Crew of Ding Dong Daddy from Dixie

This is the crew of "Ding Dong Daddie from Dixie" after completing our final mission, #32. Our target was Stuart Germany. The mission did not turn out too bad. We landed and were told to hang around our aircraft as the CO wanted to see us, we wondered of course what did we do wrong, the Col. did not come out to see his wandering souls. So anyway, he did show up and looked at us, and then said, "boys that was it, you are done.." Needless to say we were happy, and most smiled.

Standing far left is Loyd Stuart. In the center of the back row is John B. Wise. He was one of the finest gentlemen that I have ever known. He was our bombardier. As towards the end of this period of combat, we often took our navigator or our bombardier. So when we finished this 13th of September 1944, he was still 3 missions short of doing his tour. He was in a makeup crew on his last mission, they all had time in and were flying with a new pilot, it was his first mission and he was one of those gung ho guys. They were hit and on fire and I am sure the crew ask him to pull out so they could bail out, he would not do so. The aircraft exploded and all were killed. It sure hurt when I found out.

- Phil Anderson

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