So, even within the B-17 bomber crew, there was a most dangerous role. It was against this backdrop that on May 19, 1944, ...

John “Jack” Keith Lundberg was a 25-year-old second lieutenant from Utah aboard the B-17 bomber "Spare Charlie" when it went down near Épagne-Épagnette, France, on June 22, 1944.

Leonard Dowling of DeLand was a ball turret gunner on the doomed bomber aircraft. It was September 1944, and he was 19. The bomber was shot down over Karlsruhe, Germany.

Leonard Dowling, a turret gunner on a B24 bomber shot down over Germany in 1944, and liberated in a 700-mile march, celebrated 100 on June 21.