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Sgt. Harry Henry, Sgt. Raphael Gonyea, Sgt. Don Brown. Top Row: Lt. Charles Estes, Sgt. Frank Delois, John Congleton, Bob Swain. (Not pictured - Lt. Valliant, Lt. Jim Mulligan, Lt. Swanson and Lt. Joe Dobkin. |
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| Alex and Barbara from San Diego, CA |
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| Bob and Marian Ladislaw from Ohio. They became good friends and made a trip to Yazoo City to visit my Mother and Papa |
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| These were some of the patches associated with the 98th Bomb Group |
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| John Formwalt, pilot in the 415th Bomb Squad of the 98th Bomb Group. |
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| Ralph Donnelly, pilot in the 415th Bomb Squad of the 98th Bomb Group. |
In 2010 my husband Rick and I attended the reunion of the Pyramidiers 98th Bomb Group in Savannah, Georgia. My father had attended many of these reunions and enjoyed visiting with old friends he had made at these reunions and meeting new friends and sharing their stories. I had met a few of my dad's friends while at the reunion and was saddened to hear of others who had passed on. I met many wonderful men that evening and enjoyed listening to their stories. They were happy to share them with me and I knew how much it meant to them to know someone cared to listen.
With every passing year we lose 276 WWII vets. According to US Department of Veterans Affairs statistics, 325,574 of the 16 million Americans who served in WWII were alive in 2020. With their passing goes their stories of their heroism.
These wonderful men and women who at such a young age, responded to the call of duty to their country. I have read through my father's detailed accounting of his story in this blog hundreds of times. What it was like to go through basic training, how much he respected his crew and the friendships that lasted long after the war. He wrote of their many missions over Germany and Austria until their final mission where they were shot down. Through his words I felt as though as was there with him and his crew. Here you are this young man in your 20s in the midst of a war overseas, far from home and you and your crew must bail out over hopefully friendly territory in what was then Yugoslavia. I cannot imagine the emotions they were all experiencing. His story went on to describe how they made it back with the help of Tito's men through enemy lines. It's a great story of heroism. This was their story and I'm so glad it was told. As we lose so many of these brave men and women of that great generation, I am sad to think of all the others whose stories we will never hear. Will this next generation remember their bravery? Will they remember how a generation of young men and women answered their nations call to join with other countries to fight a war to bring freedom and restore democracy? I hope so. I remember the words of Lincoln at Gettysburg and those words remain true today.
"The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
