Mike Papadakis

Military

Flew 33 Missions. Some of them on 'Hot Chocolate'and 'Hit Parade'. He was part of Ben Taylor's Crew.

During a bombing mission over Germany, one of the top bombs gets loose from one of its mounts in the bomb bay. Because of the risk of an untimely explosion, they had to separate from the group of B-17s they were with. Pilot Taylor calls on George Burghand (my Dad says 'all 5 foot 3 of him') to straddle the bomb bay and manually release two lower bombs and then the hanging top one. Success!!!.



Once they spotted a downed B-17 and crew while flying over Greenland and called in the location. Later, they saw of the crew's rescue in 'Life' magazine. Pilot Taylor grabbed the magazine from the guys and said 'gimme that, that's mine!.



Navigator Dean Esworthy saved the day many times including finding an airfield with little time to spare with a low fuel situation. And also on other missions when heavy German flak had the group lost, Col. Jumper radios from the lead plane 'does anybody know where the hell we are?' and Dean did, leading the way home for the whole group. Jumper later replied 'at least there's one navigator who knows where'.



Air Medal w 3/Oak Leaf Cluster

Connections

See how this entry relates to other items in the archive by exploring the connections below.

Units served with

The insignia of the 385th Bomb Group.
  • Unit Hierarchy: Group
  • Air Force: Eighth Air Force
  • Type Category: Bombardment

Aircraft

  • Aircraft Type: B-17 Flying Fortress
  • Nicknames: Hot Chocolate
  • Unit: 385th Bomb Group 549th Bomb Squadron

Events

Event Location Date Description

Born

Warren, Ohio 22 September 1925

Revisions

Date
ContributorAAM
Changes
Sources

Drawn from the records of the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, Savannah, Georgia / son, Gus