Personnel

CREW



2ND LT LONNIE A. DOYLE, JR               P FEH

2ND LT ROBERT Y. BOLTON               CP FEH

2ND LT WILLIAM L. STOELZEL          NAV FEH

2ND LT THOMAS J. WILLIAMS          BOM FEH

T/SGT ARTHUR C. CHAMPION           ROG FEH

T/SGT BIRTON N. BOSSEMEYER       TTE FEH

S/SGT DONALD L. JACOBSON            WG FEH (Became Toggelier on the Crew)

S/SGT HAROLD H. LEWIS                   BTG FEH

S/SGT JOHN P. PODANY                      TG FEH



418TH SQUADRON.  JOINED 100TH BOMB GROUP ON 8 JAN 45   Crew flew " YO YO BUDDY"



Crew flew 29 missions. Lt Thomas J. Wllliams flew 9 missions with the Crew and was replaced by S/Sgt Donald Jacobson Toggelier.  Crew flew with fill in WG for the rest of the tour. S/Sgt Calvin F. Reed from Lt Appleton Crew was one  



Missons of Lt Williams with Lt Doyle Crew:



1           6   FEB  1945              CHEMENTZ

2.          9   FEB  1945              WEIMAR, ARM WORKS (S.T.)

3.         28  FEB  1945              KASSEL

4.          2  MAR 1945              DRESDEN

5.          7  MAR 1945              SIEGEN, MY (S.T.)

6.         11 MAR 1945              HAMBURG

7.         12 MAR 1945              SWINEMUNDE, DOCKS  

8.         14 MAR 1945              HANOVER       

9.         15 MAR 1945              RUHLAND & PLAUEN (THINK EITHER TARGET OR DATE IS LISTED WRONG IN MISSION LOG) 



Wendy Terrell Michael Faley, what we know from our dad is that he was on the Doyle crew, then chosen for further training for a lead position. The training was in the U.K. He was on the Griffin crew after the training. Well done! 



CHOWHOUNDS MISSIONS of Lt Thomas J. Willimas



             2 MAY 1945               SCHIPHOL AF    A/C 916 LN-R PFF

             5 MAY 1945               HILVERSUM,     A/C 794 LD-B  PFF   Lt Griffith Crew.

             6 MAY 1945               ALKMAAR, AF   A/C 532 XR-G          Little Sweetheart/Kleen Sweep

             7 MAY 1945               SHIPHOL AF     A/C  794 LD-B  PFF   Lt Griffith Crew     



DP/POW FERRY MISSION



             3 JUN 1945                DP/POW FERRY MISSION, LINZ, AUSTRIA 



Mike,

 

Here's the missions I have for the Lonnie Doyle crew.all flown on YO YO BUDDY except for late ferry missions

I noticed the aircraft database doesn't have the sqdn and call sign for 44-8782 it was LD-H replacing 166 H off hardstand # 45..... transferred from the 95th BG/412BS  (QW-R) to the 100th 20 May,1945…Jack O'Leary



 #               DATE                   TARGET                                      POSITION IN FORMATION

#270    2   MARCH,1945  RUHLAND & DRESDEN, FACTORY AREA     A-SQDN, Low Flight,L/W  

#278   12  MARCH,1945  SWINEMUNDE, DOCKS                            A-SQDN, High Flight, R/W

#279   14 MARCH,1945   SEELZE "A & C GROUP"                           C-SQDN, High Flight,R/W

#287   24 MARCH,1945   ZIEGENHAIN, AIRFIELD                           C-SQDN,Element 2, L/W

#289   28 MARCH,1945   HANOVER, TANK FACTORY                     B-SQDN,Element 3, L/W

#290   30 MARCH,1945   HAMBURG, SHIP YARDS                          A-SQDN,Element 3,L/W

#291   31 MARCH,1945   ZEITZ, OIL REFINERY(100TH B, C & D)     C-SQDN,Element 2, R/W

#293   4   APRIL,1945    KIEL, SUB YARDS                                   B-SQDN,Lead Element,L/W 

#297   8   APRIL,1945    EGER, MY (CZECH)                                 B-SQDN,Lead Element,R/W

#298   9   APRIL,1945    MUNICH/REIM, AF                                   A-SQDN,Element 2,R/W

#299  10  APRIL,1945    BURG-bei-MAGDEBURG, AF                       C-SQDN,Element 2, R/W

#300  11  APRIL,1945    LANDSHUT,ORD DEPOT;INGOLSTADT, MY D-SQDN, Element 2,L/W

#302  15  APRIL,1945    ROYAN, GROUND DEFENSES                    A-SQDN,Element 2,R/W

 

CHOWHOUND  MISSIONS

 

         2 MAY,1945          SCHIPHOL AF- HOLLAND   A/C 166 H       A-SQDN,Element 2

         5 MAY,1945          ALKMAAR, AF, HILVERSUM, BAARN,         D-SQDN,Element 2, L/W

 

FERRY  MISSIONS

 

        3 JUNE,1945       C-SQDN,Element 3 Lead      44-8782   LD-H   HS # 45

        4 JUNE,1945       B-SQDN, Element 2 Lead     44-8782   LD-H   HS # 45

      22 JUNE,1945       BANJO MISSION                 44-8876   LD-F   HS # 48  







Mr. Robert Young Bolton, age 78, of Longmont, Colo., passed away Monday, September 28, 1998 at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Denver, Colo. Mr. Bolton was born January 7, 1920 in Cedartown. He served for 27 years in the U.S. Air Force. He attended the University of Michigan, then the University of Arizona. He was a member of Alpha Kappa Psi and Sigma Nu. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1942, soon after Pearl Harbor, and served until 1946, flying many types of aircraft. Bolton flew 29 combat missions from England in the B-17G with the 100th Bomb Group, Third Division, Eighth Air Force. He received numerous medals and commendations, among which was the Air Medal with three oak-leaf clusters. Following World War II, he returned to the University of Arizona and graduated with a bachelor of science in business administration. After graduation, he received his regular commission in the Army Air Corps in November 1947 and flew a C-54 cargo plane to Germany. Mr. Bolton flew 225 sorties in one year in the Berlin Airlift delivering food and coal amidst ground fire to Templehof Airdrome in Berlin. He received three more oakleaf clusters to his Air Medal, as well as several more medals. He returned to the U.S. in 1949 and entered the Strategic Air Command, flying the B-36 heavy bomber with the 11th Bomb Wing. He then transferred to Eglin Air Force base in Florida where he began flying the B-52G Stratofortress jet bomber. Mr. Bolton retired as a command pilot with the rank of lieutenant colonel in August 1969, after 8, 240 hours flying time, 5,500 of those for the Strategic Air Command. He moved to Longmont after retirement from the Air Force. The next 21 years were spent in the business community as a sales representative. The last nine years of employment were with Selby Auto Glass and Windshields America. He was preceded in death by his parents, Adene Young Bolton and Charles Warren Bolton; and a brother Charles W. Bolton, Jr. Survivors include his wife Zetta of Longmont; three daughters, Doris E. Bolton of Mission Viejo, Calif., Joyce E. Bolton of Long Beach, Calif., and Susan Luther of Ashford, Wash.; a brother, Rowland Parks Bolton of Bainbridge; and several nieces and nephews. Funeral services were held Thursday, October 1, at the Ahlberg Funeral Chapel. Interment followed at Fort Logan National Cemetery, Denver, with full military honors.

Sharon Williams Morrill

6 hrs · Langley, WA, United States

Thank you for adding me to your page. A friend suggested I join after reading an obituary I posted on my page today. I have shared it below. It is about my grandpa, who was lead bombardier for the 100th Bomb Group. Highlights from his service record (including the 100th Bomb Group) are included.

He passed peacefully this morning at 93. Please read below, as written by his son, who attended the USNA and was a career naval aviator.



Thomas J Williams

September 2, 1922 – April 4, 2016

A particularly valiant member of the greatest generation, Thomas J Williams, died at the Ft Worth home of his daughter, Wendy Terrell, on April 4, 2016. He was 93 and died of natural causes.

Thomas was born in Rochester, NY. He had four brothers and sisters, all of whom are deceased. His childhood family moved from place to place in upstate New York as his father worked to provide for the family. He graduated from South Side High School in Corning, NY in 1940 and subsequently attended Georgia Tech until joining the Army Air Corps. He met and married the love of his life, Phyllis McIntosh, in Corning. They had a wonderful life together until she died in 1993.

He was too skinny for the infantry, but the Air Corps accepted him on a waiver. Thus began his momentous career as an aviator. He flew the B-17 Flying Fortress from England in WWII. He was selected as lead bombardier for the entire 100th Bomb Group based on his uncanny accuracy dropping bombs. On one mission in 1945, his plane was badly shot up over Germany, but managed to crash land on friendly territory. His crew was one of the very few to survive attacks from both the German jet fighter (ME-262) and their rocket propelled fighter (ME-163). As a note, every member of his family, father and all three sons, served in combat in WWII.

After the war, he remained in the Army and what soon became the U.S. Air Force. He flew all of our strategic bombers from the late 1940’s into the 1960’s. His reputation as a precision bombardier resulted in his assignment to the Atomic Test Group in New Mexico. They tested all the new planes coming into service, and also tested the atomic weapons they were intended to deploy. He was selected to drop the first atomic bomb from a jet bomber (B-45 Tornado) and dropped America’s first H-bomb from a B-47 Stratojet. These missions were especially hazardous since everything involved - planes, engines, bombs, and high altitude flying - were new and untested. He experienced explosive decompression, fuel starvation, cracked wings, and fatal crashes as part of this tour of duty.

He was in a B-52H Bomb Wing during the Cuban Missile Crisis, standing alert, ready to launch, and part of the American arsenal that caused the Soviet Union to back down.

One of his unique tours was out of the cockpit – he was sent to Syracuse University to learn Russian after which he was assigned to a classified organization in Japan. It must have been interesting work, but nobody really ever heard about it from him.

After retiring from the Air Force in 1963, he joined the National Security Agency. His work there was largely unknown to the family but involved aerial reconnaissance missions against America’s enemies. He retired from NSA in 1985 after 42 years of service to the nation.

Thomas was a giving, funny, generous, and very talented man. He cherished his family dearly, as he did his cats. After Phyllis died, he began a third career as a Hospice volunteer in Melbourne, FL where he selflessly served for 20 years as their “boy-Friday” in the office. He gave over 32,000 hours of volunteer time, and was twice selected as “Volunteer of the Year.”

Thomas Williams epitomizes what makes America great – God, family, country, and service to others. He leaves behind two children, Wendy Terrell and Thomas Williams Jr., seven grandchildren, and twelve great-grandchildren.

He was a truly great man whose memory will never dim from all those who loved him.