Dad (George Edwin Farrar) spent his last training days in the States in Ardmore, Oklahoma. He did his combat crew training at the 222nd Combat Crew Training School (H) at the Ardmore Army Air Field.
Dad received his Combat Orders on June 8, 1944, followed by Special Orders on June 23, releasing him from assignment and duty at Ardmore and transferring him to AAB, Kearney, Nebraska.
Special Orders #86, Buslee crew (* indicates married)
Special Orders Number 86 sent fifty-five ten-man B-17 crews from Ardmore Army Air Field on the first leg of their journey into combat. These five hundred fifty airmen traveled to Kearney not by air, but by rail, arriving on June 24, 1944.
In Kearney, Nebraska the crews were assigned brand new B-17’s to ferry to England. The crews all likely considered that shiny new B-17 “theirs” as I know my dad did, but that new ship would not follow them to their base. Once it arrived in England, it would be assigned to whichever bomb group needed a replacement aircraft.
Of those fifty-five crews transferred on Special Orders Number 86, eleven, including my dad’s, were eventually headed to Grafton Underwood and the 384th Bomb Group. These eleven crews were headed by pilots:
- Edgar L. Bills
- James J. Brodie
- Bert O. Brown, Jr.
- John O. Buslee
- Walter W. Cline
- Donald B. Duesler
- Howard A. Jung
- William R. Kinnaird
- Noel E. Plowman
- John R. Proctor
- Rodney J. Wood
I have written previously about the information I have on Dad’s journey to the ETO from Kearney, Nebraska, which you can read here.
To be continued with more information about the next assignment to Grafton Underwood for these eleven crews…
© Cindy Farrar Bryan and The Arrowhead Club, 2018
The Arrowhead Club 