My grandparents had six sons, five of whom were in the military during WWII; Uncle Anthony was the only one who did not come home.

  He was a Radio Gunner on a B-25 and his crew was part of the 11th Bomb Squadron attached to the 341st Bombardment Group.  They were in the Pacific and flew from a base located somewhere in China.  They were part of the CBI (China-Burma-India) operation.

  We never have had a lot of details about various missions, but I will try to recall what I can.  Please understand that I was born in 1936, so I was a young boy when all this was happening.

  I do remember that during their 25th or so mission, they took a lot of ground fire and Uncle Anthony was hit in the foot.  He wrote to the family from the hospital and apparently recovered from that injury without a great deal of difficulty. After returning to his crew (with his Purple Heart), they continued to go out on bombing missions.  Not too long after his first injury, Grandma and Grandpa received a message via Western Union that the crew was missing in action.  Months went by and a second Telegram arrived stating that the War Department had to presume the crew was lost.  Their final flight was from Kweilin, China on a low level combat mission to
Anjen, China.  They were reported lost near Lingling, China.

  I have located a few records and I am confidant that the crew Uncle Anthony flew with was as follows:
2nd Lt. John C. Halsell
2nd Lt. John M. Nagy
S/Sgt. Carroll B. Duncan
S/Sgt. Anthony J. DeFusco
Sgt. Joseph J. Kaldon

  After the war, my Grandparents had a phone call from one of Uncle Anthony's war buddies who asked if he could visit them.  At that time, I was probably about eight years old, but to this day I can picture that young man walking through the door and sitting at the kitchen table with Grandma and Papa.  You know it's not a good day when your Papa has tears in his eyes.  The young man explained that he had gone through radio and armament school with Uncle Anthony and they were close friends.  Then he told us they were returning from a low level combat  mission when they ran into bad weather.  He was in another B-25 in the formation they were flying with.  The aircraft commanders decided it would be wise to put some distance between them in such bad weather, he waved to Uncle Anthony, the aircraft turned away from each other and that was the last they saw of them.  For this young man to come to see my Grandparents, look them in the eyes, and tell the story must have taken as much courage as preparing for a mission (perhaps even more).  I wish I knew who this man was so I could shake his hand and hope some of his style would rub off!

  During 1998, I did some research on the Web to learn more about the 11th Bomb Squadron.  I found out that although de-activated after WWII, the squadron was later put back together and is now flying B-52s out of Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana.  During 1998, the squadron commander was kind enough to send me a decal of the current squadron patch, the same as the one shown on Uncle Anthony's jacket.  Imagine-- they started with B-25s and now fly B-52s.

  I would love to hear from anyone connected with the 11th Bomb Squadron.

Tony Caruso

Tony Caruso was a SSGT in the Air Force and Air National Guard (peacetime service) and is a member of the
146th Air Transport Wing Alumni Association.  He lives in Washington State and in recent years has served as the
Seattle Organizer for the Collings Foundation B-17 and B-24 "Living History Event" tours.   For more details
regarding the Collings Foundation and how you can fly on a WWII bomber please see the following Web site
www.collingsfoundation.org

You may also contact Tony Caruso t-caruso@msn.com
                           or Randy Duncan RADIO ROOM (e-mail)