[303rd-Talk] Looking for Tyler Weems

[Bill Jones]

> > >  Of all the 303rd missions I've read about, the Magdeburg 
mission,
> > >  and
> >> the collision between the 360th and 427th plane in early Apr of 45
> >> are the two that made the greatest impression on me. Bill Jones      
> >>   N3JLQ Sweden Maine
> 
> Bill,
> 
> The mission you are referring to above, I believe, was mission # 305 on
> January 21, 1945.  I had also learned about this accident in researching
> information on my father-in-law, Kirkland Price. ....
....
> ..... You may click here to see his headstone 
> http://www.303rdbg.com/cem-lo-cambron.jpg You can also read about
> mission 305 by clicking here
> http://www.303rdbg.com/missionreports/305.pdf

Thanks.  I hadn't read about that crash before.  But no, the one I was 
referring to was in early april, ie 

http://www.303rdbg.com/missionreports/353.pdf   

What I found so interesting about this accident, was not so much the 
story of the accident, but the stories connecting different people to 
the accident. I first learned about this accident when trying to look 
up a fellow, Ralph Johnson, who had flown with my father, a fellow that 
my father had taken a couple pictures of. When I looked him up, I found 
that he had been originally on the Lacker crew, ie:

http://www.303rdbg.com/360lacker.html   

One look at the picture of that crew, and the picture of the fellow 
holding the doll, makes that accident seem special, but then I read a 
question from a relative of an airman from the 427th, who wanted to 
find out anything about his service, so I researched his name, and 
found out that he had been aboard the 427th plane involved in the 
collission.  Later, I was trying to help someone else find out 
something about their relative, looked him up and he turned out to be 
the Sgt Bonner.  Asked what he was doing on the plane, I found out that 
he had been transferred to the plane because he apparently was fluent 
in German, and served as some kind of translator.  Then, on this forum, 
I met our own Bill Runnels, who was the original bombardier on the 
lacker crew, but had transferred off that crew since real bombardiers 
were generally used in lead crews. Then, I learned that the Ralph 
Johnson that I was originally looking for, was flying as a tailgunner 
officer observer in the lead plane in that squadron that day, and 
witnessed his old crew going down. Each time I look up people who flew 
with my father, I keep running into connections to the Lacker crew, 
such as another pilot my father kept a picture of, who flew the day 
before and after the Magdeburg mission, and later flew three missions 
as copilot with my father.  There is a picture of this pilot on the 
303rdbg web page indicating that apparently he was assigned as pilot 
with much of the Lacker crew several days before the accident, but for 
some reason, he never flew with them. 
  Basically, the collission just seemed to be linked to so many 
different stories of people who might have been on that flight, and 
people who were transferred onto that crew from other crews. I just 
have this feeling that there are still some untold stories associated 
with this ill fated mission.  

   





Bill Jones         N3JLQ
Sweden Maine
wejones at megalink.net
http://www.megalink.net/~wejones 
 
303rdBG page 
http://www.eskerridge.com/bj/303rdbg/wwii.html