Tribute to a Veteran I Never Met
Mon Nov 11, 2013 10:37 am
I never had the opportunity to meet this individual, but through my research, I've learned quite a bit about him. In an era where the term "hero" is often overused, I think he is quite befitting of the title.
DSC_0001a by onyxsax, on Flickr
Henry Podgurski was born in 1920 in Manor, PA. When World War II broke out in Europe, but before America entered the war, Henry and a number of his friends, like so many other young men of Polish descent, went north to Canada to join the Royal Canadian Air Force for an opportunity to fight the Nazis who had so decimated the country of his parents. Of the group of young men from Manor, PA that went to Canada, Henry was the only one to stick with it and eventually earned his wings.
Upon America’s entry into World War II, Henry transferred to the Army Air Forces and was assigned to the 93rd Bomb Group out of England flying the B-24 heavy bomber. On August 1, 1943, he was Ken McFarland’s copilot in a B-24 called the Liberty Lad on a daring and dangerous mission to bomb the oil refineries at Ploesti, Romania, which supplied the Nazi war machine with much of their fuel. It turned into one of the deadliest missions of the war. Out of 177 bombers sent, 54 were shot down and the majority of the remainder being heavily damaged. The Liberty Lad was one of those planes damaged. The plane lost both of its engines on the right wing. It is nearly impossible to fly a damaged four engine bomber in that manner. However, McFarland and Podgurski were two big and strong men who used all their strength to fight to keep the plane level and bring the crew, including a wounded radio operator, home. As they approached their base, the last of their gasoline was used up and the engines on the left side quit, too. With their very last drop of energy, they brought Liberty Lad in for a safe dead-stick landing after 14 hours of flying. McFarland and Podgurski were so exhausted, they had to be carried from the cockpit. Liberty Lad was the last B-24 to return to its home base from that deadly raid.
A mission like Ploesti would be enough reason for most men to give up combat flying, as many did after this mission. Podgurski, however, continued to fly with the 93rd until he completed his tour of 25 missions. When his tour was done, instead of going back to the United States, Podgurski chose to remain in England to continue flying B-24s, this time the 27th Air Transport Group. Podgurski flew routine cargo missions and mail deliveries from base to base in England as well as flying supplies into Normandy on D-Day and in the days thereafter. After his tour with the 27th was complete, once again, he could have returned stateside if he had desired. Instead, he chose to return to combat yet again in the B-24, this time in the Pacific Theater flying with the 494th Bombardment Group from the newly captured island of Okinawa until the end of the war. With the cessation of hostilities, Podgurski was mustered out and headed home. It seemed like his flying days were behind him.
Like so many of his generation, after the war, Henry Podgurski came home, got married to his wife Helen, herself a Woman Marine and started a family, having two daughters. He went to engineering school, but after a few years, Henry really wanted to return to flying. He attended a flight school down in Florida to regain his pilot’s license and was hired by Capital Airlines in 1952 as a first officer. By 1957, he had enough seniority to transition to the Captain’s seat. It was perfect timing for a promotion as Henry and Helen were preparing for the arrival of their third child.
Tragically, Henry Podgurski’s would never have the opportunity to meet his third child, a son. His life was cut short, when on June 22, 1957, during a routine training flight for Capital Airlines, the DC-3 he was flying in stalled out, spun and crashed into the ground nose first near Clarksburg, Maryland, narrowly missing a home with a mother and three children inside. Along with Podgurski, Robert Thomas, another trainee, and Carl Burke, the instructor pilot, were also killed. For someone who had survived some of the most dangerous missions of World War II, to be killed on a sunny day on an otherwise routine flight still seems unfathomable to this day. Sometimes, life simply isn’t fair.
The location of the crash site is on land that is now part of Little Bennett Regional Park. As a volunteer with Montgomery Parks, I have been researching incident with the ultimate goal of having a memorial erected at the location, not just as a tribute to Henry Podgurski and the other two crew members, but also the people of Clarksburg, who literally dropped whatever they were doing to rush to the aid of their neighbors.
DSC_0001a by onyxsax, on Flickr
Henry Podgurski was born in 1920 in Manor, PA. When World War II broke out in Europe, but before America entered the war, Henry and a number of his friends, like so many other young men of Polish descent, went north to Canada to join the Royal Canadian Air Force for an opportunity to fight the Nazis who had so decimated the country of his parents. Of the group of young men from Manor, PA that went to Canada, Henry was the only one to stick with it and eventually earned his wings.
Upon America’s entry into World War II, Henry transferred to the Army Air Forces and was assigned to the 93rd Bomb Group out of England flying the B-24 heavy bomber. On August 1, 1943, he was Ken McFarland’s copilot in a B-24 called the Liberty Lad on a daring and dangerous mission to bomb the oil refineries at Ploesti, Romania, which supplied the Nazi war machine with much of their fuel. It turned into one of the deadliest missions of the war. Out of 177 bombers sent, 54 were shot down and the majority of the remainder being heavily damaged. The Liberty Lad was one of those planes damaged. The plane lost both of its engines on the right wing. It is nearly impossible to fly a damaged four engine bomber in that manner. However, McFarland and Podgurski were two big and strong men who used all their strength to fight to keep the plane level and bring the crew, including a wounded radio operator, home. As they approached their base, the last of their gasoline was used up and the engines on the left side quit, too. With their very last drop of energy, they brought Liberty Lad in for a safe dead-stick landing after 14 hours of flying. McFarland and Podgurski were so exhausted, they had to be carried from the cockpit. Liberty Lad was the last B-24 to return to its home base from that deadly raid.
A mission like Ploesti would be enough reason for most men to give up combat flying, as many did after this mission. Podgurski, however, continued to fly with the 93rd until he completed his tour of 25 missions. When his tour was done, instead of going back to the United States, Podgurski chose to remain in England to continue flying B-24s, this time the 27th Air Transport Group. Podgurski flew routine cargo missions and mail deliveries from base to base in England as well as flying supplies into Normandy on D-Day and in the days thereafter. After his tour with the 27th was complete, once again, he could have returned stateside if he had desired. Instead, he chose to return to combat yet again in the B-24, this time in the Pacific Theater flying with the 494th Bombardment Group from the newly captured island of Okinawa until the end of the war. With the cessation of hostilities, Podgurski was mustered out and headed home. It seemed like his flying days were behind him.
Like so many of his generation, after the war, Henry Podgurski came home, got married to his wife Helen, herself a Woman Marine and started a family, having two daughters. He went to engineering school, but after a few years, Henry really wanted to return to flying. He attended a flight school down in Florida to regain his pilot’s license and was hired by Capital Airlines in 1952 as a first officer. By 1957, he had enough seniority to transition to the Captain’s seat. It was perfect timing for a promotion as Henry and Helen were preparing for the arrival of their third child.
Tragically, Henry Podgurski’s would never have the opportunity to meet his third child, a son. His life was cut short, when on June 22, 1957, during a routine training flight for Capital Airlines, the DC-3 he was flying in stalled out, spun and crashed into the ground nose first near Clarksburg, Maryland, narrowly missing a home with a mother and three children inside. Along with Podgurski, Robert Thomas, another trainee, and Carl Burke, the instructor pilot, were also killed. For someone who had survived some of the most dangerous missions of World War II, to be killed on a sunny day on an otherwise routine flight still seems unfathomable to this day. Sometimes, life simply isn’t fair.
The location of the crash site is on land that is now part of Little Bennett Regional Park. As a volunteer with Montgomery Parks, I have been researching incident with the ultimate goal of having a memorial erected at the location, not just as a tribute to Henry Podgurski and the other two crew members, but also the people of Clarksburg, who literally dropped whatever they were doing to rush to the aid of their neighbors.