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Posted by Alan Morton
on 4/15/2008, 9:20 pm, in reply to "Did any know my Dad"
75.83.113.51
Hi Tom ...
We're talking about two different worlds. The Fly Boys were (aka Short Term Transients, normally of 6-8 month durations) in one world; and the Ground Personnel (aka Permanent Party were stuck at the base from its inception until the end of the War) was the other.
These two worlds very rarely came in close contact with each other, socially. This condition was not on purpose, but was just the nature of the beast.
It was as though two worlds were separated by job function.
To reflect back to 1971 (26 years after the end of WWII) it was Homer Briggs- a 749th Bomb Squadron Aircraft Mechanic from Bentonville, AR that he ran into an old 749th Bomb Squadron buddy Ken Rurode at a gas station fixing his car, decided to form a Reunion Group to re-unite "old buddies" from both worlds. The 457th B.G. Association - Roster of 1998 spells in detail the "Condensed History of the 457th B.G. Association."
According to the 1998 Association Roster, your Father, apparently never joined the Association.
Before Hap Reese, author of the 457th BG Association Web Site, passed away on March 12, 2008 he purposely added to this Web Site hundreds upon hundreds of photos of Ground Personnel!
Get busy Tom, suggest you look at these photos for pictures of your Father.
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