Posted by Alan Morton on 9/25/2004, 6:43 pm, in reply to "Emile Racine And Tailgunner Cupp"
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Peggy, The Tail Gunner's name is Francis E. Copp who was with the Pilot George L. Hottle crew (C307)

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Posted by Alan Morton on 4/14/2007, 11:19 am, in reply to "Emile Racine And Tailgunner Cupp"
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Dear Peggy and Craig, The 457th Bomb Group Association membership was initially compiled from a Roster of Association members that were asked to identify when joining, who the others members were that made up that individual's specific flight crew. This roster became the bible. Concurrent with the Association Roster was the knowledge of actual 8th Air Force, 457th Bomb Group "Loading Lists" that identified each Mission flown and the complete account of each flight crew member that participated. These records were stored in the National Archives in Washington, DC. It took many years to slowly photo copy all of these Archive Loading List records at great personal expense and finally, only recently add their contents onto this web site by Webmaster Hap Reese. Naturally, the Association Roster listings and the actual 457th BG Loading Lists were in some cases in conflict. Now finally, the Loading List records posted on the web site became the authentic bible. My sincere apologies to Peggy Racine and Craige Cupp for confusing the issue. At the time (2004) I posted my comments, I only had the Association Roster to peruse. I'd ask Craige to send Hap the Photo with names he references for inclusion in the website Photo section. Cheers, Alan Morton

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Posted by Alan Morton on 4/14/2007, 10:41 pm, in reply to "Emile Racine And Tailgunner Cupp"
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I received an Email today from Craig L. Cupp in response to my request that he send Hap Reese and myself a copy of a photo he was given to him recently by his Mother. Sure enough there was a group photo of the entire crew that included Craig's Dad ... Tail Gunner Francis C. Cupp (standing in the back row, second from the right, with his both hands on his hips). After mulling this entire issue over and over for hours on end and as a parting gesture of frustration I decided to look back at the Home Page Button entitled "Photo Archive" and then "Air Crew Archives." This Air Crew category lists the Air Crew Pilots in alphabetical order and various crew members. So I scanned down the photos till I hit Pilot George L. Hottle. What I was looking at was none other than the entire crew. I clicked on the photo and out jumped the entire Hottle Crew in living black a white clarity WITH all their names printed in (I hope) chronologic order. Voila! In retrospect the only error I made on the message I posted on 9/25/2004 was misspelling Cupp! Peggy ... Is that your father-in-law squatting second from the left, front row? Cheers ... I'm outta here!, Alan

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