After enlisting in the Army Air Corps in March 1943 and earning his degree in Architecture from Catholic University he was accepted at Flight School. Flight training was completed at bases in Florida, Ohio and Arkansas. He received orders to pilot a B-17 across the Atlantic and report for combat duty in England. Before he left, he married his high school sweetheart, Margie Bingham, in Savannah, Georgia. His co-pilot Franklin Zerbe was best man. Bernie was part of the 388th Bomb Group/560th Bomb Squadron of the 8th Air Force that flew out of Knettishall, England. Ultimately he flew 35 combat missions, the last on Christmas Eve, 1944. Bernie received the Air Medal and 4 Oak Leaf Clusters (representative of 5 Air Medals) for various “tough” missions and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. After the War, Bernie returned to NJ where he bought a home in Red Bank and raised three children. By 1948 he became sole proprietor of his own Architectural practice and over time earned several distinctions including President of the NJ State Board of Architects and induction into the College of Fellows of The Architects Institute of America. Bernie is greatly admired and sorely missed by his children, children-in-law, and grandchildren.

Service

Events

Event	Location	Date
Born	Atlantic City, NJ, USA	23 July 1919
Enlisted	Nashville, Tennessee	5 March 1943
Nashville AC Facilities, TN
Based	Knettishall	July 1944 – 11 January 1945
Died	Shrewsbury, NJ, USA	24 February 2013
Buried	Mount Olivet Cemetery, Middletown, NJ, USA	1 March 2013
at Mount Olivert Cemetery, Middletown, New Jersey, following a funeral mass with military honours at St. James Catholic Church in Middletown.