Descendants Corner
by
Marcia Balmut Ward

Summer, 2004

Here in Ohio we are anticipating a long, hot summer…the 17 year cicadas have come and gone, Midsummer Night is behind us, and the lazy, hazy days of summer in rural Ohio are a welcome respite for many! Several of you have written to share how you enjoy the “news” from Catherine Bishop, daughter of TSgt Francis G. O’Connell, a pilot with the 390th – 570th Bomb Squadron.

Mrs. Bishop, MSgt USAF (retired) went in the Air Force in 1968. For the first five years on active duty she was a communications security specialist. Twelve years and three assignments were spent in Cold War West Germany. Read this assignment list: Direct Air Support/Forward Air Control Office at Sembach AB, West Germany; the 20th Tactical Air Support Squadron at Wiesbaden AB, West Germany; the 601st Combat Control Group at Wiesbaden; the 1st Special Operations Wing at Hurlburt Field, Florida; the 50th Aircraft Generation Squadron and Base Operations at Hahn AB, West Germany; the 2063rd Communications Squadron at Lindsey AS, Germany; Administrative Support for the Under Secretary for the Policy Office of the Secretary of Defense; Freedom of Information and Mandatory Declassification Review in the Office of the Secretary of Defense Public Affairs; and in Defense Security Assistance Agency the Caribbean Desk Officer for the Military Assistance Program.  Mrs. Bishop…that is impressive!

Mrs. Bishop’s husband, Major Hal Bishop, fighter pilot, died of Agent Orange related cancer about half way through her twenty years of active duty. My hat is certainly off to her for taking time to email and share so many wonderful stories and experiences. It would be an honor to meet her personally at a 390th Reunion. She recently attended the dedication of the new World War II Memorial along with over 200,000 other people. Mrs. Bishop said she had never been to anything as special as this event.  Her words…..”The temperature was in the 70’s so we were lucky. I am sure you have seen the surging crowds at rock concerts and sporting events – this was the opposite. It seemed like a garden party. I went with Navy nurses and combat personnel. The monument is fantastic. It is the most impressive in Washington. A nurse and I are going down next week and do more photos. We were seated in the area where the President was speaking.”

How special to have attended such an incredible ceremony! We look forward to some of those photos! While reading these emails from Mrs. Bishop I thought it would be interesting to share this one with you. She sent it to me in October of 2003.

“Dear Marcia, This just came in from Horace Huron:  

CAN ANYONE SOLVE THIS MYSTERY AND FILL IN A PIECE OF THE PAST FOR HORACE HURON?? (TSgt Huron and TSgt Marsini were both with the 390th Bomb Group on a B-17G shot down on 22 April 1944, coming back from a bombing run to the Hamm, Germany marshalling yards.”

On April 8, 1945 we were at Stalag 17B and the Germans were moving us out because the Russian troops were rumored to be thirty kilometers from Krems, Austria, driving on St. Polten. We figured they would capture us in about three days. Still on the other hand they might not. At night we could see the big guns flashing and we knew they were close. On the seventh we were all packing because the word was that we would be up at 6 a.m. and would leave at 7 a.m. That day dawned clear and cold.

Later in the day it became nice. By twelve o’clock everyone had left the camp except those not able to walk or hide from Jerry and stayed.  Carl Marsini was one of them. He asked me to stay with him. He said that by falling into Russian hands we could be home sooner. He said he was in a hurry to get home and marry his sweetheart. The last I saw of him, he was hiding behind the barracks. I didn’t envy them because they lived in the air raid trenches most of April.

We were liberated May 3, 1945 and I got home about the middle of June or so. (Just think, that was 59 years ago this summer….)  When I got home about a month later I received a letter from Marsini’s mother asking about him. I wrote back and told her what happened. About two months later I received a letter from her that Carl had fallen into Russian hands and that he was in a hospital in England. That was the last I heard from them. To this day I don’t know if he ever married his sweetheart.

DOES ANYONE OUT THERE KNOW WHAT HAPPENED REGARDING CARL MARSINI AND HIS SWEETHEART???  If so, please respond to the Sq. J or email me at mward@ctcn.net.

The first person I hear from will receive something very special from the Air Force Museum…and some Marie’s Chocolate Candy for fun!!  :)

Watch the Descendant’s Corner next time to read….the rest of the story.