Shot down 7 May 1944 in B-17 #4238161. Evaded.

Jim bailed out over German occupied Holland on his 14th mission. He and his 3 fellow crew members were approached by a 16 year-old boy who took them to a farmhouse where they were fed and hidden for three nights before being passed on - driven by a local policeman- and sheltered next to a church for three months. They were given identity papers and moved on by train to the next location, a camp deep in the forest where about 90 others were housed in cabins. Food was scarce, just one meal daily, and a few weeks later they were moved on to a farm where they helped out and lived in the barn. In March 1945 - along with other escapees - they managed to cross the Rhine and join up with Allied forces. He later wrote a book of his experiences. He went back to the Netherlands several times for reunions and actually encountered the first boy who had helped him and who landed up working on a farm in Idaho.



Purple Heart, Air Medal w/Oak Leaf Cluster