398th Web Page Volunteers

The 398th web pages were officially launched on January 1, 2003. To date there are over 2000 pages of content. This content includes transcriptions of original diaries, formation charts, old photos, articles, and data charts. To get our information into a web usable form, we have relied on a small army of dedicated volunteers to prepare the rich content that we have. It is thus only fitting that we acknowledge their time and effort in making our web pages an exemplary site for learning and preserving the history of the 398th.

Dave Jordan
Updated October 29, 2009

Lee Anne Bradley
Updated December 30, 2022

 

As follows is an alphabetical listing of those that have made significant contributions to our 398th Web Pages.

  1. Wally Blackwell: Wally was a 398th veteran and a former 601st pilot. Wally had taken a special interest in the 398th web pages and has both guided its development and has also been an author and transcriber of information. Key writings include his B-17 Identification article, along with a number of FAQs. In addition, Wally has also transcribed The S/Sgt. John Veenschoten Diary. Wally was our 2nd 398th President. He passed away in January 2009.
  2. Ray Borys: Ray was a 398th veteran. We thank Ray for his dedicated work in transcribing the T/Sgt. Armand Fugge Diary and the S/Sgt. Chilton H. Jorgenson Diary. Ray passed away in August 2007.
  3. Lee Anne Bradley: Lee is the daughter of T/Sgt. Frederick C. Bradley, Engineer/Top Turret Gunner from the Howard F. Traeder Crew. Lee has made available four key tables which she maintains. These are: 1) the Original Crew Listing, 2) the KIA listings, 3) the POW listing, and 4) the MACR listing. She has also transcribed the Lt. William Howard Baker Diary and part of the Lt. Harvey B. Kramer Diary and also the Howard Traeder Timeless Voices Interview. Lee also handles many of the inquiries from relatives seeking information about 398th veterans. Lee is also our 398th Group Historian, Photo Historian, Flak News Editor and Webmaster.
  4. Tom Brantley: Tom Brantley has been a long time Air Force friend of Tom Guice, 603rd pilot. One day in the summer of 2008, Tom Brantley took an interest in our need to transcribe our 398th Formation Charts. Ann Collins and myself had done a few and we knew they were hard work, especially since they are very hard to read from the original source. Tom asked if he could do the 398th Over Target Formation Charts for the dates his friend Tom Guice had flown. And that is how it all got started. Almost daily for the 6 months, Tom sent me a new formation chart that he had both transcribed and researched, including various sources changes from the Planned Formation Chart. As a result, including some done by Ann, Tom Brass and myself, we now have on the 398th website reconstructed Over Target Formation Charts for all 195 398th Combat Missions, all as downloadable pdfs.
  5. Ted Brass: Ted is the son of 398th veteran Ernest Brass Jr., 601st Squadron. His dad was a navigator on the Joe Wierney crew. Ted has created a spreadsheet of who flew on each mission for 42 of 195 of our missions. We wish to thank Ted for volunteering for this very important activity. While doing that he decided that it would also be useful to fill in the gaps on some of our Flight Logs and Formation Charts since he was looking at some of the same data.
  6. David L. Clark: David is the son of Benjamin Clark, a 398th pilot shot down over northern France, about 30 km south of Dieppe, on August 13, 1944. We would like to thank David for his careful effort in transcribing one of our longer diaries, the Captain Alan A. Arlin Diary.
  7. Ann Collins: Ann is the daughter of Phillip Collins, Ball Turret Gunner from the 601st Saul Marias Crew. We wish to thank Ann for her effort in transcribing the Lt. Robert J. Beckley Diary and the Lt. Robert E. Weidig Diary. We also wish to thank Ann for her continuing effort to transcribe the Mission Narratives, Bombardier Reports, and Formation Charts for August 8, 15, 16, 24, and 26, with September 5 in progress. This is an extremely tedious job, which she does with great care.
  8. Marty Dee: Marty is the brother of Lt. Robert H. Dee, Jr.. co-pilot from the Byron L. Magness 601st Crew. Marty independently transcribed his brother's diary and put it on a family web page in 2003. With his help, that effort is now part of the 398th pages and will be preserved with other 398th archives.
  9. Ruthanna Doerstler: Ruthanna was the widow of veteran Wayne Doerstler, 602nd Engineer. Ruthanna has transcribed a number of items for the website, including the Lt. E. Dalton Ebbeson Diary, part of the Lt. Harvey B. Kramer Diary, the S/Sgt. Frank M. Mackey Diary, and the T/Sgt. Ralph F. Will Diary, a number of Flak News articles, and the 398th's 1944 Christmas menu. We appreciate very much Ruthanna's interest and all her efforts. Ruthanna passed away in 2006.
  10. Dawne Dougherty: Dawne was the widow of veteran Tom Dougherty, 602nd Gunner. Dawne has transcribed a number of items for the web site, including the T/Sgt. Orville Ben Core Diary, the Alan Arlin DFC citation, and the Observer article describing the 398th Memorial at Nuthampstead History. We appreciate very much, Dawne's efforts in helping us preserve 398th history. Dawne passed away in April 2019.
  11. Eddie Ebbert: Eddie is a history teacher who has used the 398th site, in particular our diaries and Timeless Voices Interviews to help make WWII real to his students. Eddie has contributed much to our effort including diary transcriptions for T/Sgt. Oliver W. Bradford and T/Sgt. Derald R. Lyman and Timeless Voices transcriptions for Lew Burke, and Marvin Coffee.
  12. Jim Froelich: Jim is the son of Sgt. James S. Froelich of the Al Petska crew. We appreciate Jim's efforts in transcribing the T/Sgt. George W. Forsyth Diary.
  13. James Lafayette Holloway: James was the tail gunner on James Womeldurf's 601st Squadron crew. He kept a diary during the war. We wish to thank him for transcribing it for the 398th web pages. James passed away in January 2013.
  14. Amy Goll: Amy is the daughter of Frank Henning, 600th Squadron of the R.L. Rohrer crew. Amy has been very active with our Timeless Voices program and has transcribed for us a large number of 398th Veteran Interviews. These include interviews for: Wally Blackwell, Donald Dunn, George Graham, Ed Jones, Joe Joseph, Art Laughlin, Hamilton Mero, Robert Rowland, Ray Talbott, and part of Harry Overbaugh's. We appreciate Amy's significant effort in transcribing ten Timeless Voices Interviews, any one of which is a large effort.
  15. Beez Jordan: Beez is the wife of Dave Jordan. She has taken an interest in photographing various events, especially the Reunions and the 2004 Tours. These are on our 398th site. In addition, to help our PX sales, she photographed most of the items for sale. These items can now be viewed on our 398th PX page. We thank Beez for taking such an interest in the 398th.
  16. Dave Jordan: Dave was our original 398th webmaster. He organized and put thousands of pages into some kind of a logical order, along with proofing and editing. Dave is the son of 398th, 603rd pilot, Edward C. Jordan.
  17. Elaine Stahlman Jurs: Elaine is the daughter of Phil Stahlman, pilot, 601st. Elaine has been quite interested in our Timeless Voices program and has volunteered to transcribe a number of interviews, including follow-up with the men. Elaine first transcribed her dad's, Phil Stahlman's interview. She followed that with Dick Frazier's and Al Turney's, and is now working on Pep Petrocine's.
  18. Samantha Krause: Samantha Krause is the great-granddaughter of Paul Roderick, 602nd Squadron. Young Samantha decided to spend part of her 2008 summer vacation learning more about her g-grandfather, Paul Roderick while also making a contribution to the 398th web pages. She did a very fine job transcribing Paul Roderick's Timeless Voice Interview.
  19. Eric Linfors: Eric is the son-in-law of Clyde H. Welker, a 2nd Lt. in the 600th. He was the co-pilot for Howard Riley for 33 missions. His last 2 missions were with the Matthew's crew. Eric volunteered to transcribe all his father-in-law's formation charts (mid-September 1944 to Feb. 1945). This is a major contribution to our web site.
  20. Joe K. Mansell: Joe was a 398th veteran. We appreciate Joe's efforts in transcribing the S/Sgt. Kenneth A. Green Diary and the Lt. Mark J. Woods, Jr. Diary from a typed version by Carolyn Woods. Joe passed away in May 2015.
  21. Kevin Marsh: Kevin is the son of Walter Marsh, the 603rd Cullinan crew's bombardier. Kevin re-typed the S/Sgt. Ellsworth Wright Diary into electronic format. He also has been instrumental in classifying and identifying early 1944 Rapid City 603rd Crew Photos.
  22. Gordon Mellis: Gordon Mellis is the son of Charles J. Mellis, Jr, 603rd Co-Pilot. In early 2007 Gordon transcribed the original Charles J. Mellis, Jr. Diary to electronic text for the 398th Web Page.
  23. Malcolm 'Ozzie' Osborn: Ozzie was a very special 398th contributor. In fact it was Ozzie and Vic Jenkins who began the 398th research in the lands around the old Nuthampstead airbase in the mid-1970s. Along the way he collected photos, researched and wrote articles, designed our Nuthampstead monument and was the driving force behind it all. When the 398th Web Pages came along in 2003, Ozzie began providing copies of his research, stories and photos. They continue to come and we now have a special Articles by Malcolm ‘Ozzie’ Osborn page that lists all his early and recent articles. Thanks Ozzie for making it happen.
  24. Don Parks: Don is a nephew of John Bornstedt, a former 601st pilot. We appreciate Don's efforts in transcribing the T/Sgt. Elliot Novek Diary and the Lt. Paul W. Smith Diary. Don has also begun work on a table to clarify the location of the 398th Targets.
  25. Geoff Rice: Geoff, a UK Friend of the 398th and volunteer par excellence had many 398th interests over the years. Many of you knew him as the happy person who brought cases of crew and aircraft photo books "from across the pond" to every annual reunion. His special interest in crew and aircraft photograph has carried over to the web pages and he was our former web page Photo Historian, in particular for crew and aircraft photos. We wish to thank Geoff for all his efforts.
  26. Ron Tracey: Ron is the son of Claude W. Tracey, 601st Engineer. Ron transcribed the original Claude W. Tracey Diary to electronic text for the 398th Web Page.
  27. Jeff Vicha: Jeff is the grandson of 603rd Ray Vicha, gunner for both the Bob Hopkins and Jack Lee crews. Jeff has taken responsibility for researching and creating tables of 398th Awards. These include lists of Silver Stars, DFCs, Bronze Stars, and Purple Hearts. He also has transcribed the Lt. William J. Ferrante Diary and has written several articles on the history of Squadron Patches.