jhor9

Division Member

Posts: 343

Joined: 5/3/2002

From: Pompano Beach FL

Status: offline I had a friend who was a pilot in a different group, tell me this story--- In formation at altitude over 20,000 ft enroute to a target his plane was was in the inside of of a tight turn. The plane flipped over on it's back and then split essed, at the completion of the manouver, on its way back up. he was unable to push the wheel forward to try to level the plane, the plane then stalled and went into a spin. He tried everything and he was lucky that he was able to right the plane at 3000 ft. He then returned to his base,when they examined the plane every rivet was popped, needless to say that plane never flew again. I dont recall if anyone left the plane on it's way down

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Jules Horowitz, pilot, 99th BG

Convoy escort earns a Purple Heart

Released: Nov. 15, 2004

By 2nd Lt. Heather Alden

100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs

Staff Sgt. Amelia Solomon, 100th Logistics Readiness Squadron, stands in front of the truck she was commanding when the truck in front of hers was hit by an improvised explosive device in Iraq May 1. She earned the Purple Heart for the injuries she received during a convoy mission with the Army. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Jason Robinson)

Amelia Solomon

ROYAL AIR FORCE MILDENAHALL, England (USAFENS) -- Staff Sgt. Amelia Solomon didn’t spend her summer backpacking through Europe or sunbathing on the beaches of Cornwall with her 3-year-old daughter.

Instead, she spent her summer in the dry, blistering heat of Iraq , wondering how many improvised explosive devices might be hidden on the trail in front of her convoy and praying just to make it through each day alive. She triumphed through the challenging six-month tour with the Army as a convoy escort, and she has the Purple Heart to prove it.

A five-year Air Force veteran, the 24-year-old enthusiastically volunteered to go to Iraq as an Air Force vehicle operator. The 100th Logistics Readiness Squadron sent five people to Iraq just a couple of months before she found out she was going.

Now this is really something!

On this Veterans Day a veteran of Britain's Royal Navy is trying to find the rightful owner of an incredible collection of photographs taken by an American World War II veteran.

It was more than a year ago that Monty Singh spotted an ornate photo album at a garage sale in Renton.

“I just thought it would look good on a coffee table,†he said.

He bought it for just $3.50. But while the album is clearly Japanese, the pictures inside document an American airman's tour of duty through Europe.

“I went, ‘Oh, wow.’ I mean looking through it, and the pictures of who are in here, and the quality of the pictures,†Singh marveled. “This is somebody's life history.â€

Singh, who grew up in London, recognized a number of locations. Including the London Zoo. But there's not much more to go on.

“It’s a complete mystery,†he said.

So who does the album belong to? Singh believes the pictures were taken by the man posing in front of a sign for the 61st Maintenance Squadron.

“I just want to get it back to him,†Singh said of the album.

The book is devoid of writing. No captions, no names. But from the photos, it appears the soldier was later based around Frankfurt, Germany. There are pictures of bomb damage, and reconstruction, as well as friends in the newly formed U.S. Air Force which came into being as a separate service out of the U.S. Army in 1947.

There are also lots of pictures of the C-54 aircraft that would become famous during the Berlin airlift of 1948 and 1949.

Singh saw combat himself over Iraq as a British Harrier pilot during the 1991 Gulf war.

“I'm just hoping that somebody will recognize some of the pictures and say, that's my grandpa, that was my dad or whatever,†Singh said, “and is able to put a name to any of the faces in here. So can put some closure to it and return it to whoever it belonged to.â€

Could this be the man they are looking for??

More to come in a few moments...

It is solemnly that I announce the parting of Walter Fritz, Staff Sergeant, third platoon, Company B, 48th Combat Engineers, on Friday, November 5th. May he rest in peace.

Hi Again Art

When we were flying phase training at Chatham Fld. Sav. Ga. We were training formation flying and hit a weather front , I didn’t see it, but one plane crashed. The only person who got out was the ball turret man. There is no room for a chute so you have to leave it on the deck, now this man climbed out of the ball , got his chute on , saw the guys in the waist pinned by centrifugal force to the side of the plane, and had no idea how or where he left the plane. He was the only person to survive. When we were flying missions we could see the B-17s off to the right or left of our bomber stream and would see them spin in then they might come out of the spin for a minute and you would see some chutes pop out., then it would start to spin again sometimes the rest of the way to the ground. I would imagine some would get out thru the bomb bay, or the waist window , or the back door on the B-17, or the bottom hatch at the back of the B-24. This was a awful feeling seeing these planes going down. We were very lucky that no 262’s hit us, as they would come thru the formation and knock down 2 or 3 planes with one pass. If the Germans would have had more time to build these jet’s it would have made one hell of a difference to the AF. I was 5-8 tall and weighed 150 lbs---a good size for the ball. I think any one taller would have had a hard down there as even with my size it was crowded.