'Memphis Belle' Gunner Dies During 'Final Mission'

[waltky]

Someone to remember on Memorial Day...

'Memphis Belle' Gunner Dies During 'Final Mission' in England
May 28, 2016 - A retired U.S. Air Force master sergeant who returned to England this month for the first time in 71 years to visit the country he defended during World War II has died during his "final mission."

Melvin Rector, 94, served in England with the 96th Bomb Group in 1945 as a radio operator and gunner on B-17 Flying Fortress bombers, including on the Memphis Belle, the first heavy bomber to compete its 25-mission tour of duty with its crew intact. Operating out of RAF Snetterton Heath in Norfolk, Rector flew eight combat missions over Germany during the spring of the final year of the War, with his plane coming back one time dotted with bullet holes on its wings, Stars and Stripes reports. Rector, hoping to return to the base, decided to leave his home in Barefoot Bay, Fla., to visit Britain as part of a travel program organized by the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. "He planned it for like the last six months," Darlene O'Donnell, Rector's stepdaughter, told Florida Today. "He couldn't wait to go."

The B-17 bomber "Memphis Belle" and crew during World War II.​

Susan Jowers, who accompanied Rector on the trip, said on May 6 he stepped foot on British soil for the first time in 71 years and visited RAF Uxbridge in London. After Rector toured the Battle of Britain bunker, a command center where airplane operations were coordinated during D-Day, he told Jowers he felt dizzy. There, right outside the bunker, Rector quietly died on the soil where he risked his life to defend decades ago. "He walked out of that bunker like his tour was done," Jowers told Florida Today. "He completed his final mission." Rector's daughter, Sandy Vavruich, said he never got to visit RAF Snetterton Heath again, but "he couldn't have asked for a better way to go."

Before his remains were sent back over the Atlantic, Jowers was honored in a special service filled with servicemen and women from the U.S. and British Armed Forces, Stars and Stripes reported. The American Embassy in London donated a flag to drape over Rector's coffin. "I do know of his sacrifice and his family's sacrifice, so you do him and his family a great honor by being here today," one American serviceman said. Rector's funeral will be held in the U.S. at the First Baptist Church of Barefoot Bay on June 9.

'Memphis Belle' Gunner Dies During 'Final Mission' in England | Military.com

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Remains of 13 more World War II Marines Found on Tarawa
May 28, 2016 - The founder of a volunteer group says it has found the remains of 13 more World War II Marines on a Pacific atoll.

Mark Noah, head of Marathon, Florida-based History Flight, tells The Associated Press that 12 sets of remains were found on Tarawa between January and March and a 13th set of remains was found this week.

U.S. Marine Sgt. Nolan Luckett plays a bugle during a ceremony honoring 36 unidentified Marines found last year on the Pacific atoll of Tarawa.​

The Pentagon's Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency confirms more remains have been found, although it couldn't confirm the number. The agency says it will return the remains to the U.S. this summer.

Last year, Honor Flight found the remains of 35 Marines on Tarawa, which is part of the island nation of Kiribati, and the Defense Department found a 36th set. All were returned to the U.S. The Pentagon says 23 of them have been identified.

Remains of 13 more World War II Marines Found on Tarawa | Military.com

 

[tinydancer]

I've seen her. It's an amazing feeling you get when you stand there and realize men were on this beast and she was part of the win of the war. Bless his soul. Thanks Waltky.

I actually named our Saturn the Memphis Belle in honor of her.

 

[whitehall]

The Marine "remains" from Tarawa probably consisted of one or two bones because the Navy Dept during WW2 ordered Marine graves bulldozed without regard for the bodies to make way for an air field. After the uncommon valor of the Marines in the Pacific the post war Truman administration vowed to reward the USMC by reducing them to nothing but a ceremonial detachment. Ironically the Marines saved Truman's ass in Korea.

 

[waltky]

Restored WWII Bomber Memphis Belle Makes Public Debut...

Restored WWII Bomber Memphis Belle Makes Public Debut
18 May 2018 — Robert K. Morgan Jr.'s voice wavered with emotion when he talked about seeing the Memphis Belle all put together for the first time in 50 years.

His father, Robert Sr., had flown the legendary B-17F on 25 perilous bombing missions in World War II and worked the rest of his life to make sure the airplane was preserved. The famed "Flying Fortress," looking better than new, was put on public display Thursday morning after a restoration project that took more than a dozen years and 55,000 hours of labor at the National Museum of U.S. Air Force. "Dad would be so proud," said the 72-year-old Morgan, who lives in San Francisco. "I wish he were here. It means everything to me and my family. He's here in spirit." Morgan traveled to Ohio along with families of the other Memphis Belle crew for a private unveiling of the plane Wednesday night and the public opening of the exhibit Thursday at the sprawling museum near Dayton.

The debut came on the 75th anniversary of the Belle's 25th and final combat mission of the war. Soon after the museum opened at 9 a.m., hundreds of people gathered around the exhibit trying to get the best angle of the famous plane for cellphone photos. The Memphis Belle was trucked to the museum in corroded pieces in 2005 after efforts to restore it in Memphis ran out of money and steam. It had been displayed outdoors in its namesake city for decades after the war and was in bad shape due to weather and vandalism. "I promised him when he was dying 14 years ago that I would do anything I could to keep the plane alive," Morgan said. "He knew before he passed that the plane was going to come to the museum, he knew that we couldn't keep it in Memphis. And he knew it would be preserved here, he knew it would be restored here. He was extremely glad that it would be here."

Visitors gather for a private viewing of the Memphis Belle, a Boeing B-17 "Flying Fortress," at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, Wednesday, May 16, 2018, in Dayton, Ohio. The World War II bomber Memphis Belle is set to go on display for the first time since getting a yearslong restoration at the museum. The B-17 “Flying Fortress” will be introduced Thursday morning as the anchor of an extensive exhibit in the Dayton-area museum’s World War II gallery.​

The Memphis Belle was feted as the first B-17 to complete 25 missions and return to the U.S. at a time when most crews in the strategic daylight bombing campaign were lucky to make it to a dozen. The Belle wasn't the first B-17 to make the requisite 25 missions, it just happened to be the one that became famous, thanks to newspaper reporters and Hollywood director William Wyler, who decided to build a documentary around the last mission. A wildly successful 32-city war bond tour around America in the summer of 1943 made national celebrities out of the airplane and crew. Wyler's 1944 documentary cemented the legacy, and a 1990 movie introduced it to a new generation.

The Belle, with the leggy, swimsuit-clad pinup girl freshly repainted on both sides of the nose, is displayed suspended above the museum floor as if in mid-flight, with bomb-bay doors wide open. James P. Verinis, 48, came from South Kingstown, Rhode Island, to see the Belle. His father, Capt. James A. Verinis, flew missions on it as co-pilot and later commanded his own B-17. "I look at it," Verinis said, "and I wonder if it ever it ever looked this beautiful."

Restored WWII Bomber Memphis Belle Makes Public Debut

 

[tinydancer]

Forever in my heart TY Walty

 

[there4eyeM]

The ineffectiveness of the kind of bombing carried out by airplanes such as this only emphasizes the tragic sacrifice of the service men in them, as well as the hundreds of thousands of civilians they slaughtered.