A B-17 Flying Fortress (serial number 42-5718) nicknamed “The Widow Maker” of the 94th Bomb Group in flight (Wikimedia Commons) written by Todd DePastino “What a marvelous plane that was and beautiful to fly.” That’s what WWII 15th Air Force pilot Tom Wiley said about his B-17 several years ago at a
Earlier this year, actor Austin Butler appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and said the best part of starring as “Buck” Cleven in Masters of the Air was getting to meet John “Lucky” Luckadoo. “I’m sorry—what’s his name?” asked Colbert. 102-year-old Luckadoo flew 25 missions as pilot and co-pilot of B-17 in the
Written by James Matsuoka In addition to our storytelling programs, the Veterans Breakfast Club also organizes veteran-related travel experiences, from day-trips to nearby museums, bases, and historic sites to two-week battlefield tours of Europe and Vietnam. Our next trip is to England to visit WWII airfields. We will return to Western Europe in September
written by Nadia Rupniak, PhD As the child of a WWII veteran, I was undoubtedly exposed to his combat trauma and presumably this may have affected me. However, pinning down exactly how I was affected has proved quite perplexing. Generational trauma is defined as: “the transmission of trauma or its legacy, in the form
Written by Lee Kikel James M. Gavin (National Archives) VBC member Lee Kikel wrote a book, Perseverance: One Holocaust Survivor’s Journey from Poland to America, about her remarkable father, Melvin Goldman. In the decade before his arrival in the United States in 1950, saw his home destroyed, his family torn apart, his
Written by 1st Sgt. Thomas J. Korenich, 1st Infantry Division, World War II Carole Popchock sent me this moving tribute written by her father, Thomas J. Korenich, who served in North Africa and Sicily and was wounded on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Treating his wounds that day was "Doc" Leonard--Captain Arthur J. Leonard--a football
