WWII memories

Air Classics, Apr 2002 by Gelhaus, Don

My interest in flying goes back to the 1930s when I was an avid builder of model airplanes and a reader of various aviation publications.

Your article on the 36th Bomb Squadron - "The Squadron of Deception" - in the August 2001 issue got my attention. One page 15, I read the crew members of Lt. Boehm's B-24. One crewman listed, but not pictured, was Staff Sergeant Francis J. Lynch. Francis Lynch and I graduated from high school in Rosalia, Washington, in 1940. We entered the Army Air Corps about the same time in 1941. We corresponded for a time and then lost contact.

I did know that he went to radio school and aerial gunnery school and that he was in B-17s or B-24s and that he was killed in action in late 1944 or early 1945, but that was about all. He was the foster son of an elderly lady. She had very little information on him.

I was able to contract another classmate who had written to Francis during the war. She was able to find his last letter to her - a V-mail written on 19 November 1944. He was lost on 22 December 1944 and he was indeed in the 36th Bomb Squadron. I knew that this was the right Francis J. Lynch.

I shared the article with other former classmates and people who knew Francis. Thank you for this WWII article. I entered the Aviation Cadet Program (Pilot) and graduated from Williams Field, Arizona, Class 44-C. I went into fighter transition at Victorville - later George AFB - where we flew P-39s. Then it was off to Chico AFB for more P-39s and then P-63s. Next step was Santa Rosa and P-38s.

From there I went to the ETO and the 367th Fighter Group, 393rd Fighter Squadron, in France. I flew 27 fighter/bomber missions in P-38s before our group switched to P-47s.

When the war in Europe ended, I had 58 missions as a fighter/bomber pilot. At the end of the war, we were based at Frankfort/Eschborn, Germany. I returned to the States for reassignment and while home on leave, the war in the Pacific ended.

Having an interest in flying that started many years ago, my involvement serving in WWII, and as a private airplane owner until several years ago, I enjoy reading Air Classics.

Don Gelhaus

602 E. Cheney Plaza Rd.

Rosalia, WA

99170