For a group of youngsters thrown together by chance during the crew selection process, we have had a most remarkable history of achievement and close personal relations for fifty-nine years. Perhaps the best way to describe the crew members and their lives since 1944 is to start at the rear of the aircraft, with the tail gunner, and work forward.
Staff Sergeant William (Tex) R. E. Stegall, the tail gunner came to the crew at the age of nineteen. Tex was nineteen years old when he was killed by a shrapnel fragment that found its way under his protective helmet and struck him in the back of the head killing him instantly. Doug crawled back into the tail and brought him back into the main part of the airplane so that he could administer first aid--an act of true heroism under the conditions. This tragedy occurred while on a raid to Berlin on March 18, 1945. We buried Tex in the U.S. Cemetery at Maddingly, just north of Cambridge, England. When I visited the cemetery in 1978 to pay my respects, I found that his body had been removed and sent back to the U.S., presumably to Bush, Texas whence he came although I have never been able to verify this.
Staff Sergeant Douglas W. Mann was our armorer and handled our waist guns on the bombing raids. After the war, he returned to Minneapolis and to DeLorys and raised a family of four children. Doug was a machinist who rose to foreman during his working tenure, a man who enjoyed the warmth of his family and the many outdoor activities available in the Minneapolis area. He especially enjoyed getting together with the old crew whenever possible. A great guy with lots of heart, a favorite of us all. His death in 1992 was felt deeply by all the crew.
Staff Sergeant Guido (Guy) M. Mattana, our ball turret gunner was our baby. He was 18 when he joined us and was 19 when he was mustered out of the military. After he returned to civilian life in Detroit, Michigan, he married Betty, the sixteen year old girl he had written to every night while we were overseas. They too had four children. He started selling insurance and in time had his own, very successful, agency that he sold about the time he was sixty years old. He and Betty moved to a small town outside of Detroit where they enjoy fishing, golf and their family. A real success story.
Technical Sergeant Sidney (Little Joe) Joseph returned to his home in Birmingham, Alabama after the war. He was graduated from the University of Alabama with a degree in business and after completing his education he started an interior decorating business which he operated until he decided to retire at the age of sixty-five. Joe died of cancer in 1998.
Technical Sergeant Ellis H. O'Neal got out of the army and went back to Kokomo, Indiana in order to attend the University of Indiana. However, after a year, he could stand the separation from his woman no longer, he moved to Florida, married Harriet (whom I had met in Tampa, on one of their first dates, just before going overseas) and finished his education. He received a degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Florida and spent the majority of his professional career with Florida Power and Light Utilities Inc. where he had a truly brilliant career as a project manager. In addition to our strong personal interactions over the years, Ellis' and my professional paths crossed many times and I had the opportunity to interact with him in several engineering related fields. Despite the short time he spent at his education (he was at the university a total of two and three quarters years) I have found Ellis to be one of the most knowledgeable engineers with whom I have ever worked. Not only was he a great flying companion, he is a wonderful person whom I admire greatly. He and Harriet had three children and still reside in south Florida, where they have lived since getting married.
Second Lieutenant Walter (Bud) L. Thumler who flew as my co-pilot ended up surprising us all. His pattern of behavior during our wartime relationship gave us all concern for his future. His apparent lack of direction and heavy drinking boded ill, in our collective estimation, for a full and productive life. How wrong we were! Bud went back to Seattle, Washington and enrolled at the University of Washington where he met Etta. Bud had the good sense to marry Etta quickly and have two fine, extraordinarily handsome, children right away. During their adolescence, the kids became interested in getting some rocks polished so Bud built them a rock polisher out of an old paint can partially filled with carborundum and powered by a small electric motor. One thing led to another and Bud and Etta went into business manufacturing these "Thumler's Tumblers" for polishing gems, small arms brass, rocks and any other application that can be imagined. He started small but today is one of the country's largest manufacturers of rock polishers--they are sold by Penny's, Sears and under the "Thumler's Tumbler" label in rock shops and sporting goods stores across the country. Bud passed away in 2000 from coronary artery disease.
Second Lieutenants Lawrence (Stud) F. Crocker of Brewster, Massachusetts and Dante (Dan) A. Villani of Springfield, Massachusetts, who had become fast friends after joining the crew, enrolled in Tufts College in Medford, MA for the spring semester, 1946. They joined the same fraternity and roomed together through their college careers.
After graduation Stud went back to Brewster on Cape Cod where he took over his father's insurance business. In time he met and married his lovely wife Anna with whom he had three children. Larry (as he is now called) who has infinite energy, applied himself to business and established one of the more successful insurance agencies on Cape Cod. Larry passed away in 2001 from cardiac failure.
Dan followed up his undergraduate career by going to McGill University in Montreal and being graduated from their dental school. I happened to be in Montreal shortly after he was graduated with the degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery and got a copy of the graduation schedule for the dental school. Dan had made a major sweep of the awards given to the top ranking graduates of the dental school and was clearly the outstanding student of his class. He practiced dentistry in his home town of Springfield, MA where he met and married Sandy in the early 1970s. Dan has recently sold his practice and retired.
First Lieutenant Paul (Buzz) Wagner (me) got discharged and was home in Albany and back in college by October 1, 1945. I finished my undergraduate education in 1947, followed it up with some graduate work at Cornell and the University of Rochester (NY) where I was awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1952. I then went to the Los Alamos National Laboratory in northern New Mexico where I lived and was employed for over 35 years. In that time I worked on the nuclear rocket program (among other things) and received the 1989 International Thermal Conductivity Award for the scientific research I did on high temperature thermophysics in support of that program. My last few years were spent in program management where I successfully promoted the largest construction project ever awarded to the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
In the late 1960s I did a little flying in Santa Fe, New Mexico but other than this I left my flying behind me when I was released from the USAAC. My lovely wife, Carroll Sue, and I have enjoyed our two boys and our grandchildren, have done some traveling and have managed, since retirement, to stay busy with a wide variety of interests.
The crew had its first real reunion in 1969, in Miami, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the crew's formation. We all brought our wives and some their children. It was such a moving experience that we had more reunions every five years at various locations in the country until we got into our 60s when we increased the frequency to every two or three years. In the process of getting together so often, all the families got to know each other and the men found that the passing years have continued to strengthen the bonds that had been forged by the experiences of WW II. What had started out as a random selection of youngsters by the U.S.Army has matured into a proto-typical, close, extended family.
Words cannot express my pride in the crew and my gratitude to the fate that allowed me to spend such an important part of my life in the company of some the finest men our country had ever produced.
From "The Youngest Crew" by Paul Wagner
Lagumo Press, Cheyenne, WY, 1997, ISBN 1-878117-18-1
