The last one I knew passed on December 7th 2017. He was 94. ON the Monday after the attack on Pearl harbor he was at the post office bright and early to sign up for the draft. Along with all the boys in the senior class of 42. It was my cousin Gene Greenwood. He flew bombers over Germany in WWII for the 100th Bomb Group, the Bloody 100th. He stayed in the Air Force for 32 years before retiring. He is buried next to his wife and just a few rows from his Mom and Dad in our home town.
kwg
https://100thbg.com/Are you familiar with the book Flying Fortress by Edward Jablonski? A whole chapter on the Bloody 100th.
I have heard of it and I may actually have seen it in the local library but I have not read it. Gene arrived in England in January of 1945 and flew 29 missions including 2 or 3 Chow Hound missions after the war ended. He later went back to Germany to fly in the Berlin Airlift and flew cargo planes into and out of Korea. He was a wing commander in Viet Nam and prior to that he did some time at the Pentagon helping to design and implement the early ballistic missile defense system. He did a lot of things in his 32 years in the Air Force but he said is time in the 100th was his favorite assignment.
ON one of his missions the B-17 next to him was hit by flak. It went up and over upside down and when it came down it damaged their right wing and almost flipped them over as well. The 10 crew members in the first B-17 all died but he and his PIC kept their bird in the air all the way back to England for a landing they all walked away from.
We sure miss him.
kwg
