#losing him hurt worse than loosing buck and Bucky I bet because I’m sure very people on base actually knew who Buck and Bucky were

[thatsrightice]

With Rosie, life was fun.

Then he got shot down. On a mission to Nuremberg, he got hit over the target, limped as far as Belgium, and crash-landed in France. Jack Wallace took over as 418th Commanding Officer.

Three weeks passed. Rosie came back to Thorpe Abbotts. With the help of the Underground, he made it out in record time, his broken arm in a sling.

This time he became 350th Squadron Commander.

Later, he got shot down again and managed to land where some French Resistance picked him up and shipped him to the American troops.

The 100th had a heart and a spirit again.

Rosie made a difference.

…

On February 3-it seemed so sudden because we didn't expect it-Rosie went down again. It was his fifty-second mission. He was leading the entire task force over Berlin. The report stated that he was hit just after the I.P, at 25,000 feet, at 1115 hours, with a ground rocket hitting the number one fuel tank. "Fire and dense white smoke were seen coming out of the fuselage and bomb bay." Heading northeast, "the plane flew level for a few moments, while the crew bailed out. It was last seen at 15,000 feet, "burning and beginning to spin."

Gloom on the base, like when the two Buckys went down. An enlisted man in Group Ops told me, "Sir, Major Rosenthal is a legend here. We all feel bad."

Rosie, the Indomitable, was gone.

The 100th hurt.

— Harry Crosby in his memoir, A Wing and a Prayer