God speed, Sargeant Rector!
Gary
Hmm;
Sergeant Rector ," May you be in heaven afore the devil hears you,re gone. " This is what was said at my foster father’s funeral . He was from Ireland and fought over there too . T.B.
Good read, good link, thanks.
A very moving read. Thanks for sharing.
We are losing these vets at a great rate.
My father in law never went back aftr 1945.
I think he would have liked to, in his case to visit the families in Italy with whom he became very close.
But he was busy building a family, becoming a construction trade member and later a Union official.
Built a house with his hands after work.
He did get a good thing going at air shows, and was a major contributor the the Mid Atlantic P-61 project.
That’s why I posted the link. We are losing these men and women very quickly now, and I thought it was appropriate for the Memorial Day Holiday here in the U.S.
I am reminded of what Richard Burton said in the movie “The Longest Day”:
“The thing that’s always worried me about being one of the few is the way we keep on getting fewer.”
Take care,
Gary
It was nice to see he was given a proper send off, i am sure his funeral in the US will be very well attended.
You guys can be assured that these men are not forgotten. I live in the heart of 8th AAF country and the reminderes are every where.
One thing i am confused about. The article says he was on the Belle but he was going to visit his old base at Snetterton.
Not to take away from this guys’ service, but I think some reporter boned up on the part of him being on the Memphis Belle. I can not find the guys name on any of the online posted crew lists for her.
http://www.b17bomber.de/eng/memphisbelle/crew.php
http://www.memphis-belle.com/crewlist.htm
The LA Times reported that the last survivng crew member, Robert Hanson, died at age 85 in 2005.
http://articles.latimes.com/2005/oct/10/local/me-hanson10
And lastly, the Belle was in the 91st Bomb Group which flew out of Bassingbourn, not Snetterton.
But I am very glad to see the people who turned out for this old vet in a far off land after he passed. Very touching.
You are right, Stik. It was probably a one off remark by someone that he had flown on aircraft similar to the “Memphis Belle” (meaning B-17s) and some reporter heard “Memphis Belle” and ran with it. Happens all the time.
Hope everyone has a safe and happy Memorial Day here in the states!
Gary
PS> A google search quickly turned up his actual service.
That sound very possable, the British media don’t worry to much about accuracy.
I am familiar with both those bases. Bassingbourn is an army traing deopt and thats where i trained in 1990/91.
But Snetterton is in my home county of Norfolk. Along with my project to buld aircraft from all Norfolks 37 airfields, i also plan to visit and get photo’s of all the meorials. So far i only have two, one of which is Snetteron which has, in my view, one of the best memorials i have yet seen, so i hope you don’t mind me shareing a few.
Right, looked at a number of articles he was in the 96th, flew eight missions. The Washington Post ran a story that he was on the Belle, but later corrected themselves.
At least the Snetterton part was correct.
Bish,
The British media may not worry about “accuracy”, but the American media don’t know the meaning of the word. [:(]
And that is a beautiful memorial! Thanks for posting!
I might somewhat agree, but geez in other parts of the world it’s really atrocious. Pure tabloid or totally state controlled.
Bish, I do think the British press is pure fish wrap.
You rate it higher than me then. I wouldn’t want to eat anything thats been in contact with it.
Bish- Nice pics of the memorial, we don’t often see those, and I for one would appreciate you putting those up as you get to them. I’ve got some pics of a B17 and fighter training base here in Oregon with a nice seating area with some benches and a bronze 17 and plaque. Still two B17 hangers on the field as well.
My pleasure. The only other one i have pics of are at Bodney, the old base of the 352nd FG. Its now part of a British army base, but the memorial is outside the front gate. But hopefully next year i can take a trip around Norfolk and get some more.
I’d like to see some pics at Bodney whenever you get a chance, Bish.
A couple years ago, I made contact with one “Punchy” Powell of the Blue -nosed Bastards of Bodney inquiring of a local pilot from Syracuse, NY who flew a P-51 called The Syracusan the 3rd. I was looking for images of his aircraft. He hasn’t found any nor knew of any survived. I know I can replicate the P-47s he flew but no luck for the P-51.
Black, i just posted some in the thread Goldhammer stared. I do have 2 sets of Eagle Strike decals for Bodney P-51’s, tehre was a third set. I have 3 51 kits and plan on doing one from each squadron, but none of the one si have are that aircrfat. I can’t recall what the other set had, but will see if i can find out.