Remembering Lt. Davidson’s Crew on Memorial Day

                                           Lt. Davidson’s Crew Paid the Ultimate Sacrifice

Memorial Day advertisements usually highlight food for a cook-out or a picnic. Some businesses feature items for having fun at the lake or enjoying activities after a backyard BBQ.

                As I thought of the purpose of Decoration Day, as my grandparents always referred to it, I reflected it originated to honor the Civil War dead. Recalling those who gave the ultimate sacrifice seemed a proper way to observe part of the Memorial Day, the name given it in 1967.

                 I thought of Charles Peterson, the ball turret gunner, one of the ten-man crew who flew the mighty B-17F across the Atlantic Ocean. Target for Tonight was the B-17 Flying Fortress flown by Fred Rabo, their pilot, with Dad, Peterson, and the others, most under the age of 25 when it traversed the Pond. 

The photo of Dad and Charles Peterson was cropped
from the initial crew photograph characteristically
 taken just before the crew's inaugural mission. 
This crew photo was taken in November of 1942.
Charles Peterson was 23 years old.

                Then as Dad might say, “Peterson’s name was called to go with another flight crew.” Following is Dad’s recollection of that flight as it appeared in his World War II memoirs, Okie Over Europe.

Charles Peterson, the ball turret gunner on Edmund’s original crew that crossed the Atlantic Ocean in Target for Tonight, flew with a different crew on a combat mission piloted by Captain William K. Davidson on February 4, 1943, to Hamm, Germany. Peterson was flying one of the waist gunner positions on this mission. This was a fateful reassignment for him since he had been manning the ball turret guns on all the missions Edmund had flown. Their plane went down and the entire crew was lost. Initially this crew’s status was “missing in action.”  Soon this changed to “KIA” or “killed in action.” This was the first man from Edmund’s original crew to be killed.

Edmund’s crew had served with Charles Peterson since they had begun training in the desert at Muroc, California.  They had lived in the same barracks, had eaten at the same mess hall, and flown ten successful combat missions together. There was a momentary shock in their quarters upon hearing that his plane was missing.  Almost immediately their reaction to this unnerving news gave way to the realization that their comrade was not coming back and would be replaced the next day.  Edmund and his fellow airmen quickly became battle-hardened to retain sanity, courage, and the resolution to keep boarding the Flying Fortresses for future missions.  Charles Peterson’s unused bunk was a visible reminder of the fragility of life and the improbability of survival for B-17 crewmen. The remaining men in the barracks steeled themselves that evening to the unoccupied bunk’s conspicuousness and its haunting, yet deafening whisper to them.

                A mysterious photo was in the military album Angie, my sister, created for Dad. When we looked at the photo, Dad indicated the airman was killed in action. This week before Memorial Day, I looked at the back of the photo and read these words written by Dad: “On 1^st Lt. Davidson’s Crew; Lost Entire Crew Feb. 4, 1943; Plane #25060.”

As I revisited the doomed mission of February 4, 1943, I researched briefly the other nine members on Plane 25060 hoping to discover which of the crewmen was in the unidentified portrait in Dad’s collection. I was able to locate photos of most of the men who went down in the North Sea off the coast of the Netherlands that February day. Their names were engraved on the Tablets of the Missing in the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial in Cambridge, England.

Dad’s well-worn book, The 305^th Bomb Group in Action – an Anthology, had a listing of the missing crews. The Davidson crew was among some the first listed.  One of the crewmen was Staff Sergeant Kermit R. Plaskett, the flight engineer, on that doomed flight. He flew the same position as Dad. On the www.findagrave.com site, Plaskett’s military portrait, even though he had a serious expression, resembled the features of Dad's unidentified photo. Mother and I agreed that this unidentified portrait must be of this young man.

Staff Sergeant Kermit R. Plaskett - the 
unidentified photograph; Dad was also the 
flight engineer/upper turret gunner. Plaskett
was from a rural community, too but in 
Jolon, Californina, about 150 miles south of 
San Francisco. He was only 24 years old 
when he made the ultimate sacrifice.

May we never forget but always choose to remember the sacrifices paid by young Americans and their families over the centuries. Jesus Himself spoke these poignant words in His final hours with His disciples before His arrest, Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. (John 15:13). Paul encouraged the Christians in Galatia with these words revealing the sacrifice of Jesus:

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.