Attn.: Nevin Price
Every once in a while one gets an unexpected reminder of days past. Your card was most welcome, but I was surprised on two counts: (1) that I was listed as a "missing person", and; (2) that someone knew I was missing (most gratifying). Rather than providing you with data that may not conform to your purpose, l thought it best to give you a capsuled version of my somewhat unusual service in the 598th Squadron. Our crew joined the unit¢ at A-72 outside of Peronne, France in January, 1945. Within a few days, we were assigned to "temporary duty" with the 1st Pathfinder Squadron and started training in B-26s that were equipped with a British radar bombing system designed to lead groups on bombing missions where the targets were obscured by bad weather. The Pathfinder Squadron was a provisional unit that didn't exist on paper and was known only to other 9th Air Force Bomb Groups, presumably. Several friends found out, after being shot down, that German Intelligence knew more about us than we did - Capt. Fred Ellinghouse and Major Cobb to cite two cases. The Pathfinder unit was also located at A-72, but on the other side of the field near Monchy la Gauche, the garden spot of France, where the roads were lined with endless piles of sugar beets covered with manure, aging in the hot sun.
After surviving a crash on take off leading the 386th Group, we relocated to Venlo, Holland in May. After the Germans surrendered, we resumed once again to "Manure Manor" but as a part of the 598th Squadron. I think I was the only 2nd Lieutenant who was also a Squadron Adjutant and Technical Inspector in the 9th Air Force. I spent a few months at the American University in Shrivenham, England and returned to the 598th My gold bars had lost their brass sheen and, with all of the changes, I found I had been carried on the roster as a 1st Lieutenant. Promotion papers to Captain had been sent in but were sent back for obvious reasons. Shortly after that, all promotions were frozen. One of my greatest contributions as Squadron Adjutant, was to cleanse and redecorate the pig barn and convert the stalls into table areas for the officer's mess. Then I fired the tail gunner posing as a cook and replaced him with a ground crew sergeant who had been a chef in one of the best Italian restaurants in Chicago. This was a real morale booster.
In November, 1945, they broke up the Group and those of us who were just short of having enough points to go home were transferred to the 441st Troop Carrier unit¢ in Frankfurt, Germany. I retrained in C-47s and DC3s and flew military airlines in Europe. Finally, after all of the relocations, I was promoted to 1st Lieutenant, losing my status as the ranking 2nd Lieutenant in the ETO. I returned from the ETO and left the service in October, 1946.
If you have a form for recording the data you wish to have on file, I will be happy to fill it out and return it. On January I, 1981 I retired from Ford Motor Company and have been a full time resident at the Shanty Creek Resort in northern lower Michigan since 1984. I must confess that our home on the resort's golf course is far superior to dear old "Manure Manor". Thanks for the card and [apologize for the nostalgic highlights.
Dean W. Manley