357 Fighter Group reunion

[bobbysocks]

On Nov 11th and 12th i had the chance to go the Ida, Louisiana which is home of the Capt. Fletcher Adams 357th FG Museum. That weekend was Veteran's Day and the museum hosted a reunion for family and friends of the 357th. i went down to represent my father and maybe bump into a few of his old buddies. The town of Ida is a small community. and when i say small i mean SMALL. it only a couple hundred people live there...but it was the home of Capt Fletcher Adams ( G4-L Southern Belle) a pilot in the groups 362nd Sq that was shot down May 30, 1944 by a 109. he was able to bail out unscathed but was murdered by civilians on the ground shortly after landing. a young man in Ida took it aupon himself to write a book about Capt. Adams http://www.357thfightergroupmuseum.o...iles/adams.htm and started a drive to get the group's museum there. today it is housed in the old post office. not much room but there are plans to expand.

The Veteran's Day festivities started friday night with a catfish dinner. prior to that i met up wi a coupleof the Yoxford Boys and help suttle them to the mayor's house ( who also runs the museum ) to sign numbered prints of beautiful painting. what made this so special was the prints were of the plane G4-M "Ain't Misbehavin' " flown by Jessie Frey. Jessie was one of the few Boys able to make it. what added further to this was the fact his crew chief Pat Buzzeo and his wife made it too. 2 other 357THers found there way there....Joe Shea (G4-E My Bonnie) some of his stories can be found here:

http://www.cebudanderson.com/joeshea.htm

and Jim McLane G4-V Dainty Dottie....who had the distinction of trying to shoot down "Kit" Carson...whom he was flying wing for. that story is here:

http://www.cebudanderson.com/narrowescape.htm

after signing a ton of prints for sale in the museum we all headed to the town hall where everyone had gathered. i have to say the catfish was way better than i anticipated. the members of the 357th were honored as were all the verteans from all teh wars and conflicts. there was even a gentleman there who was one of the original Doolittle Raiders!

picture legend:
#1 Ida's main street

#2 Ain't Misbehavin' painting

#3 Jim McLane (seated) and Jessie Frey

#4 Joe Shea

#5 Ida community hall Catfish dinner. the 3rd gentleman in the first row on the floor was a Doolittle Raider

[bobbysocks]

attending the dinner was Dr. Olmstead, son of Merle Olmstead, a crew chief for the group and later its historian. he, Merle, autored several books on the 357th. also there was Col. Theresa Snow from the Ohio Air National Guard. they took over the heritage of the 357th and the yellow and red checker board colors. they used to have aircraft but now have moved to flying Preditor drones. the Belle of the ball was Mr.s Fletcher Adams and her sone and his family. When Capt Adams dies he left a young wife and baby son. they remained in Ida all these years.

Picture legend:

#1 L-R Joe Shea ( well half of him ), Peter Saunders, wife of a pilot ( red ), Mrs. Buzzeo, Jessie Frey, Pat Buzzeo, and Billy Strickland.

Peter Saunders came over from England. he run the group museum at Leiston where the original airstrip was. Pat Buzzeo was Jessie's crew chief. Billy Strickland is one of the owners and the pilot of a P51 painted exactly like Jessie Frey's Ain't Misbehavin. there was a planned fly over during the presentation tomorrow.

#2 L-R Jim, McLane, Joe Shea, and Peter Saunders

#3 Mrs. Adams and her family

#4 Dr. Olmstead, his wife, and Col Snow

[bobbysocks]

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.

[bobbysocks]

at around noon there was that sweet unmistakable sound of a merlin barrelling in balls out. Billy Strickland buzzed the park probably way lower than the FAA would appreciate. it brought tears to eyes, lumps in throats, and WOWed those who had never seen one before. Ofcourse i got photos....well i tried. i ended up with 1 half a$$ed photo...in every defination of the phrase. i am trying to locate more to post. afterwards the Yoxford Boys had a meet and greet to shakle hands and sign autograghs.

Picture legend:

#1 my sorry @$$ shot of a beauty...

#2 the 4 hoursemen Pat Buzzeo, Jessie Frey, Jim McLane, and Joe Shea

#3 Jessie signs an autograph

#4 Jim signs a a pretty cool T-shirt with a copy of the Ain't Misbehavin' on the back.

[bobbysocks]

last event of the day was a visit to the museum itself. as you can see its quite small. there are plans to add on or move to a larger place. its too bad they didnt start this idea 20 years ago when most of the Boys were alive. they would have had more items donated. it would have been nice to have a better showing from the Boys....maybe Yeager or Bud Anderson and teh others. but as you look at the men who did show it is apparent they arent young bucks any more. many had health issues that prevented them from making the trip....many have passed. the gathering of eagles gets smaller with each passing day...

picture legend:

#1 the Museum sign

#2 Museum from the side

#3 museum from the front

#4 some of the models of 357th aircraft

#5 some of the signed memorabilia

[McQ59]

Thanks for sharing Dale. Really amazing. I bow my head in aw to these men and those who take care of and honour the heritage. May they live forever!

[CrashLanding]

Thanks for sharing.

Watching those fine gentlemen age is heartbreaking. My granddad served with the 146th Signal Corps in the 6th Armored Division and he passed away three years ago this past October. The Greatest Generation is leaving us far too soon.

He didn't tell many stories but one he did stemmed from when he went to Fort Sill after signing up. He wanted to be a tank driver and was running the training course when he saw a puddle. The young farm boy he was, he thought for sure the tank would have no problem with that puddle. After getting the tank stuck, he (or possibly his superiors) decided tank driving wasn't for him.

He's listed in the pages here, which were lifted from a 1945 booklet the signal co. published. We never found him in the pictures, but he's listed among the 20 men who were awarded the silver star (which we knew about) and his at-that-time home address is listed as well.