The President's Message

Welcome to the Woburn Elks Club and our Spring Fling. This is my first president’s message to you, our dedicated and supportive members. It is an honor for me to serve and help in the administration of our association. I am deeply concerned for the future of our chapter. The average age of our members is probably around 82 although our female members continue to report themselves as 29.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see what is in store for our group. One solution would be to bring in our children and grandchildren as associate members. Remember history buffs and non-veterans are very welcome to join also. There are at least three men here today, all veterans, attending their first Fling.

On a sad note you will see in Vapor Trails an obituary for one of our most active members, Joe DeGiacomo. Bill Campbell, Al Audette and yours truly represented the 8th at Joe’s funeral. On a happier note we are planning a June 17 excursion to the Battleship Massachusetts. We have a sign-up sheet for those who have never been aboard a battleship or want to go back again.

On a personal note I flew with the 708sqdn. in the 447th BG as Flight Engineer and Top Turret gunner. We flew from an air base called Rattlesden aboard the B17 Ole Boomerang. We did 23 missions and had two aborted missions. I earned a Presidential Citation and an Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters along with the usual theater ribbons. I have a Good Conduct ribbon around here someplace. Really! We saw plenty of action but we must have been on a lucky ship. No one aboard was ever killed or wounded. As Top Turret gunner, though, I had my moment of fame when I returned from a mission with a piece of flak stuck in my parachute. Too close for comfort as they say. I returned to the States in July 1945.

Al Ducey

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WWII Memorial Dedicated in DC

Thanks to Stephen Stroik of Washington, DC who took these marvelous photos of the new World War II memorial. Click on the link below to view.

World War II Memorial Photos

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You Can Treat the Dutch!

Lieutenant Tom Leary of the Needham, Mass. Police Dept. is a new member of our chapter and a most welcome one. Tom is so welcome that when he gave a brief introduction at a mini-meeting at McDonalds. Walpole practically everyone there was so impressed with what he had to say and how he said it that we leaped to our feet and shouted “Don’t let him get away. Sign him up as speaker for our Spring Fling!” AND WE DID.

Those who attended the mini-meeting and others who showed interest received an invitation from Petrina Doherty and her sister Joan Doherty Woody. Pat and Joan’s father, William, “Bill” Doherty was co-pilot on a B-17 that was shot from the skies over the village of deBilt in Holland. The 17 belonged to the 413 BS , 96th BG and flew out of Snetterton Heath, England. The following members of the crew became POWs: 2nd Lt. Charles Geyer, Jr. Pilot, Robert Surdez, CP, S/Sgt. Frank Killarney who evaded for a while but then was taken. Navigators Donald Mills and Bill Doherty evaded capture. The remaining crew went down with the aircraft. They were all Staff Sergeants except for Right Waist Gunner Charles Randel. The others were Radio Aaron Becker, LWG Alex Guillianielli, Ball Turret Ed Lantron, and Tail Gunner James A. Parker. I mention the names so that readers will know they are remembered.

Three Dutch civilians, a mother, son and housekeeper were killed when the crashing bomber struck their house. Watching with great intensity was a little Dutch boy, 7 year old named Co de Swart who many years later led a campaign to help honor those who fought to free the Netherlands. A memorial to those killed was dedicated on 10-20-2003, the 60th anniversary of the loss of the plane, some of the crew and the three Dutch civilians. All credit goes to Co de Swart who was an honored guest along with his charming wife, Louise. Also present and delighted to see old friends and members of the Air Force was Bob Doherty, historian of the 96th BG.

One more interesting note that almost seems out of the movies! The Luftwaffe pilot who shot down the Fortress casually landed his ME-09 in a nearby field and casually strolled to the wreckage and looked it over. He was shot down and slain three months later by American super-ace P47 pilot Walter Beckham who ran up 18 kills before he was shot down and wound up in a Stalag Luft. Those were perilous times!
Guests at Leary’s attractive home were served a light lunch and heard a moving and emotional talk by Co de Swart. Pictures were taken. Wartime photos examined. Friendships were formed. One of the few good things to come out warfare! Friendships and freedom! -JB

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German POW Ersatz Bread
Complements of Albuquerque, N.M 8thAFHS newsletter

Vapor Trails is once more indebted to our comrades in New Mexico. They send your editor a copy of their newsletter and there is always something in it to share with our members.

Here’s the story this time. It seems Patricia Wadley, PhD (and former editor of the ex-POW Bulletin) asked Berlin some time ago for the “recipe for the Black Bread served in the Stalaglufts. (For those who don’t know Stalag Luft means a place where fliers are confined.) A lady named Martha Coke helped her to procure the necessary info. She also suggested that if one should decide to make use of the recipe the results should never be served at a dinner party.

How good are you at German accents? The recipe comes from “the official records of the food processing industry” located in Berlin. It is labeled “Top Secret Berlin 24.X1 1941” from the Director of Ministry Herr Mansfeld and Herr Moritz.

Here we go! Ingredients: 50% bruised rye grain. 20% sliced sugar beets. 20% tree flour. (That means 1/5th sawdust) and to top it off, 10% minced leaves and straw.

Dr. Wadley says cooking directions were not included. No oven temperatures, no cooking time, no instructions on mixing the “dough” and letting it rise. The doctor likes to bake her own bread and says that sometimes there are no instructions given. You are assumed to know. She says one might “assume” the grain was sufficiently “rotten” to provide gases that would allow the bread to rise and the pieces of sugar beets would provide “sugar” to “feed” the yeasty rye.

The pieces of sugar beets were most likely pressed remnants of beet, not real slices. More than likely whoever was preparing the bread for baking just dumped out the dough, slapped it around and created loaves. It should be told that the closer to the end of the war the greater the proportion of leaves and straw in the mix. A loaf weighed 3 1/2 to 4 pounds and had to be seasoned at least three days before it was at all edible. It is said that the stench rising from the bread robbed many a POW of his appetite.

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Joe DeGiacomo dies!
Much Decorated Air War Veteran was Eighth Air Force Chapter Stalwart!

Joe DeGiacomo died December 20, 2003. He left a job on the New Haven Railroad to serve
his country and he served it well. The oldest of four children he went to work for the New Haven Railroad after he finished high school. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor he enlisted. He was sent to Tyndall Field in Panama City, Florida to learn aerial gunnery. He received his silver wings and was assigned as a tail gunner flying out of England. This was at a time when there was scant fighter cover and the Luftwaffe was in peak form.

Joe got the Purple Heart after being wounded in both legs on his seventh mission. At this time the odds of a flier surviving his assigned 25 missions were just one in three. Not very good odds. Joe was awarded the Presidential Citation which is an individual medal and other decorations before returning home. He became a gunnery instructor at Chatham Field in Savannah, Georgia, where yours truly was in Operational Training. Joe was a steadfast member of the Massachusetts Chapter of the Eighth Air Force Historical Society and really put his heart and soul into the organization.

We surviving members of the AFHS miss him and wish the best to his family.

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Secretary’s Report “condensed”

December Meeting: Abbreviated Version; Eight members attended the December meeting at the Elks Club in Woburn. Nearness to the Christmas holidays, the threat of snow and the vicissitudes of aging played a part in our unusually low attendance. The Treasurer reported on our solvency. Over $1500 was donated to Vapor Trails. Al Audette informed the members of the declining health of stalwart member Joe DeGiacomo.
Al Ducey accepted the transfer of the gavel and records from the outgoing president. After opening exercises the President called for and received the Treasurer’s report and the Secretary’s report.

Chet Gunn of Reading, Mass. was introduced as a new member. Chet is an 8th vet and half as they say. He flew 35 missions with the 568th Sqdn., 368 Bomb Gp. He then flew a weather ship and performed his first mission on D-Day. As if these two tours were not enough Chet volunteered to fly with the 4th Emergency Rescue Sqdrn in the Pacific Theater. His geographical area was that vacation zone around Saipan and Iwo Jima. We welcome Chet to the Massachusetts Chapter and it’s OK if we show a little bit of awe!

Al Audette talked about VA Disability compensation and the meeting closed.

March Meeting: Elks Club, Woburn. After the usual opening exercises it was announced that Lt. Thomas Leary, Needham, Mass. Police, will be the speaker at the Spring Fling. Tom is a new member and is mentioned at length above.

Henry Sampson talked about the WWII Memorial and informed members that a website is in the process of listing all WWII vets. Al Audette announced that a visit to the Battleship Massachusetts is scheduled for Bunker Hill Day, June 17.

Respectfully submitted,
Retired Navy Master Gunner’s Mate
John M. McKernan, Secretary

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Earning a Purple Heart in a Bomber and the Mud!

Former ball turret gunner Dag Morse, who recently recovered from a serious illness, likes to tell this story on himself. Dag joined the Air Corp in Boston along with your esteemed editor-to-be and they went off to Greensboro in July, 1943. When they got there, Dag was sent off with the M’s and Brennan with the B’s. The war was long over before they met again. Dag says that when he was assigned to a B-17 in 1945 they put him in the ball turret. “Not to worry!” they said. “The ball turret is the safest place on the plane.” In a way they were correct. The ball turret gunner of necessity was sort of rolled up in a ball when he was in the turret. He had armor plate protecting him, not 100% but better than the waist gunners and the “rooftop” position of the radioman. Of course no one mentioned there might be a slight problem in getting out of the ball in a hurry if need be. Oh yes.

The radioman gunner and the waist gunners sometimes had to stretch themselves while following enemy targets and offered themselves up as long, lean bulls eyes for the 109s etc. We are told that the waist gunners suffered the most wounds in aerial combat. We don’t have the exact figure of how many Purple Hearts were earned at the waist positions but we’ll bet that we’ll hear from more that a few former gunners if this isn’t so.

But what if you weren’t up in air? What if you made the occupational choice to become a U.S. Marine and spend your time with bugs and in mud instead of relaxing on oxygen? We recently heard from a friend and neighbor, John Carey, who fought an infantry war on delightful places like Bougainville and Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. John has published a terrific book called “A Marine from Boston” (John J. Carey, 65 Martin St., Boston, Mass., 02132.) He was still 19 and suffering from tropical diseases and was in Mobile Hospital-8 awaiting return to the States.

From page 332. “We returned to our wards and beside each bed on an end table was a form to be made out if you were wounded and rated the Purple Heart medal. All you had to do was sign the paper and the next morning a Naval Captain, a full four striper, would walk by and hand you a box with a medal and a lapel pin and mumble something about…the President of the United States takes pleasure and mumbles the rest. This disturbed many of us.

Most everyone in the infantry battalions on Bougainville had shed a bit of blood from cuts or injuries, But that was not the same as a contact wound. Every man in our outfit respected the Purple Heart for what it stood for and would never violate its meaning, this Navy Captain really degraded its meaning. I will never forget that experience and even to this day when I see anyone wearing the Purple Heart I wonder if they actually rate it.” -JB

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What is a Wound?

A wound is defined as an injury to any part of the body from an outside force or agent sustained under, in brief, the results of enemy action. A physical lesion is not required. However the wound for which the award is made must have required treatment by a medical officer and records of the medical treatment of wounds or injuries received in action must have been made a matter of official record. When contemplating an award of this decoration, the key issue which commanders must take into consideration is the degree to which the enemy caused the injury. The fact that a proposed recipient was not participating in direct or indirect combat operations is a necessary perquisite but is NOT sole justification for the award.
Examples of enemy-related injuries which clearly justify the award of the Purple Heart are as follows: a.) injuries caused by an enemy bullet, shrapnel or other projectile created by enemy action. b.) injury caused by enemy placed mine or trap. Enemy released chemical, biological or nuclear agent. c.) Aircraft accident resulting from enemy fire. d.) Self-inflicted wounds when in the heat of battle and not involving gross negligence. e.) post traumatic stress disorders. f.) jump injuries caused during enemy action.
It is not intended that such a strict interpretation of the requirement that the wound or injury be caused as the direct result of hostile action be so strict that it would preclude the reward to deserving personnel. Commanders must take into consideration the circumstances surrounding the injury even if it appears to meet the criteria. Examples: A person injured parachuting from a shot down airplane or injured in a vehicle accident caused by enemy fire should be given a Purple Heart or Oak Leaf Cluster if appropriate. Persons killed or wounded by “Friendly Fire” will be awarded the Purple Heart as long as what injured or killed them was intended to inflict damage upon enemy troops or equipment.

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The Purple Heart

The Purple Heart is America's oldest military decoration. It was established by General George Washington on 7 August 1782 during the War for Independence. It is ordered currently pursuant to Executive Order11016. Executive Order 12464 and Public Law 98-525 19 October 1984.

The Purple Heart is awarded to any member of our armed forces or any civilian national of the United States who, while serving under competent authority with one of the U.S. armed forces after 5 April, 1917, has been wounded or killed or may hereafter die after being wounded (think Wake Island where many of the civilian contractors fought alongside the Marines although it took a long time for the bravery of some of these patriot s to be recognized.)

1) The Purple Heart is awarded for wounds received in any action against enemies of the United States.

2) Pay attention! The Purple Heart is an individual decoration but the individual is not recommended for it. It is earned upon meeting specific criteria.

3) One gets a Purple Heart only for the first wound. Oak Leaf Clusters will be awarded to be worn on the medal or ribbon for subsequent wounds. No more that one award will be made for than one wound or injury received at the same instant or from the same missile, force, explosion or agent.

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Shocking news from Dixie!

Good work by our comrades who contribute to “Tall Tales”, the newsletter of the Georgia Chapter of our Historical Society!

Frank A. Kaye, in his column “Mind if we just talk plain?” rises to the defense of the Eighth Air Force in WWII. He writes “The last presidential election (Bush-Gore) was an indication of just how divided we Americans are in this great land of democracy. But who would have ever dreamed that 60 years after WWII there could emerge individuals with these opinions as they were published in Letters to the Editor 12-14-03.
We here in “Vapor Trails” simply do not have the space to copy all the letters verbatim but suffice to say the writers had little good to say about those who were so instrumental in bringing WWII to a victorious close. “A true historian knows the conduct of the Army Air Corp was closer to incompetence and brutality.” This from an Andrew Amendola. Or this extract from an admirer of America’s critics, Monika Junghans-Jones of Jesup, Georgia, (Whoever the hell she is? -JB) “Mighty Eighth’s history brings shame, not pride.” The same writer apparently never heard of the Marshall Plan for she says ten million Germans starved to death in the five years following Hitler’s defeat. In her addled view President Roosevelt was the liar, not “Unser Adolph” as we can imagine her saying.

Editor Frank Kaye winds up his reply to these weepers for the Nazis. “I’ll tell Mr. Amendola like it was because I was in London during the raids and did 33 missions over the flak-filled skies of Germany. And you know what? I am not a bit ashamed of it.

He didn’t come back and throw anything at the White House either. -JB

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Jim Conway

A most welcome note was received from Jim Conway. Jim was bombardier on the “Hey Mabel”, the B-17 that was shot down over Berlin and the exploits of the crew were featured in the previous issue of “Vapor Trails”. Jim’s group started out with 18 crews and only two survived! Jim says that was an 89% loss, the B17 crewmen either shot down or drowned in the Channel.

Jim says he met a pilot while in Stalag Luft 111. This fellow had been shot down over France, rescued and hidden by the French underground. The French tried to get him to the Channel and across to England but a female double agent betrayed him. He was taken to a concentration camp and tortured. Remember he was in French civvies and had no US Army eyedee. The Germans eventually realized he was a Yank flier and shipped him to Stalag Luft 111 where he met Conway. Conway remembers asking him “How bad was the concentration camp? Was it really as bad as we were led to believe?” His answer was “Worse!” Note: Thomas Childer’s book “In the Shadow of War” relates this incident.

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In the novel, The Six Days of the Condor, by James Brady, there's an exchange between an older OSS officer and a younger CIA agent. The younger man turns to the older officer and he said, "Tell me something. Do you miss the good old days?" The OSS officer looked back and said, "Not really. But I do miss the clarity of it all."

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A Most Welcome Visitor

Members at our March meeting were surprised when Anne Whitaker, a delightful young woman, paid us a visit. Anne brought with her many fine WW2 photos that had belonged to her father. He was the late Tom Clifford who served with the 835th Bomb Group. He was in the administrative end and kept track of who went out and who came back among other duties. I don’t know if any of us were smart enough to tell Anne about the 8th Air Force Museum in Savannah, Georgia but that is a place where photos such as Anne’s would be always most welcome and are saved for future generations to see. If at any time she wants to relieve herself of the responsibility of caring for them this is the place to go.

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Veterans’ Affairs Hospital,
West Roxbury

Those vets who can go to the West Roxbury VA Hospital in time of need can consider themselves among the most fortunate. The Optometry section is where your editor goes when he has a problem with his eyes. I heard that man in the back holler “His P’s and Q’s also.” Well, I minded my P’s and Q’s and went up there with an unexpected problem and was treated with great consideration by Kristen Kenney, O.D. the Optometry Resident and hopefully set upon the road to recovery. Our thanks to all those who helped Kristen and helped me. -JB

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Visit the Vapor Trails Mailbag!

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Need A Speaker For Your School, Club Or Organization?

Time is running out if you want to hear WW2 air vets describe their adventures! Call President Al Ducey at 978-475-8832. Give us plenty of lead time because we ain't as young as we used to be.

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Join the 8th! To print an application, click the seal above.

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