Gentlemen, That is some awesome information. Thank you!!! I have my father's log book and will check out the mission shown.
Sorry for the confusion, I knew Norm's name, but he is the son. I do not know the father's name - one of the gentlemen in the picture in my original post.
Ah, so not born in HK. Maybe it's my old memory that has it wrong - wouldn't surprise me.
I can add that Norm was a big guy and was originally trained on B-17s. But turned out he could not handle the higher altitudes so they moved him to medium bombers that flew at lower altitudes.
I also see in Norm's obituary that Barbi Connolly has also mentioned Dan Bowling. I bring this up because the plane "02", Pistol Packing Mama was Dan's plane. Unlike the RAF, in the USAAF you flew each mission with a different crew mix as crews were not established teams. You also flew different planes, When my father became a Group leader he was given Peggy Lou as "his" plane, but others flew her too. I have a good bit of info on the men and planes and some years back had wanted to write a book about Peggy Lou and the men who flew her, but I was never able to get enough material from the men.
Peggy Lou survived the war taking two hits from flak, both repaired over night and she flew again the next day. In the 50's two pilots were getting in their monthly flight time at Wright-Patt AFB when a storm came in. Instead of switching from VFR to IFR they ended up flying her into the ground. Fortunately it did not catch fire but broke in lots of pieces. The rear fuselage area remained pretty much intact and you could see the planes number to know it was her. Both pilots were killed. I have a copy of the crash report and phots of the crash.
Terry
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