Crew #424
Pilot - Lt A. Willard Reese

The military learned long ago that if you placed ten men together, put them through months of training as a team, and confined them to a small area like the fuselage of a B-17, there would be created a "Esprit de Corp" that others who had not been through this could not easily understand. Friendships developed in this way are strong indeed. On the crew of an aircraft, each member of the crew places his life in the hands of his fellow crewmember and depends on them to carry out the specific mission for which they have been trained.
Our crew first met each other when assignments were made (by authorities unknown) in Tampa, FL. I remember it was a tent city located in a stadium on the football field of a local college in the city of Tampa, FL. The place was known as Plant Park.

From Tampa we went by train to Gulfport, Mississippi to a B-17 training field where we spent the next few months learning to perform as a crew. We practiced formation flying, cross country navigation, landings and takeoffs, simulated bomb runs, and high altitude techniques There was gunnery training (gunners shooting at a sock being towed by another plane), instrument flying, bail out and other emergency procedures, and all those elements that would serve us so well in the coming months.

My first impressions of the officers and enlisted men who were assigned to be my crew was very positive. Here are my brief impressions - lovingly given.

The pilot. A. W. "Hap" Reese (that's me) was a young roughneck from Kingston, PA. His credentials in flight training were among the top cadets in his class of 44C. He was a sober, friendly, likeable, chap who was master of the B-17. (How's that for self praise)

Our copilot, Jim Stoner, was from a small town near Pittsburg. Like the rest of the crew, he was about 20 years old at the time. A smiling, happy faced, swaggering, "Hot Shot Charlie" type. He was just perfect as a contrast to my rather conservative, reserved nature.

Our bombardier was Joel Lester who hailed from Patterson, NJ. Joel was trained as a bombardier/navigator - we did not know it then but this capability would serve us well in the future. Joel was the friendly type who never hesitated to take on any task.

Don Scheuch, from Rochester, NY was our navigator. He looked about as young as I did and was very close to my age. His credentials told me that we were lucky to have him. He took very seriously his responsibilities and navigated with pin-point accuracy. We lost Don on his second mission when he flew with another crew and was shot down.

Our radioman, Charles Kenney, was a tall handsome fellow from Dayton, Ohio. He never had any trouble making friends with anyone. He was a dedicated to his radio. A solid member of our crew. He held several records for Morse Code speed at the training school he attended.
Edward Peters, from Gloucester, MA, was our engineer and there was no better flight engineer in the 8th. He looked older than the rest of us because of his heavy growth of beard that always looked like it needed to be shaved. He knew the B-17 inside and out and could "fix" anything.

It takes a very special person to serve in a ball turret and Jim McCloskey was that person on our crew. He never complained . Jim was a fun-loving, blond, energetic lad from Baltimore, MD. We could always count on Jim to handle the toughest job with a smile.

Clair Hetrick, our waist gunner, was from a town outside Pittsburg, Pa and was the youngest member of the crew - in fact, he was one of the youngest men to fly in the 8th Air Force. A true military type, he was friendly and diligent and all the crew respected him as I did.

Percy Mack was our tail gunner and came from a farming background in Vermont. He was a very sober person who seldom seemed to smile. He was always quick with a witty saying and had a great sense of humor that we all loved. He was a perfect compliment to the makeup of our crew.

Officially, Albert Knox was called an armourer (actually a second waist gunner). He was from Colorado and the only one of the crew from west of the Mississippi.
He was always congenial and friendly.

Paul A. Brook was a Navigator who replaced Don Scheuch. Don was lost on the Nov. 2nd Merseberg raid. Paul was a fun loving adventurer who shared the compartment with Joel Lester and soon made his presence felt as a member of the crew. We never got to know much about his past but he performed his duties well.