 | MEET UNCLE BILL AND UNCLE JOE| Personal Gallery Discuss MEET UNCLE BILL AND UNCLE JOE in the OFF-Topic / Misc. forums; I sometimes talk about my uncles on other threads, both served in the Air Force. Uncle Joe joined the USAAF ... |
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08-31-2005, 06:32 PM
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#1 | | IP/Mech THE GREAT GAZOO
Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Colorado, USA
Posts: 13,013
Country:  | MEET UNCLE BILL AND UNCLE JOE
I sometimes talk about my uncles on other threads, both served in the Air Force. Uncle Joe joined the USAAF after Pearl Harbor and was initially training as a flight engineer. He was selected for flight training but washed out. Later he was asked to be a bombardier and was assigned to a B-24 squadron. Just before he was to go over seas his B-24 crashed killing all on board except him. He spent a year in a coma and slowly made a full recovery.
Uncle Bill (Uncle Joe's younger brother) also had a great interest in aviation but was too young to enter service in WW2. Frustrated, he forged my mother's birth certificate putting his name "William" in place of my mothers name "Lillian" and entered the Air Force at the ripe age of 16. He became a radio operator and flew in B-17s (after WW2) B-29s and B-50s. He saw service during the Korean War and was actually shot down in 1950. He survived the crash and went on to serve through out the Korean War and then participated in special ops after Korea. In the photo he is in front of a B-50 preparing to go on a "ferret" mission over western USSR sometime in 1954. Uncle Bill completed a 24 year career with the USAF and retired a Master Sergent. He went on to get his Doctorate in Theology and was a college professor before his death in 2003.
These two guys were my aviation inspiration when I was a kid. I've always been real proud of them.....
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08-31-2005, 07:03 PM
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#2 | | He who does not skim
Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Halifax, Nova Scotia
Posts: 8,957
Country:  | Outstanding. Quite a pair.  | |
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08-31-2005, 07:48 PM
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#3 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 12,057
Country:  | Great people, and great pictures.
__________________ "When you go home tomorrow, don't expect anyone to know what you have been through. Even if they did know, most people probably wouldn't care anyway. Some of you may get the medals you deserve, many more of you will not. But remember this, all of you are now members of the front-line club, and that is the most exclusive club in the world." - Lt. Col. Matthew Maer CO 1st Battalion, the Princess of Wale's Royal Regiment. Camp Abu Naji, Oct. 2004  To those in that club. | |
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08-31-2005, 08:19 PM
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#4 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Adelaide
Posts: 3,372
Country:  | Wow. great piece of familt history there.
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08-31-2005, 08:51 PM
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#5 | | IP/Mech THE GREAT GAZOO
Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Colorado, USA
Posts: 13,013
Country: | thanks guys!
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08-31-2005, 08:53 PM
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#6 | | He who does not skim
Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Halifax, Nova Scotia
Posts: 8,957
Country: | Come to think of it, your Uncle Joe looked a lot like a buddy of mine. Same little mustache and everything.  | |
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08-31-2005, 09:10 PM
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#7 | | IP/Mech THE GREAT GAZOO
Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Colorado, USA
Posts: 13,013
Country: | Quote: |
Originally Posted by Nonskimmer Come to think of it, your Uncle Joe looked a lot like a buddy of mine. Same little mustache and everything. | That's funny, my mom told me he was a real lady killer when he was young, he used to hang around with this young actor named Joe Levitch (not sure of the spelling). I guess they had the ladies lined up and were total party animals, 1940s style! Anyway his friend went on to bigger and better things when he changed his name to Tony Curtis!
Uncle Joe is still with us, about 83 right now. He was always a big practical joker and I think that's what got him washed out of flight training. His last CO was the legendary John "Killer" Kane, Ploesti survivor!
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08-31-2005, 09:11 PM
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#8 | | He who does not skim
Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Halifax, Nova Scotia
Posts: 8,957
Country: | Woah, hold up! Ya lost me at Tony Curtis! 
He palled around with him? | |
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08-31-2005, 10:08 PM
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#9 | | IP/Mech THE GREAT GAZOO
Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Colorado, USA
Posts: 13,013
Country: | Quote: |
Originally Posted by Nonskimmer Woah, hold up! Ya lost me at Tony Curtis!
He palled around with him? | that's what mom told me - and he dated Edie Gormet
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08-31-2005, 10:50 PM
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#10 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Adelaide
Posts: 3,372
Country: | Hanging out with movie star's, that's pretty cool!
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09-01-2005, 06:34 AM
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#11 | | IP/Mech THE GREAT GAZOO
Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Colorado, USA
Posts: 13,013
Country: | Yea - he (Uncle Joe) actually did some movie work when he moved to Los Angeles in the 1950s - mainly as an extra, but he did rub sholders with some well known folks, he was always pretty humble about the whole thing....
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09-01-2005, 07:54 AM
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#12 | | He who does not skim
Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Halifax, Nova Scotia
Posts: 8,957
Country: | Cool.  | |
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09-01-2005, 09:16 AM
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#13 | | "Shooter"
Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Moorpark, CA
Posts: 12,557
Country: | Neat piece of family history, Joe!
__________________  http://www.vg-photo.com Wherever their bones may lie, the courage of heroes is consecrated in the hearts and engraved in the history of the free. Lt Col Honner DSO MC, 39th Commander speaking of the dead from the battle of Kokoda. | 
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09-01-2005, 10:14 AM
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#14 | | Konfused with a 'K'
Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Turin, Italy
Posts: 20,412
Country:  | Must be great to have a family history like that! I know nothing about my relatives.
__________________  with my one last gaping breath id apologise for bleeding on your shirt... | |
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09-01-2005, 05:30 PM
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#15 | | IP/Mech THE GREAT GAZOO
Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Colorado, USA
Posts: 13,013
Country: | Uncle Bill's son (Bill jr.) just retired from the USAF as a LtCol.
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