James Flynn

US Army Air Force, (1942 – 1945) – pilot, POW, WWII James Flynn, from Marceline, MO, registered for the draft in 1940, but it was late in 1942 before his number came up. As he had always had a desire to fly, he signed up for the US Army Air Force. He married Betty Othic, also from Marceline, while he was stationed in Sikeston, MO during training. After more training at different bases across the country, he was finally sent to Italy to fly a B-24 bomber on missions to attack “oil refineries, airdromes, rail centers, and other vital German-held targets in southern and central Europe.” On Aug 29th, his plane was on a bombing run to Czechoslovakia to hit a tank factory. When they began to have engine trouble, they dropped out of formation, tried to bring the plane in for a landing, fought to keep the plane aloft, and finally decided to ditch the plane and parachute to the ground. James was soon captured and spent most of the rest of the war in German POW camps, in Yugoslavia, Hungary and finally Germany. His family was first informed that he was missing, and then that he was a POW. He was liberated by American forces in April 29th, 1945. James wrote down his memoirs in a book called “The Big One: World War II” which is available to be checked out from the Brookfield Library. In the foreword he wrote: “I wrote this book for my three children, Kathleen, Kevin, and Mary Felice, and my two grandchildren, Amy and Marissa. I did this so they would have an idea as to what I did and where I was in the service during World War II from June of 1942 through October of 1945.”

Ralph Thomas

US Air Force 1967 – 1990 Enlisted United States Air Force May 3, 1967 and sworn in at Federal Building in St Louis, Missouri. Shipped to Amarillo AFB, Texas for six weeks of basic training. Amarillo was a hot dry desolate place, with no trees. For six weeks practiced marching, military classes on USAF history, uniform, and military bearing. In August, sent to Keesler AFB, Mississippi for air traffic control school. Graduated January 1968 and assigned to Ellsworth AFB Base Control Tower, near Rapid City, south Dakota. From control tower could observe Mt. Rushmore 21 miles away. One year later in June 1969 sent to Binh Thuy Air Base, South Vietnam, where assigned to GCA (Ground Control Approach) radar unit to control air traffic. Binh Thuy was in Mekong Delta and built by Navy Seabees who dredged sand from a river and made a 4 mile island with a runway. A Vietnamese C-47 cargo plane slid off the runway and hit out GCA unit, destroying it. I was then assigned to an Air Route Traffic Control Center on Binh Thuy and we monitored all air traffic flying in the Mekong Delta. I extended a year in Vietnam and was assigned to Pleiku Air Base in the central highlands in a Radar Approach Control facility. From Vietnam I was assigned to Yokota Air Base in Tokyo, Japan to work air traffic in the world’s busiest radar approach control. a very demanding facility. In 1972 I was transferred to Takhli, Thailand and remained there two years in a radar facility. In 1974, transferred to Wiesbaden, Germany for a year in a mobile communications unit. In 1975 the unit was reassigned to Patrick AFB, Florida. In 1977 sent on a two year tour to Mildenhall Royal Air Force Base in England to work in control tower. In 14979 returned to United States and joined an airborne unit as a paratrooper. Assigned to Dyess AFB, Texas (Abilene) and McChord AFB Washington (Tacoma). Completed 284 military parachute jumps all over the United States, Panama, and Korea. September 1, 1990 retired from USAF as E-6 Technical Sergeant and returned to Missouri with young family.