In order to speed along our work on the 398th Web Site, we are in need of volunteers to perform a number of duties. If you feel that you would like to volunteer for any of the following activities below, please contact our 398th Volunteer Coordinator who will work with you to get started.

Volunteer activities require access to e-mail and most projects can be done at home. The most important skills are attention to detail and being organized.

The content of the 398th Web Pages is very much the result of a small group of volunteers. Generally records are scattered about and most records need transcribing to allow easy reading on our web pages. The above volunteers' link both acknowledges our dedicated group of volunteers but also provides examples of the kinds of work they have done.

Current Needs for Volunteers

1. National Archives Search in Maryland: There appears to be many 398th Records at the US National Archives facility in College Park, Maryland which we do not have. These include both text and photos. For example, see Retrieval of 398th Missing Air Crew Reports below. It would be useful if a 398th member who lives nearby could visit the facility, search for various items we are interested in and then make copies which others might transcribe.
2. Retrieval of 398th Missing Aircraft Reports: There are sixty-six known 398th Bomb Group Missing Air Crew Reports (MACR's) on file in the US National Archives facility in College Park, MD.  These MACR's contain all of the information know at the time of loss as to why these B-17's and their crews were missing in combat.  Each MACR is a number of report pages (usually not more the 25 pages of data) recorded onto microfiche.  As far as it is possible to find out, the 8th AF MACR's are available only on the National Archives microfiche system.  A very worthy standalone project would be to obtain these sixty-six copies of microfiche (each a piece of film roughly four inches by six inches) and get the information transcribed into a computerized form.  This information would then be shown as a special section on the 398th web page.  So much of this data has never been available for 398 viewers. The MACR identification numbers of the sixty-six pieces of microfiche are immediately available and are shown on Page 90 of Remembrances.
   
3. Diary Transcriptions: As 398th combat diaries are found, we are adding them to our web pages. However, they first need to be trascribed into digital text. We generally ask the authors to do this if they can. If some cases, it is not possible for the author to do so and in these cases, we desire a volunteer to transcribe some or all of the entries. There are other diaries needing transcription. Duties would include transcribing the text into your computer's Word Processor which when complete would be sent to us via e-mail for inclusion on our 398th Web Page. If you have a diary that we don't know about, we'd like to both hear from you and also ask you if you would type it into electronic text.
4. Formation Charts: For some of the missions in the 398th Official Mission List, formation charts have been included. It would be good to add more, especially the ones that show the pilot's name. These are scattered around. Some are in Flak News articles, some were kept by the men, and a complete list is on the Maxwell Tapes and CDs. The task would involve going through old Flak News articles and the Maxwell CD to print and scan the formation charts and then e-mail the scans to the webmaster for inclusion on the 398th Web Page.
5. Index to 398th Materials: Over the years much material has been contributed by members to the 398th archives. What is needed in an index which would be put on the web pages to where this material is now located.

If you feel that you would like to volunteer for any of the above activities, please contact the 398th Volunteer Coordinator who will work with you to get started.