Saturday, March 14, 2020

Burial at Arlington Cemetery - Honoring 2nd Lt. James Mulligan

The early morning hours on March 15th, 1945, seven B-24s sat idling on the runway of Lecce Air Field Italy awaiting the signal from the tower to begin their mission...to bomb the marshaling yard at the Schwechat oil refinery in Vienna, Austria.  After successfully completing their mission their B-24 Bomber suffered heavy flak damage while over Yugoslavia. 
 After being hit in their #2 and #4 engines the crew was forced to bail out, and with the help of a small village and Marshall Tito's men, the crew was able to walk back over the Alps and into Split, Yugoslavia where they traveled by boat across the Adriatic Sea back to their base in Bari, Italy.    Today marks the 75th anniversary of this mission.   

 March of 2018, 2nd Lt. James Mulligan and his wife, Lois, were buried at Arlington Cemetery in Virginia.  There can be no greater honor to a veteran who has served his country well.  Today in honor of the 75th anniversary of their mission, 2nd Lt. James Mulligan tells his story of the mission and the remaining months as the war came to an end.   








https://youtu.be/Qp6WKbR-_FI