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I met a fellow who lives in my retirement community who flew a P-47 during WW2. He said he was in Europe for about 6 months. His first mission was on D-day. Then he flew some bomber escort missions but mostly he flew ground support missions. He defined that as "Since everything is enemy territory, anything that moved we shot." He said he never got a scratch on him, but he did bring back a couple of airplanes that couldn't be used again. He said they were relieved after having flown 250 hours of combat missions, and that only took him 6 months. His name is Starling Pelletier. He had a number of pictures of himself with his airplane. Neat guy, fully alert.
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regards, Rod -
Rod,
Did he mention what outfit he was in? My wife’s mom, herself an Army Nurse Corps veteran of North Africa and Italy, lost one of her brothers in a P-47 crash in March, 1945. He was in the 316th Fighter Squadron, 324th Fighter Group. (Family oral history was that he was too physically sick to fly that day, but took the mission anyway)
Best,
Andy -
We only talked 5 minutes and he didn't mention what outfit he was in. I only know he was based in England the whole 6 months he was there and his first mission was D-day, so it doesn't sound like the same area,regards, RodComment
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