Warbird Information Exchange

Aluminum Overcast is at Peoria airport today. I saw it yesterday and some of the vets that flew in B-17's showed up. One guy was a ball turret gunner. He was the smallest guy in the crew. He is also the only one still living from the crew. He will be 89 soon.

Was the ball gunner's name Leroy Mace? He rode the ball in "Knockout Dropper" from the 303rd Bomb Group and was a member of the crew for the plane's 50th mission.
He's from Pekin, Illinois (right across the river from Peoria, for those not familiar with the area).

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Hi Gents,

LeRoy is my dad. He's actually 94 currently and the only surviving member of the Knockout Dropper's 50th mission. Albert Santella, waist gunner, passed away a few years ago. Dad had a chance to meet him at a 303rd BG Association meeting in Savannah a few years ago.

My father flew 46 combat missions in B-17s, including Schweinfurt on Black Thursday. He was chosen to fly ball turret in the lead crew lead group, the 8-Ball, with BG Travis on the Oschersleben raid as well. He was wounded twice and had to come back to the US after the second time while substituting as waist gunner on a particular raid.

He really enjoyed flying in the B-17 on Wednesday. I talked to him about it today on the phone and he said it brought back a lot of memories. There was also a write-up in the Peoria Journal Star today.

If you're interested, do a search for him on the 303rd Bomb Group Association website for lots of pictures and some really cool historical information. Here's a link about Oschersleben with a photo of dad with General Travis and crew on page 13. Dad is in the middle on the lower row of men. http://www.303rdbg.com/missionreports/098.pdf

Steve Mace

Thanks for the welcome! Yes I'm a member of the 303rd BGA, as are my father and mother. Dad has lots of stories about all aspects of his war experience from combat to time in the chow hall. I've heard those stories all of my life. He flew with Travis that one time and with Calhoun a few more, though almost all of his time in the air was as a member of Manning's crew.

please tell your father thanks for his service to our country, these folks are getting rare, thanks for sharing your story

Hey Steve, you might be interested in this profile I made a few years ago:

Large version

Check your PMs.

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