25 Feb

Charles L. "Steve" Stevenson was the navigator of Herman's original crew. He and Herman flew side by side in "the nose" of the B-17, and they became close friends....

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. ...

17 Feb

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

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....

21 Jan

I want to go ahead and post the names of the Liberty Lady crew who flew with Herman on March 6, 1944. These airmen flew out of Thurleigh Air Field, 306th Bomber Group, 368th Bomber Squadron....

20 Jan

The B-17's were built by the Boeing Aircraft Company, beginning in 1934. There were several models built until the final and largest model which was the B-17G....

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