Subj: Re: 100thBG Form Submission
Date: 6/6/2001 10:43:05 PM Pacific Daylight Time
From: adaam0073@home. com (Adam Finfrock)To: MPFaley@aol. com

Dear Mr. Faley,

Thanks so much for your quick reply to my inquiry. First, I want to tell you and all the others that work on this site that it is truly an incredible wealth of information and wonderfully presented. I have always been a history buff and enjoy geography and family history as well.

My grandfather's name was Chancy Lawrence Finfrock, and my uncle Chan's first name was after him. So, it is definitely Chancy Albert Finfrock.

Here are more details that I have on my Uncle Chan:

Born: 19 Mar 1925, Urbana, IL

He concluded his service at the rank of:
Tech. Sgt.
Service ID: 3675-4556
B-17 Radioman/Gunner
350th Squadron
100th Bomb Group
13th Bomb Wing (3rd Div. )

Mr. Faley, I've tried to document a 'timeline' of his service in the 8th Army Air Force from the time of his entry in Illinois until he was ushered out in San Antonio. The following was put together from an 'interview' that I did with my Uncle Chan in Dec-1998.

Jun URBANA, IL & RANTOUL, IL – Enlistment/Testing @ Chanute AFB

Graduated from High School and signed up with the draft board to enlist. "I got in the service about 10-days after I graduated from Hi-School. I first went up to Chanute Air Force Base, a bunch of guys… we wanted to be pilots. I went up and I passed all the tests real well, and then it came to the colorblind test and I flunked it! And, they said you’ll never fly. . . and then went active duty July-1st. "

Jul BATTLE CREEK, MI – Induction Center

"My induction center was at Battle Creek, Michigan, Ft. Custer. And we were there 3-4 days, and were put on a troop train and didn’t have any idea where we were going. Finally we ended up down south. "

Jul/Sep BILOXI, MS – Basic Training @ Keesler Field

"I was there for about 2-1/2 months. We were in a place called Back Bay, in a drained swamp. It was intense training, but I’d been in athletics all my life, and I was 130-lbs when I got out of high school, and when I got out of there, I was 165-lbs! We had classes all morning, and in the afternoon we had two hours of drill and two hours of PT [physical training] in that hot Mississippi sun! So, at the end of that [PT], they would race us… I’d say… about ¼ mile or ½ mile across the sand … and the winner got a milkshake. Well, I was a quarter-miler; I won every damn milkshake… (Ha-ha-ha)… and that’s where I think I caught all the weight. "

Oct/Dec SIOUX FALLS, SD - Radio School
(no info at present on this part of his training)

Jan/Mar SIOUX FALLS, SD - Radio School

Mar/Apr/May: YUMA, AZ – Gunnery School

"We lived in tents. Very hot in the daytime and cold at night, being in the desert. There were about 500 students in the class and I finished in the top five or ten. We shot all kinds of guns while there. The thing I most enjoyed was shooting skeet on a running truck around a course with clay pigeons flying out at us from all angles and heights. You couldn’t buy that type of fun. We shot shotguns, rifle training guns, machine guns . 50 caliber like cannons; air to air target shooting at targets towed behind planes. I remember one incident where a student shot down the tow plane. We also had air to ground strafing of targets. "

"Cpl. Finfrock entered the service in June 1943 and is now assigned as a radio operator gunner. He received his wings as a gunner, Saturday at Yuma, Arizona where he graduated 10th in a class of 450. " [29 May 1944, Champaign-Urbana, IL newspaper article]

Jun/Jul-Aug: RAPID CITY, SD – Overseas Combat Training

"…where we met all the new crewmembers and trained together as a complete crew. We went to our [specialty] schools there, me Radio, etc. We learned formation flying, grouping in squadrons and wings and various things we needed to know for combat. "

Late Aug/Early Sep URBANA, IL – On Leave

"Got 10-days leave, but was only able to spend 6-days at home due to crowded trains during the war. "

Sep LINCOLN, NE – Rendezvous Point for Flight to Airbase in England

"We assembled here with other bombers to fly over to England. The route was: Nebraska to Bangor, ME – Goose Bay, Labrador – Greenland – and to the British Isles. "

Oct NORFOLK (EAST ANGLIA) ENGLAND – Thorpe Abbotts – Sta#139

"Upon arriving at the bomber base in England I went to my barracks… the whole barracks had been wiped out the day before… five (5) crews… and I thought, "My God, I’m never gonna get out of this place", you know. I got there just when things started gettin’ a little bit better. But, I thought [at the time], ‘My God, send my stuff home, I’m never gonna get home. ’ It’s not good morale to come into a base…a barracks, when they’ve all been lost in a raid the day before!"

Dec NORFOLK (EAST ANGLIA) ENGLAND – Thorpe Abbotts – Sta#139

"Air Medal Awarded Sgt. Chancy Finfrock – Tech. Sgt. Chancy A. Finfrock, 19, son of Mr. & Mrs. Chancy L. Finfrock, 407 W. Elm, has won the air medal for exceptional service as radio operator and gunner on an 8th Army Air Force Flying Fortress, according to a dispatch from a base in England today. Sgt. Finfrock, the youngest radio operator and gunner in his squadron, distinguished himself as a quarter-miler on the Urbana High School track team before he entered the Army Air Force in 1943. He flies on missions against Germany with the 100th bombardment group, a unit of the 8th Air Forces 3rd bombardment division. " [29 Dec 1944, Champaign-Urbana, IL newspaper article]

Feb FRANCE/BELGIUM border - B-17 Shot Down

Germans ". . . we had anti-aircraft fire over the French coast when there were still Germans on the French coast, and it hit our plane and on the way in, it caught fire, and we had to bail out at the Belgium/French border, around Luxembourg. I used to have the name of the city where we went into. And, that morning when I picked up my parachute, it was kinda loose, and said [to myself], ‘Well I never use this thing anyway’, and I had to push it back in there… and didn’t think anything more about it until . . . he [the pilot] dove once to try to put it out and it wouldn't go out; it just fanned it worse. . . so he said 'bail out' !… and I thought about that [then]. And, I had to put that on. . . and then I had to go…"

". . . Some of 'em jumped out the bomb-bay. . . some out the front hatch. . . some out the back door on the fuselage. . . that's where I jumped out. Jumped out the first time, and the wind threw me back in. . . couldn't jump out. And boy, that really panicked me. I didn't try too hard I s'pose (giggle) the first [time]. So, then I jumped out real quick and pulled the ripcord too quick, and just about hit the tail. . . I was gettin' frantic at that time. . . and I wanted to get out before it blew up!"

"I timed myself goin' down. . . took between 10 and 15 minutes to get down. And this was February [1945]. It was -60F to -70F below up there at about 28, 000 ft. You had to wear heated suits. "

"I lit in a forest there, it was winter, and I saw all these trees comin' up. . . with no leaves on 'em you know, and I crashed through there, and I didn't have the slightest idea where I was, naturally. And, my chute hung up and I pulled that down to hide it. They had fire lanes in these forests. . . I found a fire lane. . . and I peeked around and looked out, and didn't see anything, and so I went back in [to the forest]. A little later, I looked out again and I saw some men down where there was a crossroad, about probably 1/4 mile or 1/2 mile down. And, they had guns on a couple of my crewmen. And, they were civilians, but they were. . . I found out subsequently. . . they were French Underground. So, I kept just kinda peekin' out, then all of a sudden I saw 'em pattin' 'em on the back and shakin' their hands, so I figured well uh, okay, now I'll come out. "

HAVE MORE STORY ON THIS BUT WILL NOT CONTINUE FOR NOW -

[see newspaper article: " Finfrock ‘Chutes to Earth, Treks Back From Missing’ " – 16 Mar 1945, Champaign-Urbana, IL newspaper article].

Jul NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN – S/S Queen Elizabeth

"When I was leavin’ England, they assigned me to a different bomb group, I was gonna go into B-29’s in Japan. See, I was headin’ for Japan then. And, I was on the Queen Elizabeth in the middle of the ocean when they dropped the Atomic Bomb! Well, we didn’t know what the hell the Atomic Bomb was either… nobody ever heard of it, you know what I mean…but, it sounded real bad!! . And, I thought: "I hope somebody don’t drop it on our ship out here! (Ha-ha)…"

Aug CHAMPAIGN-URBANA, IL – Back Home

Met wife, Jo An (Hill) Finfock & mother, Grace Belle (Dallenbach) Finfrock @ the Illinois Central Railroad Station on VJ DAY. [see page w/ photo & caption from: "History of Champaign, IL, 1993"]

Sep SAN ANTONIO, TX – AAF Personnel Distribution Center

"Sgt. Finfrock in San Antonio - … will spend approximately 2 weeks in the station undergoing records and physical processing in preparation for a discharge or re-assignment in this country. A combat veteran, Sergeant Finfrock recently returned from 11 months service in the European theatre. " [Wed, 26 Sep 1945, Champaign-Urbana, IL, newspaper article]

Above "TIMELINE" was submitted by Chancy A. Finfrock's nephew, Randy Finfrock - 4226 E. 84th Pl. - Tulsa, OK 74137-1817

MISSIONS of T/Sgt Chancy Finfrock (mpf 2002)

Cpl Richard Mullaney was removed from Crew shortly after arriving at Thorpe Abbotts (reduced to 9 man crews) and became a spare gunner with 350th BS

Here are list of Missions that Sgt Mullaney ended up completing (Crew (s) unknown at this time). This list is based on Sgt Mullaney's Form 5 which was sent to us by Patricia E. Mullaney (Daughter-In-Law) mpf 2001

Transferred from LAAF Lincoln, Nebraska on September 18, 1944 to AAF Station 139, Thorpe Abbotts England, 100th Bomb Group (H), 350th Bomb Squadron, 3rd Air Division, 13th Combat Wing. September 18th-23rd flew overseas to England