Letter to the Editor of the 2nd Air Division Association:



To the Editor:

I have to get this off my chest before I pass on. I was a member of Lt. Clesen Tenney’s crew. He came from Del Rio, Texas. We took our overseas training at Westover Army Air Base in the state of Massachusetts. Little did I know that crew 238 was to become an ill-fated crew.



Lt. Tenney was to be piloting one of three B-24s heading to Greencastle, Ireland. George Moss, our engineer, woke me and said would you care to go to Ireland that October 18th, 1944. I said sure. I turned over on my side and finally got up about 9 o’clock. Had I boarded that aircraft, I would have been killed. Fifty percent of Tenney’s crew was killed. The rest of us were used as needed to fill out other crews. The bombardier, Lt Keil Holland, lost his life on a mission, as did George McGuiness, the waist gunner.



I flew a mission with Lt. Clifton Howard on February 24th, 1945. Upon taking off with 20 one hundred pound (napalm) bombs, the aircraft was having a problem with its #1 engine. The pilot feathered the engine. Then #3 engine started to make too many revolutions per minute. This made the plane harder to fly. Lt. Howard decided to fly the aircraft back to the base. He made four banks into the feathered #1 engine. On the last bank, I saw the runway. The control tower instructed Lt. Howard not to land because of the napalm the plane was carrying. We crashed. Lt. Howard lost his life. The navigator, bombardier, nose gunner and engineer also died. Five survived. The co-pilot, Lt. G. Stevens, didn’t remember any part of the crash. He died four years ago. The radio operator and three gunners received burns and injuries, as did Lt. Stevens.



Of those who died in the plane accident at Landican, England on October 18th, 1944, flight officer Roy Sechler is the only one of Lt. Tenney’s crew resting at Madingley Cemetery.



Those who died on February 24th, 1945, of Lt. Clifton Howard’s crew in the crash outside the base, were crew chief Henry Holloway and nose gunner Herman Barnes.



Divine Providence has a wonderful way of working, for HE brought me home.



There are three of us left out of Lt. Tenney’s crew:

William Langevort, John Readington and myself.



I wish someone could find John Readington for me.



Stephen J. Bolcar (445th)

Boonton, NJ