I am sad to report that Dale's daughter, Debbie, has informed me of his passing on Friday September 16, 2017. While those of us left behind will miss him tremendously, we take comfort in the fact that he is rejoicing with God and fellow believers in Heaven and that we will meet him again someday there. ~Melinda
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I love the internet! so much more information is out there now than when I started doing my research with Dale over 10 years ago. I came across a few photos of Seething Airfield in 1945 on Flickr, posted by David C. Foster. Check them out and the other B-24 and WWII photos he is sharing from his family albums. His uncle was in Crew 108 of 715th BS/448th BG in 1945 and they called their plane Wazzle Dazzle.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21734563@N04/2111574779/ Seething Airfield http://www.flickr.com/photos/21734563@N04/4426155828/ Seething Airfield http://www.flickr.com/photos/21734563@N04/2104939298/ Quonset huts at Seething Airfield http://www.flickr.com/photos/21734563@N04/2104164928/ soldier standing in front of Quonset hut http://www.flickr.com/photos/21734563@N04/2102189507/ B-24J-1-NT 278641 From Dale: The niece of my bombardier sent this link to me. Some of you may have seen it before, but I hadn't. Had the North Sea been as smooth as the Hudson River, all of our crew would probably have survived our ditching.
Click here: YouTube - Flight 1549 3D Reconstruction, Hudson River Ditching Jan 15, 2009#t=109 I am constantly amazed at the sorts of things you can find on the internet. I wouldn't have thought to check youtube out for video footage of B-24s before Dale's daughter sent me a link or two. If you do a general search on B-24, you will find everything from WWII newsreels to videos of people taking flights in one of the two remaining B-24 Liberators. Here are a few favorites: I've added a new page to the website with listings and photos of the places we know of and/or have visited that you can see a B-24 airplane, or parts of one. http://alfredhlockeb24crew.weebly.com/where-to-see-a-b-24-airplane.html
If you know of any others, I would be glad to add them to the list. Just leave me a comment with the information! When my mother asked me put together a scrapbook at the end of 1998 about my grandfather's WWII service with the photos, letters, papers, and medals that my grandmother had saved I had no idea of the proportions that the project was going to grow to. One of the first things I did as I began researching was to join a heavybomber email group at yahoogroups. After reading messages for a week or so, I posted a general outline of my grandfather's service as a way to share with the group and maybe find a bit more information. I was thrilled to receive an email from Dale, the crew's tailgunner, the next day. It was more than I had expected to find one of my grandfather's crew members, and that he was willing to share everything he remembered and had saved in his own personal scrapbook was even more special. |