hs newsletter #5 8 2014 (1)

HOT STUFF/GEN. ANDREWSNewsletter #05

August 2014

JIM’S CORNER

July was quite a month. Nancy and I spent most of it traveling and visiting relatives and friends from Colorado to California. I gave presentations to the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona and the Veterans Museum and Memorial Center in Balboa Park in San Diego, California.

Unfortunately, we had to cut our va-cation short because of the death of a dear friend Col. Virgal E. “Sandy” Sansing (USAF retired). He was a wonderful man, a great American and a true American hero. Sandy flew over 400 combat missions in World War II and Viet Nam.

I had the honor of traveling with him to France several times and met several members of the French Re-sistance who helped him hide from the Germans and with whom he helped harass the Germans after D Day. On one of those trips Sandy received the French Legion ofHonor.

I will miss him.

Jim

Comments on the newsletter may be sent to:[email protected]

Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson,Arizona

Presentations to the Pima Air & Space Museum on

July 11 & 12Jim made a presentation to James Stemm, Curator of Collections at the Pima Air & Space Museum on Friday, July 11th, in an effort to convince him to consider a display featuring the story of the B-24 Hot Stuff and Lt. Gen. Andrews in the museum. Unfortunately, not unlike many other museums he has either contacted or visited there appeared to be little or no interest in having parts of any airplane displayed no matter how historic it might be.

Jim was invited by Pima Curator of Education Mina Stafford to speak to museum visitors on Saturday. Car-oline and Susan Rondeau, daughters of Hot Stuff engineer Grant Rondeau and members of their family attend-ed the presentation. They brought along photos and documents their dad had accumulated for display. The presentation was well received.

Jim Lux speaking to visitors at the Pima Air & Space Museum

Visitors listening to Jim’s presenta-

tion at the Pima Air & SpaceMuseum

Caroline Rondeau and her hus-

band Manny holding a piece of Hot Stuff wreckage

The Rondeau family took Jim and Nancy out to dinner at a great Mexican restaurant in downtown Tucson after which they presented Jim with a sizable donation toward the Hot Stuff/Gen. Andrews me-morial monument.

The Veterans Museum and Memorial Center in Balboa Park has pieces of Hot Stuff

Wreckage on displayOn Monday, July 14th, Jim had a meeting with Will Hays, Chairman of the Veterans Museum and Me-morial Park. Mr. Hays met with Jim even though the museum was closed on Monday. Jim gave him a presen-tation on the story of Hot Stuff and Lt. Gen. Andrew and showed him the video Triumph and Tragedy. Mr. Hays was most receptive and accepted pieces of Hot Stuff wreck-age for display in the B-24 Liberator room in the museum.

The museum is located in a beau-tifully-restored chapel. Mr. Hays was most gracious and gave Jim and Nancy a private tour of the muse-um.

Several of the photographs of B-24s on display Jim recognized as bombers in the 93rd Bombardment Group including Tiggie Ann and Joisey Bounce.

The large bronze B-24 Liberator lo-cated on a pedestal in front of the museum honors those who flew and

The Veterans Museum and Memorial Center in Balboa Parkin San Diego, California

maintained them and the more than 45,000 men and women who built them at the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation plant in San Diego.

There are also four bronze plaques with the names of the Bombard-ment Groups that were assigned B-24s in World War II.

The 93rd Bombardment Group As-sociation made a significant contri-bution toward the construction of the bronze B-24.

Jim received an email two days later from Mr. Hays informing him that the Hot Stuff wreckage was already on display and was able to confirm that Hot Stuff was built in San Di-ego.

Will Hays and Jim Lux

Jim presented a copy of Ted’s Trav-elling Circus to Mr. Hays on behalf of Scott Stewart, son of author and 93rd Bomb Group, historian and Aide to Group Commander Ted Timberlake.

If you are ever in San Diego be sure to visit the museum.

Rosecrans National Cemetery on Point Loma in San Diego, CA

Visit to George Eisel’s grave site

George Eisel, the tail gunner and only survivor of the crash of Hot Stuff is buried in Rosecrans Nation-al Cemetery on Point Loma in San Diego. George was also a survivor of a B-24 that was shot down over Tu-nisia, North Africa. He passed away

in 1964 in Los Angeles, California.

Jim and Nancy visited George’s grave site and found that his grave-stone was missing. A piece of painted plywood was in its place along with a temporary marker. The marker appeared to have been there for a considerable amount of time.

Temporary marker onGeorge Eisel’s grave site

It was Sunday and the cemetery offices were closed but there were forms available for identifying prob-lems or to make inquiries. Jim filled one out and received a phone call a week later from a cemetery staff member who said that a new grave-stone was damaged when it arrived at the cemetery and another one was on order. Jim was assured it would be in place in August or September.

Lt. Gen. Dirk Jameson (USAF retired) visits Hot Stuff/Lt. Gen. Andrews memorial

plaque in IcelandIcelander Oli Marteinsson met Lt. Gen. Dirk Jameson (USAF retired) and his wife at Keflavik Internation-al Airport where they had a four

hour layover on their return trip to the United States from Europe.

Oli and his brother Doddi are friends of Jim who helped him re-cover pieces of Hot Stuff wreckage and worked with the U.S. Embassy and the mayor and town council of the town of Grindavik to secure the land where the Hot Stuff/Lt. Gen. Andrews memorial monument will be located.

Oli Marteinsson (left) and Gen. Jameson by the memorial plaque

in Grindavik, Iceland

Oli took Dirk and his wife Betty to see the plaque at the future memori-al monument site. Dirk said reading the plaque and seeing the mountain where the crash took place in the background made quite an impres-sion on him.

They also visited the Blue Lagoon, Iceland’s number one tourist attrac-tion (http://www.bluelagoon.com/). It’s located about two miles from the monument site.

Family members of Lt. Col. Fred Chapman located

Cecil Johnson the second cousin of U.S. Army Lt. Col. Fred Chap-man and Malinda Hayes his niece were located with the help of Paul Schumann and Diane Brooker

whose husband is a relative of Hot Stuff tail gunner, George Eisel.

Chapman was one of Lt. Gen. An-drews’ aides and was killed in the crash of Hot Stuff.

The search continues for relatives of the rest of Hot Stuff ’s crew and those on-board when it crashed including: Capt. James Gott - navigatorSgt. Joseph Craighead - gunnerSgt. George Farley - gunnerSgt. Paul McQueen - gunnerSgt. Lloyd Weir - crew chiefBrig. Gen. Charles Barth - Andrews Chief of StaffCol. Morrow Krum - member of Andrews staffMaj. Theodore Totman - Andrews SecretaryCapt. Joseph Johnson - Andrews AideCol. Frank Miller - Army Chief of Chaplains Maj. Robert Humphery - U.S. Army ChaplainAdna Leonard - Chairman of Corps of Chaplains

Great News!The Memorial Monument

Fund now Exceeds$24,000!

In July the Memorial Monument Fund achieved as significant mile-stone reaching more than a third of the $70,000 goal.

MONUMENT FUNDDONORS

Johannes Allert MNAncient & Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts MASusan Andrews TNLillian Ayars TXBank of America (Matching Grant) CABrig. Gen. Richard Baughn TXLaurence & Verna Belair NHLawrence Berman MARaymond & Michelle Bonilla TXScott Branson TXMike & Conni Brennan TX

*Harrell & Jackie Broome MSAaron Buckholtz TX*Peggy Carmen MSClairmont Retirement Community TX*Jan & Robert Clark COLt. Gen. Charles Cleveland ALShannon & Gay Cox TXJimmie & Jennifer Craig TXCol. David & Nelda Cravey TX*Dayton Foundation OHMark Davis TXJohn & Suzanne Donatucci TXEric & Domi Ducreau FRANCEJoe & Phyllis Duran CABlaine & Robin Duxbury INDr.Robert & Barbara Emerson TXRay & Alison Ender TXR.F. Ferguson TXJudy & Albert Figoski TXPatrick Finnegan TXLes Frazier TXRobert & Joan Gallup TXCarol Gerard WIRichard Golombeck TXDorris E. Green TXWilliam Gros PADavid Guerra TXHelen Gutfreund AZThomas & Julia Harris TXMax Hill TXWilbur Hopson TXRonald & Charlotte Iberg TXSkot Ingram TXThomas & Margaret Jacobs TX*Kevin Jacobson TX*Ronald Jacobson MSLt Gen. Dirk & Betty Jameson TXRay Janes TXRobert Jones TXJames Koch TXL7 Computer Parts TXKermit & Nancy Larson TXJames LaRue TXDr. BA & MW Levy TXHarry Loftis TXJim & Nancy Lux TXRobert Marquette TXRobert Marquette TXScott Merchen TXLeonard Miller CACol. Cassius & Betty Mullen TXAlbert Mundo MAJohn & Rayann Marx PABill & Linda McCarley TXLost Creek CC Members TXScott Merchen TXAndrew & Marge Meyer TXLeonard Miller CAGeorge Morrison Sr. MAAlbert Mundo MARalph & Phyllis Mundy TXMichael Oliver TXThomas Owens TXRobert Peckham TX

Carl Pollock TXRobert & Wanda Reetz TXDr. William Robertson TX*Rondeau Family AZPatrick & Yvonne Ryan TXPeter & Colleen Sanderson COBill & Joanne Sargent CORobert Spurck, Jr. TXScott Stewart NEFraye Stokes TXPaul Stroich, Jr. AZVernon Swaim WAMats Tedeneryd SWEDENLeon & Joan Thomas TXGeorge Taylor TXKenneth Taplin CARobert Tresch TXTerrance & Sylvia Turner CAHeath Twitchell RICharles Thompson TXBrig. Gen. Regis Urshler NEKristine & Dwitt Vanwisse TXMaj. Russell Vanderlugt NYJames & Vickki Warren TXRobert Weeks TXJoe & Beth Woods TXDF & LA Wiesner TXCharles & Josephine Wiegand TX

* Family of Hot Stuff Crew &/or passengers

Thank you for yourDonation!

You Can Help RaiseFunds For The Hot Stuff

Gen. AndrewsMemorial Monument

1. Send this newsletter to everyone on your email list and ask for their help.

2. Every donation of $250 or more will receive a copy of “Ted’s Travelling Circus,” a comprehensive history of the 93rd Bomb Group.

3. Donations are tax deductible.

4. Send donations to:Attn: Nancy Stranger93rd Bombardment Group Assoc.995 Cottonwood LaneGlenwood Springs, Colorado 81601

5. Refer everyone to the Hot Stuff web site at:www.b24hotstuff.wikispaces.com

6. Brochures, and a PowerPoint pre-sentation are available for making pre-sentations.

7. Jim Lux is available for Hot Stuff/Gen. Andrews fund raiser presenta-tions in the Central Texas area.

8. Contact Information:

Jim LuxH: 512-327-1750C: [email protected]

Don’t forget!On your next trip to Europe, your first

stop should be beautiful Iceland.

Stopover at no additional airfare.

Stay up to seven days.

Visit and enjoythe world famous

Blue Lagoon.

A land of pure water, clean air & unparalleled

beauty.

Icelandair is a supporterof the future

Hot Stuff/Gen. AndrewsMemorial Monument.

For information and reservations: http://www.icelandair.us