EC0240
Signed by author, 414th Bomb Squadron, 97th Bomb Group 1944-1945
Also contains letter from Jack Knuppenburg to Ped Magness regarding not being able to attend a reunion in 1981 due to poor health. Contains another poem "To Our Fallen Heros and You" by PFC Prim - 7 December 1941 at Pearl Harbor.
Also contains letter of commendation from the 97th bomb group reunion association giving Elsa "Flip" Frame Hutchins membership to the group.
See EC-0207, also 97th bomb group.
Also contains baground to the group - "The 97th heavy bombardment group was the first bomb group to move to England early in WWII and they pioneered the concept of daylight bombing and mass formation air raids against German targets. The 97th was the famed war unit of B-17 Flying Fortresses that comprised the original "12 O'CLock High group of book, movie, and TV series fame. This fighting unit took the best the Nazi Luftwaffe could through at them and compiled a record 483 missions, more than any other heavy bomber group. It was also the first to reach each successive hundred mission mark... Thru many of the hardest fought air battles of the war, its gunners shot down 380 confirmed German fighters and the group's bombs destroyed countless more on the ground in raids against enemy airfields. So great was its battle record it was awarded four Presidential Unit Citations, and won the acclaim of many great allied war leaders. General James Doolittle said, "as far as I'm concerned, the 97th is still the best bomb group in the Army Air Force." Among its most famous B-17's were War Eagle, Berlin Sleeper, Magnetic Maggie, Thunderbird, and Pistol Packin Momma. Besides General Frank Armstrong, who was the real Gen. Frank Saaage of the book 12 O'Clock High, there was another famous member of the group, Col. Paul Tibbetts, Jr. who later commanded a B-29 group in the South Pacific and personally piloted the Engla Gay when it dropped the first atomic bomb in Hiroshima, Japan that brought about the end of the war against Japan.