Verna Mae

It's been a while since I posted.  I've been pretty busy.  My Dad was a Co-Pilot on a B-17 from the 447th BG and the 711 BS.  I have searched high and low for any indication of the serial number of this bomber.  I have all the letters he sent to my mom, I have copies of the news reports of all seventeen mission that the Verna Mae was on.  It was never shot down.  What I would like to do is to compile a book of the "Seventeen Missions of the Verna Mae".  As I understand, my father was the ranking officer on the plane, but was not young enough to be the pilot, so he was the Co-Pilot.  The crew deferred to him for the name of the plane, which he accepted and named after my mom, Verna.  She isn't in good health and I'd like to try and get this done before she dies, but I want to make sure that I attribute the right missions.  I haven't had a chance to go through the letters yet, and anyway they probably won't have much information.  I am hoping to get the official records of the missions, match them to the news reports, and then finally match up the letters to and from my Dad and mom to compile a personal history of his service.  If anyone can help, that would be great.  My Dad's name was Lt. C.W. LeGrand his serial number was 0-789-191.  His service was near the end of the war, in previous posts, I mentioned that he flew with Lt. Taylor, not sure if that is correct anymore.  I also know that his plane made it back to the states, Florida first, and then I think it ended up in Arizona.  Any help is greatly appreciated.  I'm now retired and I would like this to be one of my projects.   Thanks.

Hello again Phil,
As we covered on your previous thread I believe the aircraft you are calling Verna Mae was in fact 43-38984.  Officially, this aircraft had no name.  But as I think we discussed, crews frequently gave their own name to an aircraft but never went through the process to 'formalize' that name.  Your father's Lucky Bastard says Verna Mae on it just like my father's Lucky Bastard says Little Herbie on it but in fact neither of our father's crews actually got the name painted on the aircraft.  I've double checked my list of both known and unknown names for the 447th and Verna Mae does not appear on either list.  I've also checked Roger Freeman's listings and he does not show any name for this aircraft.
Attached below are the crew loading lists for April 15, April 16, and April 17, 1945 Showing your father flying as co-pilot with the Taylor crew on ship #984. 
Here is a link to your previous thread. 
http://forum.armyairforces.com/tm.aspx?m=166485
Let me know if there is anything else I can help you with.
Hal

Phil,
Attached are the loading lists for April 10, April 11, and April 14 showing your father as co-pilot with Lt Taylor.  See the pencil notation on April 11th. "abort, no sortie".  They had an oil leak on #1 engine and returned to base.
Hal