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Here is the link to the photo of Dad in his uniform. I think it was taken the day he got his wings. He had made 2nd Lieutenant a while before and was at an airfield one day when a B-17 flew in. He asked the pilot if he could climb aboard. When Dad sat in the pilot's seat, he said, "This is for me!" He went straight to his C/O and asked if 2nd Lieutenants could take flight training; he wanted to volunteer. Next thing he knew, he was in basic training flying a PT-17 Stearman and he never looked back!
This is a VERY large graphic file and it doesn't view too well in a browser (it's grainy). Right click it and save the file to your local system and open it in your photo printing software.
Here is the link to the photo of Cheri II. The black circle for the nose art background is actually a pretty sky blue. This had to have been taken after the war. All of the guns are missing. Check OR-B in the background; its guns are missing, too. This photo may have been taken before it was flown back to the States. Eventually it was taken to Kingman, AZ were it was sold as surplus. Not one plane made it out of Kingman. They were all melted down for scrap.
I got this photo from Cavan, via Kerry. It's the L-19 that Dad flew in Germany. The back of the picture is in Dad's handwriting and tells you where the picture was taken.
This is a photo from training that I got from Renee Wagoner, the daughter of Edward Fagnani, Dad's co-pilot. Mr. Fagnani had a long career as a Major in the Pennsylvania State Police and as a Colonel in the Army Reserves. He died in 1994. His wife Angela, is still alive and lives in Hollidaysburg, PA (!) and remembers Mom and Dad well. They were all stationed together in Diersburg, TN which is probably where this photo was taken. That's Dad on the lower left with Ed Fagnani next to him.
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