My friend, hkytown1, and I attended a symposium put on by the Oakland Aviation Museum in Alameda, Ca last night. It was a panel of 4 WWII Aces, Alex Vraciu 19 kills F6F Hellcat, Ted Crosby 5.25 kills F6F Hellcat, Archie Maltbie 2 kills P-47 Thunderbolt (7 others not credited because film canister was damaged and they would not accept testimony from wingmen), and Dean Caswell 7 kills F4U Corsair. It was a truly amazing experience to hear these guys and their stories. Each day another WWII member dies and with him so does history. If you can make it to one of these try to do so. It is an experience I will never forget.
The 379th Bomber group is having its reunion in San Diego from August 22-26 2012 and I am going to try to attend since I am writing a book about a B-17 crew during WWII.