Two
fine additions to the site as I'm sure you'll agree
and thanks to Bob, George, and Sam for making them available.
Reunion
photos are expecially welcome, and if you have attended
a reunion in the past and have any photographs you would
like to share then please CONTACT
US.
There have been a number of veteran's families making
contact recently. Some of them initially posted in the
guestbook and others contacted the site directly, and
it's given me great pleasure to be able to supply these
families with details of their relatives' service and
photographs. The vast majority of these photos have
never been seen by the families and its wonderfull to
be able to contribute to their understanding of that
time in our history. In one particular case, the families
of three pilots who were best friends while serving
with the 56th are in contact now for the first time,
and that friendship continues through the generations.
Sadly, news has reached us recently of the passing of
Stuart Getz 61st FS, ( who adopted the name Haynesworth
post war), and Bill Billings of the 62nd FS. Bill was
a great friend of the Halesworth Museum and with his
help the 56th FG Memorial there became a reality, and
he will be sadly missed.
On a brighter note, Boleslaw "Mike" Gladych
celebrated his 101st birthday on May 17th in fine style
and is looking younger with every passing year. Many
congratulations go to Mike from everybody associated
with the 56th.
The Halesworth Airfield Memorial Museum has been donated
extra display space recently, and this is being prepared
over the summer. During the winter the displays will
be reorganised and when the museum reopens in Spring
2012 it will be joined by the 489th Bombardment Group
collection bringing all the groups that served at Station
365 Halesworth together in one museum for the first
time. Exciting times for all concerned and in these
uncertain economic times the news of a museum expanding
is particularly welcome.
The museum at Boxted has also opened and is now open
the public on the last Sunday of each month. While any
group that establishes a museum is to be congratulated
and encouraged for playing its part in ensuring that
the memory of those who served continues, it is unfortunate
that the Boxted museum displays related to the 56th
Fighter Group suffer from poor grammar and bad research
and it is to be hoped that this is corrected in the
near future. One display actually states that the 56th
didn't fly combat missions while based at Horsham (???),
while the memorial contains many errors and ommissions
which should be addressed as soon as possible.
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