At Home in the Huddle 2008: Tuesday

It's APRIL 15th

(For more fun, click the image, please!)

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It's 24.4 degrees and clear.

LOOK WHAT'S COMING!

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Spring Cleaning!

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Clarification and Identifications

Lynn (Tuttle) Mattson and Audrey Wines checked in right away, "That's not the Calss of '52!" And they were right. Here's what Lois Newsom wrote:

"Actually, most of the people in that pic were from the class of 1955 -- and 2 or 3 of them were from the class of 1956. Left to right: Judy Callanen, Barbara Martin, ?, Linda Callanen, Rod Ryder in back, me in front kneeling, then ?, Anna Hayes, Ted Wilson, Skip. Rod Ryder and Anna Hayes are dead."

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Richard Hilsinger

Also in yesterday's mail was this - from Jr. Bartlett:

"Heard today that Richard Hilsinger has passed away in Rochester. I knew him and his family that lived on Buell ave in waterville across from the cemetary. I'm sure many of your readers knew him as well. He was a top turret gunner and flight engineer aboard the B-17 "Fuddy Duddy" and had 33 bombing missions over Germany during WW2. He is sadly missed and that leaves only two members of his crew still alive. May God Bless him his wife Rae and family."

B-17 the Fuddy Duddy

Dick Hilsinger in the front row on the far right.

Jr. added: "Here is one of the E-Mails Dick sent me that I would like to share with you and will never forget on one of his missions."

"Believe me," he wrote, "there is a story behind every one of the 33 missions I flew with my crew but there were some that were more outstanding for one reason or another. The third mission when our waist gunner got hit was when reality really set in. It was then we realized that this was not only exciting but dangerous as hell. I believe our target that day was Munich, a heavily defended target. Andy was hit by a piece of flak that hit him in the upper forehead below his flak helmet and then went down between the knuckles of two fingers on his right hand which we didn't know about for some time because of the heavy gloves he had on. The radio operator and left waist gunner took turns sitting with Andy between their legs applying a pressure bandage to Andy's forehead to slow the bleeding. All this was at about 40 below zero so it was not easy. They had to keep Andy's oxygen mask from freezing up among other things. We had one engine shot out and could not keep up with the formation which made us an easy target for fighters. At one point we were only 15 miles from the Swiss border and asked permission to land there to save Andy's life. The permission was denied because the life of one man was not as important as bringing back 10 men and a beat up airplane. We struggled all the way back to England at times flying all alone. We barely made it back to our base. Now after all that, we had to do this 30 more times and two days later we went back to Munich.

Your mother wrote to all of us and we looked forward to hearing from her. I carried a small pocket size bible with a metal cover in my left jacket pocket that your mother gave me to keep me safe. I brought that home with me but over the years somehow it has gotten lost.

Long story, hope it isn't boring. Dick"

(Thank you, Jr. And Thank YOU, Richard Hilsinger.)

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