Three Crawford
Brothers:
The WW II
Memoirs of Three Pilots
The music stopped and the words, “The Japanese are bombing
Pearl Harbor,”
totally changed our lives. It was December 7, 1941. This
book is the memoirs of the lives of Raymond and Gladys Crawford, their
three sons, Raymond Jr., George and Fred and Raymond Jr.’s wife,
Emagene Kimbrell Crawford over the period from December 7, 1941 through
December, 1945. The story of my courtship
of Jeannette Kizer is an important part of my memoirs of the war years.
Raymond was a pilot in the Army
Air Corps on Pearl Harbor Day. George and
Fred followed in his footsteps and also became pilots.
All three brothers were flying in
combat at the same time in 1944. Mother
and Father received two MIA telegrams.
In the 1970’s, Raymond Jr. felt
strongly that our children needed to know the answer to the question, “Father, what did you do during WW II?”, so he insisted
that each brother write his own memoir. It
was painful to recall the war experiences, but Raymond prevailed and
each brother wrote his personal memoir of his WW II experiences for his
children, nephews and nieces.
In 2005, I, George, the only
surviving brother, decided to combine the three unpublished books. This book, Three Crawford Brothers.
The WW II Memoirs of Three Pilots, Raymond, George and Fred, combines the three individual books into one continuous
chronological account. In order for the
reader to identify each author, Raymond’s book is in Ariel type, Fred’s
book is in Courier New type, and my (George’s) book is in Times New
Roman.
The book contains a wealth of
pictures, letters, orders, souvenir material and newspaper clippings
which I scanned into the text. The
letters and orders typed in are in the type deemed suitable for that
material.
In 2005, I persuaded the
bombardier on our B-24 crew, William (Bill) M. Neil, to add his
memories of our many shared adventures. Bill
Neil’s writings are in Century Gothic type. Bill
played a very important role in my life during the time we flew
together.
This is the story of the Three Crawford Brothers and
the friends who shared their pilot training and combat experiences
during WW II.
George Wolf Crawford
Co- pilot- Ray Morel Crew, 513th
Squadron
http://www.52726.authorworld.com
