The B-24D Liberator, 41-11817, named, Stinger, flew on Operation Tidal Wave, mission to the oil refineries at Ploesti, Romania, flown by it's pilot for the mission, Lt. Andrew Opsata, it's copilot, Lt. Louis R. Quaglino, with their Bombardier, Lt. Donald Di Coscoe, and their navigator, Lt. Howard J. LaLonde, who were all originally in Lt. Robert L. Right's crew in the B-24D, Old Blister Butt. They all returned safely from Ploesti, to Lete Airbase, Benghazi, Libya, with only one crew member on, Stinger, injured, Gunner John Gormey, who was struck and wounded by flak splinters but recovered. 1 WIA- RTD. 10 RTD. 1 Aug 1943.

All of those crewmen, Command Pilot Lt. Opsata, Copilot Lt. Donald Di Coscoe, Navigator Maj. Howard Lalonde, and Gunner Sgt. Gormey, had also previously flown with Lt. Opsata in the B-24D, Old Blister Butt. Like the men in the other two Bomb groups in the U.K. who were sent (TDY) to North Africa, Lt. Opsata and Maj. LaLonde had initially been stationed with the 8th Air Force's 389th Bombardment Group, at Hethel, England, in June of 1943. Shortly after arriving at Hethel, U.K., the 389th Bomb Group, the 44th Bomb Group, and the 376th Bomb Group, in the 8th Air Force, in the U.K. moved again, temporarily detached (TDY), to the 98th Bomb Group, at Benghazi, Libya, in preparation for Operation Tidal Wave.

After deploying to Libya, Lt. Opsata, Lt. Louis Quaglino, Donald Di Coscoe, Lt. Howard J. LaLonde, and some of the other aircrews, were temporarily assigned (TDY) to the 98th Bomb Group and the 9th Air Force at Benghazi, Libya.

Some of their family archive photos, as well as other photos, show that Lt. Opsata, Lt. Quaglina, and several of the other crewmen and officers of this crew, also had crewed with Lt. Bob Wright's regular crew, back in Britain on the B-24D, 42-40776, Old Blister Butt, and in Libya prior to Operation Tidal Wave. 1 Aug 43. The point is that many of the flight crews flew missions in various different airplanes at different times, based on a number of factors, such as, crew needs and availability, and the various airplanes' mechanical airworthiness at the time.