AlanStarcher
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Help Needed to Identify 308th Bomb Group veterans
To the forum: Please assist in identifying the airmen/crew in the photos below. Several of us have been working together to determine the names by comparisons to other photos of identified personnel. The connections among these aricraft and crew will hopefully become apparent later in this thread. (Mods: please keep this thread in "All Hands Canteen" as the 308th forum receives very little traffic; in this forum we hope that more of our "experts" will participate.) First up: B-24D "Flub Dub," with crewmen named.
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-- Alan Nephew of Kenneth S. Starcher, B-24 Liberator pilot 42-73309 "Trouble Maker," 308th BG/373rd BS, 14th AF, CBI (KNB May 28, 1944 - Kweilin, China)
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AlanStarcher
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"Flub Dub" -- B-24D (with crew IDs)
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 (photo courtesy of Dawn, SSGT William Verzole's niece, from her collection) B-24D-110-CO "Flub Dub," 42-40874. Served with the 373rd Bomb Squadron. Aircraft was added to the group inventory August 12, 1943. Loss circumstances unknown. Photo appears to have been taken early in the aircraft's service life, location unknown -- paper tag in window has also been noted in early photos of other 308th aircraft. Standing, L-R: 2LT John Grosbeck, co-pilot -- 1LT Robert King, pilot -- 2LT Robert Powers, nav -- 2LT Harold Hodapp, bomb Kneeling, L-R: TSGT Richard Teeple, eng -- SSGT Levine, asst radio -- TSGT Allen Springer, radio -- SSGT Kennedy, asst eng -- SSGT Carl Smith, tail gun -- SSGT William Verzole, armorer [ Connection: TSGT Teeple, TSGT Springer, and SSGT Verzole were all onboard my uncle's B-24J, 42-73309 "Trouble Maker" when it crashed on May 28, 1944 ]
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AlanStarcher
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 B-24J-35-CO "Puck," 42-73317. Served with the 373rd BS. Lost May 20, 1944 attacking a convoy in the South China Sea. Standing, L-R: 1LT Frank Munson, co-pilot -- 1LT James Gilbert, nav -- 1LT Donald Richardson, pilot -- 1LT Linus Austin, bomb -- TSGT Harold Case, eng Kneeling, L-R: TSGT Cecil Olsen, radio -- SGT Patsy Gerrone, asst eng -- CPL Walter Polchlopek, armorer/gun -- SSGT Clifford Hamilton, armorer/gun -- SSGT Arthur Regal, asst radio
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AlanStarcher
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"Trouble Maker" B-24D (mystery no. 1)
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 B-24D "Trouble Maker," serial unknown, status unknown. Photos of this aircraft have been posted on BestB24Web for several years, identified as 375th BS; a different photo of this aircraft (with only 4 bomb mission markings and one kill flag) is also in Carroll Glines' book, "Chennault's Forgotten Warriors." This particular photo showing a crew, is a recent find from the collection of 308th vet Brayton Hassinger (courtesy Jana Churchwell). This aircraft is NOT the similarly-named B-24J 42-73309 "Trouble Maker," which served with the 373rd from November 1943 to May 1944. This photo was perhaps taken in 1943, before the "Puck" crew photo. The crew members are unnamed; however, a few faces are familiar from the other photos.
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AlanStarcher
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 The second mystery -- this photo was in Dawn's collection; the photo seems to depict a mixture of different air crew members and ground staff. No names were listed on the photo, and the date and location is unknown. Four of the men on the left are wearing leather jackets emblazoned with"Trouble Maker," although the script does not exactly match that on the B-24D nose art. It could be the newer version of the artwork that was on the B-24J. We have not located any photos of the B-24J "Trouble Maker" and do not know if it carried nose art. Note the two men standing in the back row -- the tall man on the left resembles the tall blond man standing on the far left in the older "Trouble Maker" crew photo. In the center row, the fourth man from the left (short guy in leather jacket) is Patsy Gerrone, from "Puck." Kneeling in the front row, the fourth man from the left wearing the tan uniform appears to be Walter Polchlopek, and the sixth man is Arthur Regal, both from the "Puck" crew photo. Dawn's uncle, William Verzole, is standing third from the right in center row, holding the beer bottle in his left hand. Note the differences between this later photo and his early picture in the "Flub Dub" crew. As Jack Gross noted, "mens' appearance changed during their tenure in China, by disease (malaria, dysentery), wounds, or the grim job they were performing. I'd never be able to correlate the face of William Verzole from the Flub Dub crew photo with [Dawn's] group photo of 373rd crewmen." The second man kneeling from left, with the large mustache holding the puppy, is also the third man standing from the left in the old "Trouble Maker" photo. The fifth man from the left, kneeling, holding the pistol and airplane model appears in the "Trouble Maker" photo, third man standing from right -- he has to be a gunner. Can you help to name anyone not yet identified?
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AlanStarcher
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A couple more curveballs: The crewman in the group photo, standing in the second row fourth from the right -- only his face is visible -- appears to be the same man in this photo of B-24D "Trouble Maker" on BestB24Web:  I'm not certain if my uncle is in the group photo -- I do not have any good photos of him except for this one from his obituary, taken in Flight School in 1942 [photo enhancement by Jana Churchwell]:  Is he pictured in the group photo, in the second row on the far right? I see a close resemblance between this man and my father, who was Uncle Kenneth's younger brother by two years.  [US Army photograph, 1944: Capt. Max Starcher, 752nd Military Police Batallion]
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b24copilotniece
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These are all such great photos! We'll get it if we keep chipping away:)
~In Honor of My Uncle George Junior~ FO George Franklin Churchwell, Jr of MS, 1923-1943 34th BG, 7th B Sq - B-24E #42-7119 Weed, CA 'There's room at the top'
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