Bill’s blog archive: Daily Posts

LT Julio Nuno, daughter Julie, wife Elva
LT Julio Nuno, daughter Julie, wife Elva
LT Julio Nuno, daughter Julie, wife Elva

A successful mission, but for the loss of a father

The weather was good, for Northwest Europe, on February 9, 1945. The only climate-related information that was reported was cloud cover at 12,000 to 14,000 feet. The P-51 Mustangs of the 20th Fighter Group left their base at Kingscliffe, England early that morning. Their mission was to escort B-17s of the 1st Air Division to an oil industry target at Lutzkendorf, Germany. As was the standard operating procedure, the fighters were under orders to attack any targets they could along the way,...
PFC Max Poster and Wife Sophia
PFC Max Poster and Wife Sophia
PFC Max Poster and Wife Sophia
PFC Max Poster and Wife Sophia
PFC Max Poster and Wife Sophia

The final notes of Pfc. Max Poster

Max Poster’s personal effects were like those of most of his fellow infantrymen of the 86th Mountain Infantry Regiment. At the time of his death, his possessions included a tobacco pouch; a plastic box, contents not specified; two books, and one lot of miscellaneous papers. Not much to mention or remember. But they also included an ocarina. An ocarina is a wind instrument of ancient origin, perhaps first used 12,000 years ago in China and Mesoamerica. Typically, it is in the shape of a...
Beigel-NoOneLeftBehind

Calling all selfies! #NoOneLeftBehind

If you've been reading my blog and my newsletters lately, you're aware of the ongoing struggles by families trying to bring home their war dead from U.S. foreign wars. It's important to me that people know that hundreds - more likely thousands - of the people we're trying to bring home are not in unreachable locations. It's that the people who are in charge of charged with locating and bringing home our dead from previous wars aren't doing their duty to those who sacrificed their lives,...
No One Left Behind

Help bring them home

They served. They died. Let's bring them home. In 1947, across the United States, tens of thousands of American servicemen made their silent return from World War II. Over the next four years, they would be joined by hundreds of thousands of their brothers in arms. In time, the U.S. would recover more than 280,000 of the fallen from World War II. It was an astounding feat, which has never been matched by any nation. But more than 73,000 were still missing when the "Return of the WWII...
B24 Grado 1
B24 Grado 1
B24 Grado 1
B24 Grado 1
B24 Grado 1
B24 Grado 1
B24 Grado 1
B24 Grado 1
B24 Grado 1
B24 Grado 1
B24 Grado 1
B24 Grado 1
B24 Grado 1
B24 Grado 1
B24 Grado 1
B24 Grado 1
B24 Grado 1
B24 Grado 1
B24 Grado 1
B24 Grado 1

MIA: No man left behind?

Two crews from the 449th Bomb Group were lost 13 months apart; one in January of 1944; the other in February of 1945. Both went down off the coast of Northern Italy. And though their wartime missions were very different, in the end, their stories are the same. “Dumbo,” B-24 tail #41-29217, was piloted by 2nd Lieutenant Ben Newman Kendall, 23, born in Abilene, Texas, on December 14, 1919. He was the son of Owen W. Kendall, a veteran of World War 1, and Sarah J. Kendall. Lieutenant Kendall...