Simeon Oxendine
Military
UPL 78489
UPL 78489
Lead crew on bombing mission to Ludwigshafen, Germany, beside B-17 'Satan's Workshop!', England, 30 December 1943.Standing left to right: Lieutenant Hershell R De Wall (pilot), Captain Reinaldo Jose Saiz (bombardier), Lieutenant Darius Raymond Davis (navigator), Major Walter K Shayler (copilot) and Lieutenant Willard H. Bergeron (pilot).
Kneeling left to right: Staff Sergeant George W Wilson (waist gunner), Tech Sergeant LeRoy Cline (radio operator), Staff Sergeant Vernon R Appleton (tail gunner), Staff Sergeant Norman A Hemmings (ball turret gunner), Tech Sergeant Alphonse B Serwa (flight engineer) and Staff Sergeant Simeon Oxendine (waist gunner).
Cropped from image media-29668.jpeg (media id 30276)
US Official photograph shared across from Fold3: https://www.fold3.com/image/161242199
Object Number - UPL 78489 - Lead crew on bombing mission to Ludwigshafen, Germany, beside B-17 'Satan's Workshop!', England, 30 December 1943. Standing left to right:...
Simeon Oxendine served as a gunner with the 360th Bomb Squadron of the 303rd Bomb Group, flying missions out of Molesworth, England.
On 26 Sept 1943 he was in B-17 #42-5434 'Lady Luck' when it returned from a mission and caught fire on the runway. He survived without serious injury.
Oxendine survived the war and returned home to North Carolina. He married Dolores Revels on 12 February 1947 in Pembroke, NC.
On 18 January 1958, a Klu Klux Klan (KKK) rally took place in Robeson County, NC, to intimidate Lumbee Indians who lived in the area. Lumbees prevented the rally taking place - they gathered and broke up the rally. Simeon Oxendine was photographed afterwards with a captured KKK flag wrapped around his shoulders. The photo was published in LIFE Magazine, 27 Jan 1958: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=5VUEAAAAMBAJ&pg=26&redir_esc=y#v=on…
Oxendine later said of the event, "We killed the Klan once and for all. We did the right thing for all people."
Connections
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Units served with
- Unit Hierarchy: Group
- Air Force: Eighth Air Force
- Type Category: Bombardment
- Unit Hierarchy: Squadron
- Air Force: Eighth Air Force
- Type Category: Bombardment
People
- Military/Civilian/Mascot: Military
- Nationality: American
- Unit: 303rd Bomb Group 358th Bomb Squadron
- Service Numbers: O677427
- Role/Job: Pilot
Aircraft
- Aircraft Type: B-17 Flying Fortress
- Nicknames: Bob's Boudoir / Lady Luck
- Unit: 303rd Bomb Group 360th Bomb Squadron
Places
- Site type: Airfield
Events
| Event | Location | Date | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Born |
Pembroke, North Carolina | 3 October 1919 | |
|
Died |
26 December 1988 | ||
|
Buried/ Commemorated |
Berea Baptist Church, Pembroke, North Carolina |
Revisions
Oxendine is quoted in 'The Lumbee Problem: The Making of an American Indian People' by Karen L Blu:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=lLbAgZBy3_8C&pg=PA89&lpg=PA89&dq=Si…
Drawn from the records of the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, Savannah, Georgia / brother, Jesse E. Oxending, Losses of the 8th & 9th AFs Vol I by Bishop & Hey p. 291,
href="http://303rdbg.com/rost-nopq.html#N">http://303rdbg.com/rost-nopq.html#N>
