Veterans and Families,

It was a privilege and a pleasure to meet and talk with the 380th Veterans and their families at the 2008 reunion. This event was a great success, due to Barbara and Doug Gotham and Pat Carnevale. Their efforts should be applauded by all of us. I especially want to thank Dexter Baker, Sr. It was his idea and desire to have a presentation about the history of the 380th at the members' meeting--especially for the younger family members who may not be very familiar with the 380th BG and its history (or the B-24 Liberator). I hope everyone enjoyed it and maybe learned some history they didn't know. I also hope the B-24 video was able to convey just a tiny bit of what it was like to fly in that aircraft. Keep in mind, my flight was only 30 minutes, in clear warm weather, at about 4000 feet altitude, and no one was shooting at us! Now imagine extending that flight to about 10 hours, at 10000 feet, freezing temperatures, cramped conditions and you are trying to destroy a target on the ground below you while defending yourselves against enemy aircraft and ground fire that are trying their very best to kill you! If you ever get an opportunity to take a flight aboard a B-24, take it!!

My thanks also goes to Glenn Horton and several other Veterans, who alerted me to a few "inaccuracies" in the history and offered some suggestions and additions. The presentation I sent Barbara and sent to all who had asked for a copy is a corrected and somewhat expanded version of what I presented at the meeting. Both the presentation (in both PowerPoint and PDF) and the DVD video I made of my 2008 flight aboard the Collings Foundation B-24, "Witchcraft" is available free to anyone who desires a copy. Email me at: filmxtra@netzero.net, or contact Barbara Gotham.

You can also click here for (1) the Presentation in PDF format, and/or (2) the Presentation in PowerPoint format.

This reunion in Tucson was especially meaningful to me and my sister, Diana. Not only because Tucson is where the 380th BG began, but because our parents were married in the chapel at Davis-Monthan AFB, February, 1943.

Sadly, the 380th BG Association lost a great and kind friend and benefactor with the passing of Tom Hunt. I am grateful and privileged to have met and been able to talk with him at at the reunions in 2006 and 2007. He will be greatly missed, as will all of the Veterans who are no longer with us.

Finally, all of you 380th vets and families with stories and photos of their service during WW2, PLEASE, PLEASE record them and send them to Barbara to publish in the Newsletters. We all need to share and preserve this history!

Again, thank you all.

Bill Shek, Jr.

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