In memory of S/Sgt. Joe R. Markus ASN36636142 who lost his life on his first combat mission.

Joe Markus was lost on his first mission. In June of 1944, we were sent to the 93rd Bomb Group for lead crew training; also radar bombing training. We refused this and, at this point, Lt. Smith was taken from us and made a lead crew navigator. Sgt. O. T. Sivley was grounded on about the 7th or 8th mission because of ear problems. After flying 10 missions, all crew members were promoted up one rank: officers to 1st Lt., Kirk and Pop to T/Sgt., and the rest to S/Sgt. Sgt. Sivley was replaced by Sgt. C. A. Johnson. Sgt. Frosty McLaughlin replaced Sgt. Joe Markus. Lt. Sardonia was made bombigator to replace Lt. Smith. Lt. A. J. Jaborski replaced Lt. Smith for a while until Lt. Sardonia took over. Only 7 of the original crew completed the 31 missions together. The ones marked with an X are the ones who did finish.

After being assembled as a crew at Salt Lake, we were transported by train to Colorado Springs, Colorado, Peterson Air Force Base, for combat training, formation flying, air to ground gunnery, practice bombing, night flying, and emergency procedures. We spent a total of 3 months there training. All the rest of training was on the job combat, and we learned by hard knocks.

After training at Peterson, we once more left by train for Topeka, Kansas. At this point, we were assigned a new B-24J, which had only 4 flying hours on it. By the way, a new airplane smells much like a new car. From this point, we flew to Lincoln, Nebraska for staging. We got our overseas equipment, physicals, shots, and sidearms: .45 cal. auto pistols in shoulder holsters. From this point on, the aircraft was ours.

As engineer, I had to crewchief the plane, that is, perform all checks and inspections, fueling and pre-flights. Larry Jorgensen became my assistant. We also had to put a 24 hour guard on the plane; this we all did.

About the first week of April, we left for overseas. We flew our ship from Lincoln, Nebraska to West Palm Beach, Florida. It was quite a change - flying from snow in Nebraska to shirtsleeves in Florida. At West Palm Beach, we awaited orders and also had our ship painted with a good-looking gal and our names. We could never think of a name and kept telling the artist to "call us later", so we named the plane "Call Me Later." We later flew what was called the Southern Route overseas. The Northern Route flew close to the polar cap, i.e., Iceland, Greenland. However, the time we flew overseas was the storm season in the Northern Route so we took the Southern Route. Leaving West Palm Beach, we flew to Trinidad and stayed overnight. (Rum and Coke is no big deal!) This flight took us over the tip of Cuba. Next morning, we left for Belem, Brazil. After each flight, I had to stay with the ship to refuel it and check engine oil and make the ship secure for the night. Had to make a 25 hr. inspection at this point. That was another job of the flight engineer – to keep the ship’s log. This was an accurate recording of the men who flew the plane; also a record of their flying time, the exact hours running time on the engines and air frame of the plane plus any repairs that had been made or problems with it.

Leaving Belem, we flew over the Amazon River and the deep jungles of Brazil to Natal, Brazil. In our bomb bay was a cargo carrier. We carried spare parts and tools for our plane and all of our baggage. Also on the plane were cases of K-Rations. The idea was that if we had to bail out on our journey, we would have food if we could find the plane. Before we arrived in England, we opened most of them and got out the cigarettes and cans of cheese and bacon, also deviled ham; the instant coffee came in handy later. Natal was a nice stop over. Most of us bought gaucho boots for $5.00 a pair. I still have mine. The beach at Natal is beautiful; mountains, then dark green jungles, a very white sand beach, then the ocean, a dark blue, all sparkling. Along the beach, the locals had set up shops made from palm thatch. They sold all kinds of merchandise from fine Belgian linen to French Cognac. Ed Cooper bought several bottles of Cognac. We next departed for Dakar, Africa, across the Atlantic Ocean. By the way, we all joined the Polywog Club when we crossed the equator between Belem and Natal; also, back across it when we flew from Natal to Dakar. When we were two hours out from Belem, we opened our sealed orders and found we were to proceed to England and the 8th AAF. We stayed overnight at Dakar. Next morning, we took off for Marrakech, Morocco. On pre-flight that morning, I smelled gasoline real strong, but I checked the whole ship for leaks and could not locate any. On takeoff, the #2 engine started torching, that is, it was on fire. A long streak of blue flames was streaking back about twenty feet. This is caused by the fuel mix being too rich and gas, not being burned in the engine, was burning in the turbo supercharger. The problem was corrected by adjusting the fuel mixture control, however, it was very scary since I had smelled gas so strongly that morning.

From Dakar, we flew over part of the Sahara Desert, miles and miles of nothing. We stayed a few days at Marrakech, waiting for the weather to clear so we could fly to England. We could not fly over Spain or Portugal because they were neutral countries so we had to fly out over the Atlantic again to go around them. From Marrakech, we flew overnight to England and arrived at St. Morgans on May 6, 1944 about 8:30 in the morning. (Note: We had a homing beam to guide us to England [this was supposed to be a top secret band] but the Germans found out the frequency of the beam and set their own in France. This lured some new crews into France and they were captured along with their aircraft. A new crew who had no knowledge of the coast of England would not know the difference.) From St. Morgans, we flew to Warrington. At this point, our plane, "Call Me Later," was taken away from us for combat modification. We were taken by train to Stone, England. This was a replacement depot. We left Stone on the 12th of may and arrived at Flixton Manor close to Bungay the same day. This is where the 446th Bomb Group was located.

Arriving at the 446th Bomb Group, we were assigned to the 704th Squadron. The 446th had four squadrons, the 704th, 705th, 706th, and the 707th. We were assigned quarters and almost immediately started flying practice missions with a lot of formation flying. As was the practice, our pilot, Buzz Leroy, flew a combat mission as co-pilot with an experienced crew. Joe Markus also flew this day with a crew that had a sick member. Joe and the whole crew were lost to antiaircraft fire over France. This shook us up badly.