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Click on the photo to read more about Good Pickin and the Crew of 42-97242 Mario Schulze on March 30th, 2008 6:34 pm My name is Mario Schulze, I am 40 years old and live in Oranienburg, Germany, not far away where both planes have crashed. I am an amateur air war historian in my home district Oberhavel and in research for local air war history and crashed planes since ten years. If you are interested to get more informations, please feel free and contact me. Sincerely Mario Schulze Kim on April 15th, 2008 12:06 am It amazes me that you have found so much information online… and that Mr. Stetler’s ID tags were found so many years after the crash… amazing. I can’t even imagine what his brother would be able to say upon hearing that news. Emeline Harpster Hood on May 27th, 2008 1:02 am Eugene Harpster, one of the men on the plane Good Pickin, was my brother. I was 5-6 when he went off to war. As someone has already discovered, they were declared missing in action and then declared dead one year later. Gene’s home was in central PA. When the mass grave was found, it was determined that the bodies would be returned to the US for burial. Originally they were to be buried in a military cemetery in MO but some of the parents got in touch with their congressmen and asked them to interven so they could be buried in Arlington. I was about 14-16 when the bodies were brought back to the US and buried in Arlington. I vividly remember going to the ceremony at Arlington. There were 7 caskets with two flags on the caskets and of course the flags were presented to the families present. The families were told that they had been buried in a mass grave by a German farmer which fits with all the pieces already discovered. My brother was the radio operator on the plane. Our son who is a West Point graduate was to give the Memorial Day speech in the small town where he resides and wanted some information on his uncle so he googled him and came across the website. _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Victor B. Ratliff II on May 28th, 2008 3:22 pm _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Leon A. Sarnowski on June 11th, 2008 12:47 am My father, Stanley Sarnowski is Leon (Leo) Sarnowski’s brother. Stanley visited the crew in Amarillo, Texas a few days prior to their departure for England. Stanley was working in Kansas City at the time. The crew had a difficult time in obtaining spirits and he brought them 5 bottles of whiskey. My father and the entire crew had a party to celebrate their departure. _______________________________________________________________________________________________ CAROL AUSTIN on June 12th, 2008 8:10 pm My father, Stanley Sarnowski was Leon(Leo)Sarnowski’s brother. I attended the ceremony at Arlington with my father, a brother, my grandparents and aunt. I was only nine years old at the time but I found it to be a very impressive and moving ceremony. I never knew my uncle Leon as I was under two years old when he died. Thank you for all your research and time in locating family members. This was very informative and interesting. _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Vicki Ishler Matthews on December 31st, 2008 6:58 am I am amazed at this story. I found the site “googling” the Harpster surname, as my great-great grandmother was Nancy “Ellen” Harpster Harshberger from Centre Co, PA (she is buried in Gatesburg) I suspect Eugene was in this same Harpster line somewhere As a teacher/sponsor of our school’s annual History Day competitors, I applaud Alec for his scholarship and the great parenting that supported this project— It truly ended up going above and beyond! Bravo! _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Jill Smelser on April 8th, 2009 4:44 pm My grandmother is Berniece Stetler Young, Robert Stetler’s sister. She is currently 95 1/2 years old. Her younger brother, Dud, was contacted last year about the ID bracelet and dog tags. It was very hard for both of them to believe that after 64 years later they would finally have something of Bob’s back from the war. In January they received a package from Mario with the dogtags, ID bracelet and a coin found nearby. My grandmother and her brother are the only two remaining siblings of a family of 6 boys and 2 girls. We have photos of the Arlington burial as well as a photo of 30 young men that must have been in training together. The photo has 3-21-A written on the bottom left corner. I am not sure what this means. So many thanks go out to Mario and his son for finally providing my grandmother and her brother with personal items of their brother. It is certainly a blessing well worth the wait. _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Gerald Leighton on April 26th, 2009 10:33 pm Great to see someone preserving the memories and photos of the brave men who served our country in WWII. I too have a photo of that particular B-17, however, it has a different crew. I was wondering if you had any information on the earlier crews that flew that aircraft. My great uncle Phil Kierstead was in the picture and I’m trying to find out the rest of the crew. The names I can make out are Jeff Roberts, Stephen O’Lear. Thanks _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Declan on June 9th, 2009 10:13 pm Gerald, Your Great Uncle Phil was with the 96 Bombardment Group, 339 Squadron, 8th USAAF. He was stationed at Snetterton in England (station 138) His B-17 was hit by german fighters near Magdeburg while on a bomb run to Berlin on March 8, 1944. The actual crash site was near Helmstead. The seriel number of his plane was 42-31576 Crew list of 42-31576: I believe all survived and spent the remainder of the war as POW’s at Stalag Luft 4 Missing Air Crew Report for your great uncle’s plane is MACR 3426. You should be able to purchase a copy at either on of the sites below _______________________________________________________________________________________________ If you wish to add a comment send and e-mail to info@poorhousephotos.com
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