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364th BS Patch, 305th BG Group


Schofield1943
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Schofield1943

I recently learned that our soon to be retiring controller in my office, a french woman by birth by and a long time New Yorker, was married to a Staff Sergeant in the 8th Air Force. This had never come up before as he passed away well before I met her, and it was always a sensitive subject so I never asked. Following last week's attack on Paris we got to talking about French civilians during WWII and she mentioned her husband and the 305th Bomb Group. After I dug a little deeper I discovered he was a Gunner with the 364th and flew in late '44-'45.

 

Staff Sergeant Charles Abrams, a native of New York City like myself, had the MOS 748, Airplane Mechanic-Gunner, and received campaign credit for Northern France, Rhineland and Central Europe (where did Ardennes go?). He then did a year of occupation duty in Belgium.

As they had no kids, she told me she had a few things of his she wanted to give me and today they were sitting on my desk.

 

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Schofield1943

She also told me a great story about walking with her brother and their grandfather as a child in the early 1950s on his farm north of Paris when her brother found an unexploded hand grenade near the road. Her grandfather ripped it from his hand and threw it into his wheat field where it exploded, setting much of their crop on fire.

 

She also mentioned finding all sorts of WWI items in an old rock quarry they would play in as children (namely helmets and bayonets). Really must have been something to have been a kid in post war France.

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Very cool! My dad was a radio operator/machine gunner in the 305thBG/422ndBS as you can see from my avatar. He got over to Chelveston in early April '45 and luckily didn't fly any combat missions. He then went to St. Trond, Belgium and to Lechfeld, Germany where he was part of Project Casey Jones: the mapping of Europe for future wars! He ended up as a Tech. Sgt.

 

I believe he bought a used A-2 from an airman heading home but he never had any bomb group or squadron patches with his items, so my guess is that he never had or bought any. I bought the one I have from ebay.

 

I have his wings, bullion 8th and 9th AAF patches and a few other items. He told me that he wore out his AAF non-dress clothing working at various jobs after the war and that his mom tossed away his uniform (!) when he was away in grad school. It's possible that he knew SSGT. Abrams. Unfortunately, my dad passed away over four years ago.

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Johnny Signor

Could you please post a better close up of the small insignia grouping in your first post that has the small emblems of the group/squadrons ,I'm curious as to what the one round one is top left of the grouping , thanks !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Johnny

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Schofield1943

It's a photograph of a wall that had the 305th BG plaque in the middle and all the squadron plaques surrounding it... when I get back home I will take a closer up photo of that photo and post it here.

 

Thanks for all the nice comments everyone!

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Schofield1943

Starting with the 305th BG in the middle and going clockwise... 365th BS, 364th BS, 422nd BS, 366th BS and the top left...413th Air Service Group.

 

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Johnny Signor

Thanks Schofield for the image close up , the 413th Air Service Group emblem was the one I was looking for there , again thanks !!!!!!

Johnny

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  • 9 months later...

An envelope appeared for me this week (now that our former controller is retired) and inside I found some new photos that she must have discovered... mostly of what appears to be of Sgt. Abrams entire crew:

 

post-157096-0-64064800-1473986076_thumb.jpg

 

post-157096-0-97915500-1473986134.jpg

 

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  • 3 years later...
On 9/15/2016 at 7:38 PM, Schofield1943 said:

...

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That is my granddaddy on the top left! Lt. Col Gerald W Wilburn. Do you have any more info on these photos?

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On 9/15/2016 at 7:38 PM, Schofield1943 said:

...

post-157096-0-37862400-1473986327_thumb.jpg

Also this photo of the fellas sitting at this table, my grandfather is the one standing up in the back! I have never been able to find photos of him except the ones we have already. 

post-157096-0-65550100-1473986330.jpg

 

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Schofield1943
9 minutes ago, Lobill2020 said:

That is my granddaddy on the top left! Lt. Col Gerald W Wilburn. Do you have any more info on these photos?

 

I wish I had more info but I don't - the photos were given to me by someone I used to work with who retired and moved back to France.  They had belonged to her late husband who is seen near the top of the thread.  

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On 9/15/2016 at 7:36 PM, Schofield1943 said:

An envelope appeared for me this week (now that our former controller is retired) and inside I found some new photos that she must have discovered... mostly of what appears to be of Sgt. Abrams entire crew:

 

post-157096-0-64064800-1473986076_thumb.jpg

Sorry for all the posts but I’m excited I ran across these! I believe the top right is my grandfather as well. Are these your photos or someone sent you them?

post-157096-0-97915500-1473986134.jpg

 

post-157096-0-90413400-1473986143.jpg

 

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35 minutes ago, Schofield1943 said:

 

I wish I had more info but I don't - the photos were given to me by someone I used to work with who retired and moved back to France.  They had belonged to her late husband who is seen near the top of the thread.  

So I’m assuming you have the originals?

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7 hours ago, Schofield1943 said:

 

I wish I had more info but I don't - the photos were given to me by someone I used to work with who retired and moved back to France.  They had belonged to her late husband who is seen near the top of the thread.  

Would it be too much to ask if I could have the original photos since it has my grandfather in it?

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On 7/20/2020 at 8:17 PM, Lobill2020 said:

Would it be too much to ask if I could have the original photos since it has my grandfather in it?

I think it would be more appropriate to kindly ask Schofield1943 if he wouldn’t mind making great copies that you’d be happy to pay for, to include shipping, or you could copy the jpegs yourself and print them. 
 

He was gifted these items after working with this French lady and coworker for a long time.

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42 minutes ago, Blacksmith said:

Sure does look like Wilburn.  Wow, what are the chances?  That is great.

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Yes sir I believe it is. I have that exact photo you posted-the original. My grandmother still has his medals as well. Amazing to find these photos of him. How did you know him?

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1 hour ago, decwriter said:

I think it would be more appropriate to kindly ask Schofield1943 if he wouldn’t mind making great copies that you’d be happy to pay for, to include shipping, or you could copy the jpegs yourself and print them. 
 

He was gifted these items after working with this French lady and coworker for a long time.

I do have them screenshot in my phone. I don’t think he wants to cause I haven’t gotten a reply. It would just be neat to give them to my grandmother since she has never seen these.

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ludwigh1980

Keep in mind, that these photographs have historical and monetary value as well as adding value to the other effects that original poster has shown. A lot of this stuff would have never been preserved let alone shared on an open forum like this if it was not the case. Old photo's with other people's relatives typically don't have a high likelihood of being preserved.  Photographs with positive identification and historical context such as these are worth at least a few hundred dollars if not more to the right collector and that is just the photographs. Again, keep this in mind when inquiring about the images in question. I myself would be  grateful if some-one took the time to post publicly a photograph that might have a relative of mine involved in a historical event.  

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