President's Message
by Mary Pennebaker Truitt

Summer, 2004

I received the 390th Veteran’s Association Reunion packet last week and it can’t be possible that the reunion is less than two months away. The reunion will be held Sept 7th – 12th in Tucson. We always look forward to having the veterans, spouses, guests and descendants visit their museum. It is such a special time at the museum with the veterans sharing their experiences.

For those of you who have not visited the museum since the last Veteran’s Association Reunion in 2000 you will find several new additions to the museum. To list just a few: KIS Memorial, Nose Art display, the redesigned Food Drop display, the four new bombs in the B-17 and the recovered B-17 top turret.

The summer months are in full swing at the museum with low attendance and very hot temperatures. If you do not feel the urge to visit the museum in 100+ degree weather you can still visit the museum by logging onto the museum’s web sight www.390th.org and see what is new. Another wonderful web site that has links to the 390th web site is the Liberty Foundation www.libertyfoundation.org. This is the non-profit organization operating the B-17, Liberty Belle, which will be flying around the country displaying the 390th Square J with the 570th squadron markings.

The 390th Veteran’s Association has put together a committee consisting of POW’s to design the POW memorial for the museum. The dedication is scheduled to be held during the Veteran’s Reunion. I personally have visited with several of our veterans who were POWs and found that if they were shot down very early in their 390th service they felt they were not truly a member of the 390th organization. It is important to have these veterans know that they are very much a part of the 390th Veteran’s Association and the 390th Memorial Museum Foundation.

I look forward to the Veteran’s Association Reunion.

Mary Pennebaker Truitt