the next day was a special presentation. Dr. Olmstead presided and gave a noce speah to honor all the vets. then a piece of wood was brought out. what made this so special?? well i will let Joe Shea tell you:
When the 357th was at leiston, the mechanics and armament personnel worked through the cold winter nights on far too many occasions to get our planes ready to make the journey over Germany the following morning. They desperately needed to get in out of the cold occasionally but nothing was available. But their ingenuity solved the problem: The external fuel tanks that we used to extend the range of the p-51 so we could reach targets deep, deep in Germany were crated in crates that were made of plywood panels 18" X 72". Each crate had 4 such panels and we used lots and lots of external tanks. Frequently we would all drop them if we were attacking an enemy formation or at other timed we would drop them in some place and fire into the same place on the second pass and set the works on fire.
The ground personnel would disassemble these crates and build what they affectionalely called Line Shacks out of them. Then they would equip the line shack with a kerosene lantern, a pot bellied stove and lots and lots of pictures of wives, girl friends or other lovely ladies.
When the 357th vacated Leiston airbase to move to Germany, the manager of the farm that was once Leiston airbase was thoughtful enough to retrieve one of these panels and save it for posterity.
I discovered this panel in 2004 on a visit to Leiston airbase. To say I was amazed would be a gross under-exaggeration. Later, 2 years ago when we ere about to open the museum at Leiston, I once again visited the manager of the farm and asked him if he would consider donating it to the museum. He graciously agreed.
picture legend:
#1 Dr. Olmstead turn the show over to Joe Shea
#2 Joe and Peter tell the story of the panel
#3 Joe presents the panel to Smokie ( mayor and curator of the museum in Ida ).
#4 & 5 some of the girlie pictures that filled the minds of young american boys on a cold winters night far, far from home.
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