Mission Memories: "On our first or second mission we were attacked by fighter planes with Yellow Spinners. We found out later that these were the Abbyville Kids. Missions to BERLIN were the most harrowing. We called it "20 Minutes of Hell". The flak was so thick it seemed you could walk on it. Dropping supplies to the French underground were also interesting. On one trip I was flying with Eden Jones and were flying wing to John Giles. When Giles dumped his load a parachute opened early and was hung up in the bomb bay. We thought the plane was going down but the bombardier cut the chute loose and all was well. July 29, 1944, on Merseburg, my career as a Bombardier ended. I had visions of completing my missions and going home but all that had to wait until the War was over. "

Base Memories: "I remember Sterling P. (Pete) Lambert who was a co-pilot on the Giles crew. Pete was anxious for a crew of his own so he and the crew chief and I would practice take off and landings day after day. we got in plenty of extra flying time. I very well remember the 3:30AM briefings. I remember the briefing officer when he would pull the curtain to reveal the red ribbon stretched from Thorpe Abbotts to the target. I don't remember his name but we owe a lot to the soldier who got us out of the sack and to briefings before each mission. The he got us to the plane for the take off and was there waiting when we landed after the mission. This guy and his counterparts deserve a lot of credit."

On 11/9/44, Lts J. M. Shelly, K. S. Welty & H. H. Skelton had replaced Lambert, Gunter & Ramer. The three became POWs. On 11/8/44, Jack Conger was flying with the crew of A. D. Elbel

Missions of Lt Cordy A. Ramer, Jr with the Giles Crew. . . mpf

Lt. Ramer flew 10 missions with the John Giles crew before moving to the E. C. Jones crew where he flew 19 additional missions.