One of the biggest problems surrounding the compilation of personnel data is the ambiguity of identity and spelling of names. When the historical record mentions a Smith, with no first names, it is often impossible to identify which Smith is being referred to. Having a first name to go with a last name may not be much help, since the group had at least two Joseph Miller's in service at the same time, and both were pilots. The clerks who typed up the group records are human and often made typing errors, or spelling errors. It is not always certain which of multiple spellings may be correct. Moreover, in many cases it is not clear whether these errors refer to one person, or to many. To avoid compounding the errors corrections were avoided. So you'll see names spelled as they appeared in the historical document. Unfortunately, it cannot be said that errors weren't introduced in transcribing the information. Hopefully, these are a minimum. As you go through the website be mindful that that errors will be found. If you find any, it would be appreciated if they were brought to the attention of the webmaster: webmaster486@comcast.net. Historians of the 486th have gone to great lengths to identify individuals who served with the 486th. This is an relatively easy matter with regards to aircrew. Aircrew data was carefully maintained within the limits described above. Support personnel only appear in the historical record if they are promoted, or awarded for their performance. Consequently, not all support personnel have been identified. Information regarding support personnel, and their support unit, is of keen interest, and anyone having any info to share, are encouraged to do so. Crew loading lists are available online, which supercede any information contained in crew pages. While not all crew loading lists survived the years, most of them did. The names are, unfortunately, not uniform in completeness. Sometimes only the last name was entered, or the first initials. This may force a methodical search page-by-page for the desired information. A search of loading lists can be performed using the search string: [first name] [middle initial] last name "Loading List" Thanks to all who have contributed to the history of the 486th over the life of the association. If you've contributed and your name does not appear on this list: Acknowledgements please contact the webmaster. For those of you visiting our website, I hope you will enjoy your visit and will leave with an appreciation of the sacrifices made by brave young men in the skies over Europe so many years ago, and the contributions of the men and women who "sweated out" each mission, and worked long, dark, cold nights to "keep 'em flyin'". With fondest regards, Robin Smith |
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Copyright © 1998-2024, 486th Bomb Group Association. |
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The 486th website has been online since December 1998 in several incarnations. The website has been assembled piecemeal as information became available. As a consequence information on the website may be incomplete, inconsistent, or erroneous. This is particularly true of crew information (air and ground).