24 Feb

Merle "M.P." Brown was the co-pilot of Herman's original crew and also on the Liberty Lady. After their interval in Sweden, he and Smithy flew together for several more missions. ...

23 Feb

Smithy (pronounced "Smitty") was the pilot of Herman's B-17 crew and of the Liberty Lady. Smithy and Herman were like brothers. ...

20 Feb

Tom Brokaw's book The Greatest Generation generated a worldwide interest in the Americans who grew up during the depression and then, as soon as they were ready to enter adulthood, went to war....

17 Feb

Well, it's time to formally introduce "The Colonel." Herman lives in Columbia, SC in The Atria, a Senior Living community. ...

16 Feb

I want to know more about what it was like for the bomber crews at Thurleigh. The movie “Twelve O’Clock High” might be the best “visual” we’ve got because it was about Thurleigh. But what I want to know is what was it like?...

13 Feb

The 8th Army Air Force was activated as part of the U.S. Army Air Forces January 28, 1942, at Hunter Field in Savannah, Georgia. Pearl Harbor had just been bombed about a month and a half earlier. ...

12 Feb

In October, Herman's crew went together to New York for the trip to England. In winter months, instead of flying across, the airmen would sail across the Atlantic on one of the ocean liners which had been converted to troop ships....

11 Feb

From Moses Lake, the crew moved east to Kearney Army Air Field in middle Nebraska for additional Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress Training. Kearney was a heavy bombardment processing center, a "staging area" where the crews were prepared for overseas duty....

10 Feb

Yesterday, February 9, 2009, I rode on theLiberty Belle, a restored World War II B-17.  It was an amazing opportunity, an experience of a lifetime, to visualize what their plane must have looked like to the crew of our Dad's B-17, the Liberty Lady....

09 Feb

Moses Lake Army Air Base is where combat crews were assembled and given their initial flight and gunnery training in preparation for going overseas....

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