To Honor and Remember

I have been posting my
father's memoirs now
for over a year, and
throughout this amazing
journey I never gave
up the search for members
of the crew's family;
I felt it was important 
to be able to share
this blog with them. 
This blog was created to
honor twelve brave young
men in hopes that their
heroism and service
to their country would
always be remembered.
                   Liz Bacher

Sgt. Raphael Gonyea,

Gunner, Radio Operator

of the 415th Bomb Squadron

of the 98th Bomb Group

                                             
Flag of the Oneida Indian Nation                                                       

By the age of 26 in 1945, Tech Sgt. Raphael Gonyea,

member of the Oneida Indian Nation and Wolf Clan,

was a veteran of numerous combat missions in the

European theater.  He had joined up in 1942 and

became a gunner and radio operator on a

B-24 Liberator, flying in 25 combat missions

for the Army Air Forces.  

During Raphael's stint of duty his plane

was hit twice.  The first time was on his

seventh bombing mission over Germany.

The plane had to make an emergency

landing perilously close to the front lines

just before Christmas.

His 25th bombing mission over Germany

was even more dangerous.  Once again

the plane was hit by flak with the pilot

attempting to get the hobbled plane back

over Allied lines.  However, it became

necessary for the crew to parachute

to safety in a small town in Yugoslavia.

The same flak that hit his plane also

struck his leg, leaving him with an injury

that would lead to his Purple Heart.

http://www.oneidaindiannation.com/history/verterans/26348959

(Click on article to enlarge)

This is an article that appeared in I believe the

 Syracuse Herald Journal.   Sgt. Gonyea is

pictured here with his son, Ray.  He had been

missing in action and had just returned home.

Sadly, his 83-year old father died the day

following his arrival home.



                                             Dad with John, Fred (seated)

                                             and Cousin Pete and Steve

                   Dad and Ma with Tony, Steve and John
                   Taken in 1987 or 1988.

Picture of Dad at an airshow alongside a B24

Picture of Dad with members of his crew

                   This picture was taken in 2003 at the
                   Montgomery Airport, MD.
                   The B24 in the background is
                   a part of the Collins Foundation.
                   Steve Gonyea

http://www.collinsfoundation.org/

View My Milblogging.com Profile

66 Years Ago Today...We Will Continue to Honor Them and Never Forget Them

THE CREW OF THE 415TH SQUADRON OF THE 98TH BOMB GROUP
Kneeling from left: Sgt. John Norris, Sgt. Red Cochran,
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. 

It's hard to imagine, but 66 years ago, March 15th, 1945,
on the "Ides of March",  my father and the crew of their
B-24 Bomber were shot down over Yugoslavia after
a successful bomb run on the Schwechat Oil Refinery
near Vienna, Austria, a story my father retold
many, many times, and we as family members
never grew tired of hearing.

I have tried to honor my father and the members of
his crew by sharing their story.  As the years
go by a lot of people will forget, but we won't.
We will continue to keep their memory alive
by remembering their heroism and sacrifice. 

So how do we continue to honor them and their
sacrifice? Perhaps Ronald Reagan said it best in
a speech he gave on the 40th anniversary of D-Day:

                                ***
"Let us make a vow to our dead. Let us
show them by our actions that we understand
what they died for. Let our actions say to
them the words for which General Matthew
Ridgeway listened: 'I will not fail thee nor
forsake thee.'

Strengthened by their courage, heartened
by their valor, and borne by their memory,
let us continue to stand for the ideals for
which they lived and died."

Ronald Reagan - June 6, 1984


God Bless.....Liz Bacher

One Year Ago Today

It is hard for me to imagine that one year ago
today I posted the first of many stories of my
father's war memoirs. 

I oftentimes felt that I was a time traveler
as if I were there alongside him as he trained
at the various military airfields, the 34
missions he and his crew flew, their perilous
bailout, their dramatic and dangerous escape
back to the Adriatic Sea, and their joyous
homecoming.  

It's been a remarkable journey and has truly
had a profound effect upon my life.

During the course of my weekly postings
I did a great deal of research.  Aided by
pictures, letters written home by my father,
and many, many of his military paperwork,
I was able to find many of his military airfields
where he trained.  Each bit of information
I was able to uncover would lead yet to
another piece of new information leading
me to what I consider my greatest discovery 
in this sort of "treasure hunt," if you will; and
that was the discovery of family members
of the crew.    

Although my father had maintained close
friendships with some of the crew and their
families, years after he passed away their
whereabouts were unknown to me.  
After months of searching, I was able
to find three of the crew's families:
the Gonyea's, Swain's and Congleton's,
and am very proud and honored to
know them; and in the weeks ahead
I will be posting their stories.

Elizabeth Bacher

  

ONE MAN'S REFLECTIONS

(Continuation of Captain Charles Estes's War Memoirs)

"I finally, before I left San Antonio, I had signed a
contract with a company to go to South America
and fly C-47s over the Andes to mining camps back
in the sticks, so to speak; they had landing fields
there and I'm sure it would land a C-47 safely.
But I got home and my father was running
Motor Parts Company all by himself, and the
boy that had worked there with him before the
service, before the war, Otto Carter, he had been
killed over in Australia on a mission.  He was a
pilot -- not a pilot but he was a gunner on a
bomber, and this bomber was shot down and
he was killed.

Well, anyway, my father needed my help and I
realized that when I saw the situation as it was
when I got home, so I determined that I would
stay around Yazoo City, and do what I could
to help him, and so I canceled the contract that
I had with these people and let that fly over the
mountain and forgot about it forever.

But, when you stop and look back at your life
and you see how things are now, and you try
to compare it to what they might have been,
you don't know where you would be had you
taken a turn off in the road and gone a
different direction.

So I'm sitting here at home and I'm talking
to you, Elizabeth.  It's hard to argue with
that I took any wrong turns in my life. 
I seem to be ahead of the dogs, even though
the dogs were pretty close at times, but I'm
still ahead of 'em.  I'm 76 years old and my
health is not bad, and I'm very pleased to
be able to sit here and tell you about my
experiences. 

I hope -- this is about as far as I can go
with any war experiences that I had or 
anything that happened to me in my life.
My father, when he retired, turned Motor
Parts Company over to Ben and myself,
and we ran it until my health was such
that I was not being a value to him, so
I decided to retire and I took the money
that I got from the sale of Motor Parts,
my share of Motor Parts Company and
tried to invest it as wisely as I could so
that I wouldn't throw it away.  If I had
not used it and done something worthy
in a constructuve way at the time that 
I got out, I'm sure that it would be long
gone now and not helped anybody.   But
I managed to do some fairly wise things.
Your mother and I each have a burial
policy and we have health insurance
aside from our Medicare, and we have
extended care so that should we get to
a point where we need to go to a
convalescent home then it's taken care
of, so I feel that I've done pretty well
with the money that was given to me
for my share in Motor Parts Company.

I still go down there to get my mail because
my mail still goes to Box 169 and that's
Motor Parts Company.  It makes your
mother a little mad at times to think
about me having to go down there
to get my mail when it could be sent
out here, but I don't know what it
would take to change that,   I'd have to
write too many people.

Anyway, it's been a pleasure talking to 
you.  I hope that you can make something
from what I have said to you, and if 
there is anything in here that is not
clear, let me know and I will be in
touch with you and straighten it out
with you as closely as I can.

Right now Bob Swain and myself are
the only two officers that were on
our original crew that are still
alive.  John Congleton died.  My
flight engineer, Frank Delois, died.
My lower ball turret gunner, Harry
Henry, died.  And my top turret
and radio man, Raphael Gonyea
from New York state, he died.
I found John Norris about a year
or so back, and I'm in touch with
him.  And Don Brown was my
nose turret gunner and he lives
in Emporia, Kansas, and I'm in
touch with him; so I'm in touch
with all of the men that I flew
with including those that were
assigned to me on the flight that
we were shot down over
Yugoslavia.

But if there is anything else that
you need to know, just get in touch
with me.  

Thank you, ma'am and good night...        
Papa"  

                         * * *

  (Papa made his last dictation and mailed the
 cassettes to me February of 1999....he died
 that October of 1999).

I am now in the Reserves

(Continuation of Captain Estes's War Memoirs)

"And I can recall while I was in the Reserves
James Coleman, a boy I had grown up with that
lived out there in Carter, he had flown P-51's and
he was in the Pacific area, and when he came home
he was in the Reserves, and so he and I would go
over to Jackson together and check out an
airplane and sometimes we would check out
two airplanes and we'd fly around together
or else we would fly in the same plane and
do some instrument flying or whatever
and we enjoyed each other's company.


And I remember once there was a P-51
on the airfield in Jackson and he checked
it out and I checked out an AT-6 and we
went up and flew together and he did
barrel rolls all the way around me.
He was -- the ol' 51's were so much
faster than the AT-6 and he gave
me some instructions as to how to
fly a P-51 because he did everything
in the world with it and he was a
fine pilot. But anyway, those days
are gone forever now, and James is
dead. We enjoyed being a part of
the Air Force and flying and took
every advantage they'd give us."


(To be continued.)

Picture of an AT-6