INT Had mechanical failure and landed in Switzerland on 7/12/44 in B-17 'Gloria' #42102457

My father enlisted because he didn't want to be drafted. He had worked at a newspaper and liked to paint and draw cartoons. While a Swiss internee, he learned German, was involved in a Methodist church, painted, and ice skated a lot. He later used the GI bill to obtain 2 college degrees in education from Florida Southern College and Stetson University. He had a career as an elementary school teacher and principal in central Florida. After retirement, he had a vegetable garden, researched his family tree (whose Wingfields actually originated in Suffolk, England--where he flew from), and joined the Swiss internees association. He was a Sunday School superintendent in the Methodist Church in Tavares, Florida for 36 years. If not for WWII, he would not have met my mother while on R&R in Miami for just two weeks. His last station was in Texas (San Antonio, I believe) and while there, wrote to propose marriage--she also accepted by letter. They were married during a hurricane on September 15, 1945 in Miami.