Lalewicz - #85
Courtesy of Bob Fielding
Standing L-R: ?????; ?????; ?????; Klein, Louis (B)
Squatting L-R: Smith, Donald J. (G); ?????; ?????; ?????; ?????; ?????
Lalewicz, Chester J., Pilot
Ivyson, Henry H., Co-Pilot
Grzeszczak, John E., Navigator
Klein, Louis, Bombardier
Bell, Robert W., Gunner
Catlett, Novel M., Gunner
Smith, Donald J., Gunner
Walker, George L., Gunner
Wood, James L., Engineer/Gunner
Wood, Oscar F., Radio Operator/Gunner
Courtesy of Bob Fielding
Louis Klein, Bombardier
Courtesy of Bob Fielding
Louis Klein's combat crew training certificate
Courtesy of Olivia Cook
Oscar F. Wood (RO/G)
1919 -1945
Oscar Wood was born in 1919 near Roseboro, NC. Knowing that he would be drafted, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps in August 1941. Oscar wanted to be a pilot and was enrolled in flight cadet school at Seymour Johnson Field in Goldsboro. He missed becoming a pilot because of his last name - "They picked pilot trainees alphabetically and they reached their quota before they got to Oscar." After training, Oscar served as the Radio Operator and gunner on the Lalewicz crew #85. On March 9, 1945, the Lalewicz crew was lost when it went down in the Adriatic Sea off the coast of Yugoslavia and exploded killing all eleven men on board. They were returning from a mission to Graz, Austria.