398th Bomb Group
Memorial
Association


398th Web Page Volunteers

The 398th web pages was officially launched on January 1, 2003. To date there are over 2000 pages of content. This content includes transcriptions of original diaries, formation charts, old photos, articles, and data charts. To get our information into a web usable form, we have relied on a small army of dedicated volunteers to prepare the rich content that we have. It is thus only fitting that we acknowledge their time and effort in making our web pages an exemplary site for learning and preserving the history of the 398th.

As follows is an alphabetical listing of those that have made significant contributions.

  1. Wally Blackwell: Wally is a 398th veteran and a former 601st pilot. Wally has taken a special interest in the 398th web pages and has both guided its development and has also been an author and transcriber of information. Key writings include his B-17 Identification article, along with a number of FAQs. In addition, Wally has also transcribed The S/Sgt. John Veenschoten Diary. Wally is also our 398th President.
  2. Ray Borys: Ray is a 398th veteran. We would like to thank Ray for his dedicated work in transcribing the T/Sgt. Armand Fugge Diary and the S/Sgt. Chilton H. Jorgenson Diary.
  3. Ted Brass: Ted is the son of 398th veteran Ernest Brass Jr., 601st Squadron. His dad was a navigator on the Joe Wierney crew. Ted has taken on a huge project, the creation of a spreadsheet of who flew on which mission. While doing that he decided that it would also be useful to fill in the gaps on our Flight Logs and Formation Charts since he was looking at some of the same data. We wish to thank Ted for volunteering for this very important and major activity and await its results which will easily run well into 2005.
  4. Lee Bradley: Lee is the daughter of T/Sgt. Frederick C. Bradley, Engineer/Top Turret Gunner from the Howard F. Traeder Crew. Lee has made available four key tables which she maintains. These are: 1) the Original Crew Listing, 2) the KIA listings, 3) the POW listing, and 4) the MACR listing. Lee also handles many of the inquiries from relatives seeking information about 398th veterans. Lee is also our 398th Group Historian.
  5. David L. Clark: David is the son of Benjamin Clark, a 398th pilot shot down over northern France, about 30 km south of Dieppe, on August 13, 1944. We would like to thank David for his careful effort in transcribing one of our longer diaries, the Captain Alan A. Arlin Diary.
  6. Ann Collins: Ann is the daughter of Phillip Collins, Ball Turret Gunner from the 601st Saul Marias Crew. We wish to thank Ann for her effort in transcribing the Lt. Robert J. Beckley Diary and the Lt. Robert E. Weidig Diary. We also wish to thank Ann for her continuing effort to transcribe the Mission Narratives, Bombardier Reports, and Formation Charts for August 8, 15, 16, 24, and 26, with September 5 in progress. This is an extremely tedious job, which she does with great care.
  7. Dawne Dougherty: Dawne is the widow of veteran Tom Dougherty, 602nd Gunner. Dawne has transcribed a number of items for the web site, including the Ben Core Diary, the Alan Arlin DFC citation, and the Observer article describing the 398th Memorial at Nuthampstead History. We appreciate very much, Dawne's continuing efforts in helping us preserve 398th history.
  8. Marty Dee: Marty is the brother of Robert H. Dee, Jr. co-pilot from the Byron L. Magness 601st Crew. Marty independently transcribed his brother's diary and put it on a family web page in 2003. With his help, that effort is now part of the 398th pages and will be preserved with other 398th archives.
  9. Jim Froelich: Jim is the son of Sgt. James S. Froelich of the Al Petska crew. We appreciate Jim's efforts in transcribing the T/Sgt. George W. Forsyth Diary.
  10. James Lafayette Holloway: James was the tail gunner on James Womeldurf's 601st Squadron crew. He kept a diary during the war. We wish to thank him for transcribing it for the 398th web pages.
  11. Dave Jordan: Dave is our 398th webmaster. He has organized and put thousands of pages into some kind of a logical order, along with proofing and minor editing. Dave is the son of 398th, 603rd pilot, Edward C. Jordan.
  12. Eric Linfors: Eric is the son-in-law of Clyde H. Welker, a 2nd Lt. in the 600th. He was the co-pilot for Howard Riley for 33 missions. His last 2 missions where with the Matthew's crew. Eric volunteered to transcribe all his father-in-law's formation charts (mid-September 1944 to Feb 1945). This is a major contribution to our web site.
  13. Joe K. Mansell: Joe is a 398th veteran. We appreciate Joe's efforts in transcribing the S/Sgt. Kenneth A. Green Diary and the Lt. Mark J. Woods, Jr. Diary from a type verssion by Carolyn Woods.
  14. Don Parks: Don is a nephew of John Bornstedt, a former 601st pilot. We appreciate Don's efforts in transcribing the T/Sgt. Elliot Novek Diary and the Lt. Paul W. Smith Diary. Don has also begun work on a table to clarify the location of the 398th Targets.
  15. Geoff Rice: Geoff, a UK Friend of the 398th now living in Colorado and volunteer par excellence has had many 398th interests over the years. Many of you know him as the happy person who brings the cases of crew and aircraft photo books to every annual reunion. His special interest in crew and aircraft photograph has carried over to the web pages and he is now our web page crew Photo Coordinator, unidentified crew coordinator, and aircraft photo coordinator. We wish to thank Geoff for all his efforts.