After the lack of success in finding information from the government I went in another directon.
I decided to contact my Great Aunt Felicia, who was Joe's father's second wife. Or, more to the point, the woman that Joe's father left his mother for sometime during 1944. Needless to say I was a little nervous in approaching her because I did not know what bad blood there might have been over the years. She knew of my interest becuase she had given me, through one of my father's sisters, the only photograph of Joe that I had. I decided to make the call.
Aunt Felicia was very nice over the phone, and talking to her was the beginning of fleshing out Joe's character. She told that Joe wrote often to his father and that he had written and asked for a book of poems by Shelly. In fact, she still had the book with Joe's name written inside, which she said I could have along with another photo of Joe in his flight suit. However, the most important thing she said was that Joe was the only member of his crew to be killed! She was adamant about that and I had no reason to doubt her. I thanked her for her time and tried to arrange a visit to pick up Joe's photo and the book that she had mentioned, but she was not feeling well and said that I should call her back in a week. Before I could contact her again, her house collapsed during a rare, furious windstorm. She emerged okay but she lost everything. She lost her house, most of the her clothes, all mementos of her life with my great uncle, all of his photographs and paintings, and Joe's photo and book. One of my aunts took her in and took care of her until her death a few years later. I got to meet here not long after she lost her belongings and was surprised by her upbeat feistiness. I was sorry that I had not met her earlier. I was disappointed in not getting Joe's book and photograph but I was thankful that she was okay.
The next step I took was to try to find a member of Joe's crew. Since he was the only crew member killed, the other nine guys had to be out there somewhere. With the help of an officer at the Air Force Dept. of History in Washington, D.C. I found out that the 453rd Bomb Group had a reunion organization. I contacted the president of the association, Milton Stokes.
Mr. Stokes had been a pilot in the 453rd Bomb Group but in a different squadron than Joe. He talked to me on numerous occasions and even let me visit him at his farm in West Chester, PA one weekend. He educated me on the workings of a bomb group and on flying the B-24. He also warned me that some men had been looking for crew mates for years and were never able to find them so I should be prepared for a long search for Joe's fellow crew members.
As it turns out, Mr. Stokes had kept some records from the bomb group office that listed all crew men who where killed in action. He found Joe's card and it listed his service number as 11103083!
Mr. Stokes said that from the first number being a "1" it showed that Joe had enlisted and was not drafted. The card also gave me the name of Joe's pilot, Eugene Mills! Mr. Stokes also sent me a roster of the members of the 453rd Bomb Group Reunion Association. God bless Mr. Stokes for saving those records. Without him who knows how long it would have taken me to get Joe's service number and the name of the pilot. |
