857th/856th BS

La Due Crew

Picture Wanted!

Names transcribed from Special Orders #236, Station 179, dtd 13Dec44

Os:
Richard R. La Due        - Pilot        ASN 0833138
Thomas     Zinkand       - Copilot      ASN 0832313
Kenneth V. Corson        - Navigator    ASN 02069953
Robert L.  DeVlieg       - Bombardier   ASN 0722473

EMs:
James L.   Benson        - Engineer     ASN 36677630
Stephen    Kudelko       - Gunner       ASN 42105607
John A.    Moran         - R.O.         ASN 33696653
Edward J.  Novak         - Gunner       ASN 12207020
William F. Smith         - Gunner       ASN 12227734
Francis    Welch         - Gunner       ASN 34702082

Hyperlinked ASNs for EMs display their enlistment records at the National Archives (NARA).

The crew arrived at Harrington from the 70th Replacement Depot on 13 December 1944. Training requirements and bad weather probably kept them from flying much as their first recorded flight was on the night of 20/21 February 1945. Only five combat missions are recorded in the Operations Log of Harrington for the crew. On 8 March 1945 the crew was transferred to the 856th BS and appear no more in available records. La Due shows up in Special Orders #66 dtd 24Mar45 when he was ordered TDY with the 25th Bomb Group at Watton for a "Mosquito Transition Course" not to exceed seven days in length. He accomplished one mission with a Mosquito on 2May45. In Special Orders Hq 1st AD, SO 185 dtd 04Jul45 Zinkand is replaced by Sherman D. Lamb ASN T-127114, and the crew is transferred to AF Y-80 on the continent, sans Novak,Smith and Welch.