Ant1942 Posted April 20, 2019 Share #1 Posted April 20, 2019 Hi guys, I am deciding to show off my only Air Corps grouping I have that belonged to Gordon Leroy Lee of Aneta North Dakota. Gordon belonged to the 390th Bomb Group, 571st Bomb Squadron as a Navigator and served overseas from 1943-45. The grouping came with a small binder of a few articles he wrote in a vet book about the experiences of those in the 390th BG. Also included was a picture of him with his fellow crew mates and obituary. As for the uniform itself it is a heavily tailored Ike with British made ribbon bars and 8th Air force patch. The Navigator wings are of nice quality as well and it also came with his Crusher cap that I discussed in another topic on the forum (I will include the link of that below as well). Also included is a list of all of the missions he flew in 1945. Gordon was born on December 21st 1922 and was a 18 year old college student when Pearl Harbor occurred. Four months later, recruiters on campus got him to sign up in the Air Corps in early 42 and he became a commissioned officer. After his service overseas which included most if not all major campaigns the 571st was involved in from Schweinfurt to D Day supporting missions and beyond, he finished his schooling up at the University of North Dakota in 48' and married his college sweetheart and raised a family. He studied electrical engineering before the war and after getting his degree, worked for General Electric for 8 years or so before becoming a professor at a local North Dakota community college in the late 60s/early 70s. He even wrote a paper about the energy crisis for the state of ND in 1978 (I have not been able to find that article). I also was able to find out that he was elected the mayor of Aneta his old home town for a period of time and from what I could tell in the obituary, was a very active member of the community and loved to tell people about his WWII serivce/WWII history as well as his Norwegian cultural history. Gordon Lee died on December 19th, 2005 at the age of 83. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ant1942 Posted April 20, 2019 Author Share #2 Posted April 20, 2019 also as promised here is the link to the other thread I started about the info I tried to obtain about the maker of the crusher cap. http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/326278-wimbledon-crusher-cap/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GIKyle Posted April 20, 2019 Share #3 Posted April 20, 2019 Thanks for sharing and providing a nice writeup. Looks like a solid group! Kyle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ant1942 Posted April 20, 2019 Author Share #4 Posted April 20, 2019 Thanks Kyle, means alot to hear that. You would be surprised at how small he was. The uniform is a 35R, but the funny thing about it is that he has a larger head like a 7 to 7 1/8ths haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doyler Posted April 20, 2019 Share #5 Posted April 20, 2019 Very nice group.Great to see the 390th named groups Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teamski Posted April 20, 2019 Share #6 Posted April 20, 2019 Nice! -Ski Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ant1942 Posted April 20, 2019 Author Share #7 Posted April 20, 2019 Thanks for all the comments guys, again, not the biggest air corps guy but I do like groupings with a story to tell. This guys experiences kinda struck me because he was my brothers age when he joined up during his second semester of his freshman year and was really young for being an officer in my opinion ( I guess I’d be considered an old man at the age of 23 in comparison lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarecrow Posted April 20, 2019 Share #8 Posted April 20, 2019 Very nice grouping! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WWIIinterviews Posted April 20, 2019 Share #9 Posted April 20, 2019 Really nice grouping. Hoping to find a nice group like this. Thanks for posting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ant1942 Posted June 27, 2019 Author Share #10 Posted June 27, 2019 So a quick update on Gordon leroy Lee: I requested for his records via golden arrow research and was able to find his flight logs from the time he trained in 1944 till June 1945. Turns out he actually only started flying combat missions in December 1944/January 1945 and his last few were in the Netherlands at the end of the war due to humanitarian aid that the Netherlands needed. He flew the B17E, F and G models and his entire flying list missions wise was 56 missions within a 7-8 month time frame from December 44 to June 45. Definitly was excited to have these logs as it now sheds light on Lee's war. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccfc Posted June 27, 2019 Share #11 Posted June 27, 2019 Really nice group to have. Well done Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ant1942 Posted September 15, 2019 Author Share #12 Posted September 15, 2019 Thank you for your comments ccfc. At times I am debating about selling it to make funds for my main areas of interest, but I just absolutely can’t seem to do it as it really has grown on me and I do love the 390th BG as their one of the more we’ll known groups mid war in the 8th Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeffjorgensen Posted September 19, 2019 Share #13 Posted September 19, 2019 what an amazing grouping, thank you for sharing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ant1942 Posted September 26, 2019 Author Share #14 Posted September 26, 2019 what an amazing grouping, thank you for sharing I appreciate that, I just absolutely love 390th BG stuff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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