hear of his passing.

My pleasure. We also sent the pdf to his next of kin. His son told me there were one or two stories that he hadn't heard before.

 

[ODonovan]

I was just thinking of Bill a couple weeks ago. I had seen a clip from a WWII video which had a couple planes from the 303rd BG prominently showing. A couple days after that, I saw a clip from a video game, also with the 303rd represented. Both times, I thought, "Bill would've loved seeing his unit represented."

My private conversations with Bill were special somehow.

Same here. I told Bill I had met a pilot from the 356th FG, a number of years ago, and had "adopted" the 356th as my favorite fighter unit. When I told him I was going to have to adopt the 303rd as my favorite bomber unit because of him, I could tell he was pleased. His response, in typical Bill fashion, was "You could do worse."

We miss you, Bill!



-Irish

 

[at6]

I went to the 303rd Group site and found some stories that Bill never told us. There is a list of the missions he flew with serial numbers of the planes he was assigned to. I typed his name into a box and searched it. Sadly most of his original crew was killed on April 6 1945.