Scott Nelson

10/7/2016: As Leon Frankel sat, strapped into a German fighter plane, he thought “What’s a nice Jewish boy from Minot, North Dakota doing here?”

8/17/2016: Gale “Buck” Cleven was born on a homestead near Lemmon, South Dakota, along the Grand River. From there, Buck and his family moved to Wyoming. After Cleven finished High School and several years at the University of Wyoming, he decided to join the Army Air Force and was a bomber pilot when the US entered the war in 1941.

7/11/2016: Reuben “Chip “Unruh was born in 1925 in Golden Valley, North Dakota, and graduated from high school in the town of Zap. In 1943, Chip joined the Navy and went into aviation. He ended up getting his wings as a radio man and top turret gunner on a B-24. The B-24 is well known as one of the high altitude bombers that helped win the war in Europe, but the lesser-known Navy B-24s flew low altitude search and destroy missions against Japanese shipping in the Pacific. They were known as patrol bombers. Chip was assigned to a Navy Patrol Squadron on Iwo Jima. Chip and his crew flew missions against ships off the coast of Japan.

5/25/2016: Stewart Bass was born on this date in 1921 in Stevensville, Montana. He joined the Navy in 1941 and ended up flying the Grumman Avenger. Although the Avenger was designated a torpedo bomber, most of the time it carried conventional bombs.

5/12/2016: On this date 71 years ago, Air Force B-17 bombers landed at Barth, Germany to evacuate English and American prisoners of war. One of these prisoners was Pershing Carlson from Minot.

7/22/2015: James Vranna was born on April 4th 1921. He graduated from High School in Taylor, North Dakota and attended collage for 2 years. Jim joined the Army Air Force in 1942, trained as a pilot and ended up getting his wings as a 2nd Lieutenant, flying the B-17 Flying Fortress.

Rose Schneider was born in Nuremburg, Germany, on this date in 1929, and grew up during the chaotic times of World War II. After the war, young Rose served as a court reporter during the Nuremburg trials. She also went to school, training as a nurse. Rose met and fell in love with a young American Army Sergeant serving in Germany, LaMarr Myers.

Alois (Al) Kopp was born at Raleigh, North Dakota, on this date in 1918. During the 1930s, jobs were hard to come by so in 1937, Al joined the Navy, becoming a Pharmacists Mate on the heavy cruiser, USS Houston.

On this date in 2005, the first of the four Flying Fallgatters, Robert, passed away. The Fallgatter boys grew up in Kintyre, North Dakota, where their father owned the General Merchandise Fallgatter Store.

Harry Herbert Crosby was born on this date in 1919 to Guy and Eva Crosby in New England, North Dakota. He later moved with his family to Oskaloosa, Iowa, where during high school, Harry played clarinet and formed an amateur dance band called “Harry Crosby and his Maroon Melodies.”