As Jack Ilfrey has passed on whom has taken over his very busy position ?

Locobuster do you have any word on this . . . . ?

Erich ~

Nur die jenigen, die man vergisst, sind wirklich tot

      Erich.

     Jack's loss sure does leave a huge hole and no one seems to know exactly where to turn for information anymore. Just last year I contacted the then "President" of the 20th Fighter Group Association and he hadn't been active with the organization for over 16 months!

    The former Association historian has turned his collection over to a UK museum and has since disappeared into the ether, which is a shame as he was a walking encyclopedia of 20th Ftr Grp info. A lot of people are contacting me and I do what I can, however my schedule is so full right now (work, school, family) I hardly have time to do any research for myself.

    The 20th Fighter Group Association supposedly still exists. How this could be, I have no clue, as it folded into the 20th Fighter Wing Association several years ago. Art Sevigny, the 20thFWA's historian is a great guy with a lot of contacts and material at his disposal, so he would be the man to contact. He posts on this forum as Sevignya, you could send him a PM or e-mail.

    Cheers!
    Locobuster

Victory By Valor (Motto of the 20th. Fighter Group)

good grief !  well I guess a fella just has to sit and wait this out.  Locobuster has the 20th fg then had a reunion sine Jack's apssing ?  would think the torch would of been handed over as of then but can see a reason as you state why the 20th wing has now joined in hand.  what a great fighter group to have it's wind knocked out of the sails.

Loco did you receive my private concerning Kerns ?

E ~

Nur die jenigen, die man vergisst, sind wirklich tot

Erich.
     Don't let the 20FWA name misguide you, believe me, Art knows his stuff and the history of the 20th Ftr Grp is in good hands. Art has been involved with both associations for many, many years and he's quite forthcoming, helpful and knowledgeable. The Group's history is actually in good hands, in fact, Art is making an effort to bring said history into the technological realm.
 
     I don't know if the 20th Ftr Grp Association has had any reunions in several years as I've been out of the loop for quite some time. I'm pretty sure that, since the Associations folded into one, a few of the WWII vets just attend the 20FWA reunions. Facts are their numbers are dwindling very quickly, of the 30-some men I met at the reunion in 1999 at least a third of them were gone by 2005.
 
     No, I didn't receive your message, feel free to PM me here, however.
 
     -S-

Victory By Valor (Motto of the 20th. Fighter Group)

S :

THANK YOU for the further explanation as it makes me feel better.

private message on it's way to you

E ~

Nur die jenigen, die man vergisst, sind wirklich tot

Locobuster.
 
Thanx for the kind words.
 
To all, let me introduce myself.  I was assigned to the 77th TFS from 1980 to 1987.  I was an Aircrew Life Support Specialist with the additional duty of Squadron Historian.  I joined the 20th FGA in 1983 at the dedication of the King's Cliffe Memorial due the encouragment of Jack Ilfrey and John Hudgens.  I was elected the 2nd Vice President of the association in 1985 to act as liason between the association and the 20th TFW.  I held that position unitl I was reassigned in 1987.  In 2001 I became the Historian for the 20th FWA.
 
At the 2001 reunion (Colorado Springs) it was decided that the 20th FGA would merge with the 20th FWA.  The age of the Group members had reached a point that setting up reunions had become to difficult.  Additionally reunions became to expensive (no group rates for small attendee reunions).
 
Unfortunatly the last several years of Jack's life were overshadowed by what appears to have been Alzheimer's.  After Jack's passing several 20th FG members visited his home to reclaim the historical information in Jack's care, but with a heavy heart I report that it was all gone.  As near as we can tell person or persons unknown took advantage of him and cleaned him out.  Photo albums, letters etc loaned to him were all gone.
 
I have been striving to put togeter a comprehensive archive of the history of our great unit.  In pursuit of this I have created a data base of all our holding and all items are now cataloged and numbered to prevent what happed to Jack ever happening again.
 
At the 2001 reunion we had about 10 20th FG members attending.  at the 2003 reunion at Dayton OH we had about 5 20th FG in attendence. and at the 2005 reunion at Tucson, AZ we only had two in attendence (John Lee 79th  and Albert Gese 77th).  The sad fact is our numbers are dwindling all too fast and because it was a single seater fighter unit the pool of potential members was small to begin with.
 
I just returned from Maxwell AFB and have scanned the complete files of the 77th and 79th FS and will be returning in Jan to finish the 55th and the 20th's files.  These are the files that are available on microfilm (but for the most part are unreadable).  Text has been scanned at 150 dpi and photos at 500 - 1200 dpi depending on the photo.  These documents are mainly the monthly history reports the squadrons produced and contain a wealth of photos.
 
In August I was in the UK and spent 2 days at King's Cliffe fully documenting the tower there with both photo, video and tape measure.  I took a two day trip to Le Corvees France to interview witnesses to Walter Perra's shoot down and burial.  This is for a project the US cemetary at Normandy is undertaking to feature several servicemembers buried there.  The project is to produce an orientation movie for visitors to the cemetary to present these service members who paid the ultimate price as more than just names on a cross.
 
Next year I'm expecting to be in the Washington DC area for a full year.  I will be digitizing the entire 20th file held at the National Archive at Collage park.  These files include all the formal mission reports including debriefing reports of the pilots after each mission, day to day paper work and much more.  Three years ago I was there and scanned all the 55th, 77th and 79th Aero Squadron files to finally get the true story about the WWI history of the three squadrons.
 
So if you need anything I'll do my best to get it to you.
 
Victory-By-Valor
 
 

Nomad20th

Hello Erich
Just stumbled across this site by accident. I'm the 20th historian mentioned by Locobuster who supposedly "turned his collection of 20th FG info over to a UK museum" I didn't. However it's nice to be referred to as a walking encyclopedia! I've made the 20th FG's stay in England almost a lifelong historical study so yes I do have quite a bit of knowlege on the subject.  Just let me know if I can be of assistance.    

Hi all....I was meandering through some unrelated posts, not expecting to find the comments below. It was part of an original posting by the current 20th FG/FW point of contact, in reply to questions on who was the 20th FG's present contact representative. He refers to the group's former long standing contact and very well known Fighter Pilot the late Jack Ilfrey.
 
I Think the result and obvious consequences speak for themselves, of someone making contact with Jack before his death, and showing very self motivated reasons making contact and taking advantage of a veteran, who in all probability was quite clearly unable to think clearly, and was taken in by a very skillfull 'act' of a brief and very,hollow friendship, seemingly just enough of a friendship to obtain what they wanted.....As the post reads .....
 

Unfortunately the last several years of Jack's life were overshadowed by what appears to have been Alzheimer's. After Jack's passing several 20th FG members visited his home to reclaim the historical information in Jack's care, but with a heavy heart I report that it was all gone. As near as we can tell person or persons unknown took advantage of him and cleaned him out. Photo albums, letters etc loaned to him were all gone.

Although I'm not connected in any way to the 20thFG, I can surmize from the above that Jack had in his poscession a large amount of not only his own personal memorabilia, but also items handed to him from fellow 20thFG Pilots-personnel for his safe keeping (as the then association contact).
 
Important, unique, 20th FG history material lost forever.....
 
As I have recently tried to put on record for our own 305th (but this is relevent to ALL other groups and individuals), the sharing of personal data and especially home addresses and telephone numbers posted out in the open has very real, and often tragic consequences, especially for those few veterans that may live alone and/or are in ill health. They are very easy targets for the type of person that is referred to in this previous posting from Arthur Sevignya.
 
It is terrible to have to think about it and in a justice honest world we should not have to even consider such things, but this type of person is out there, and operating with little thought for anyone other than themselves!! Stranger Danger I know is much quoted, and yes it's may be thought over the top and could be said to be over exaggerated. Personally, I think not. Surviving veterans deserve respect and our help against such behaviour.
 
Ian W

Ian White - 305th BGMA Hon. Life Associate, UK Contact and Organiser of next years 40th Combat Wing UK Reunion - May 21st-31st 2009