My Father's War
Unfortunately, my father died long before I had the opportunity to find him and his surviving family in 1998. Thanks to the internet and motivated to find my natural father's medical history in order to facilitate treatment of an illness that I acquired from a blood transfusion during Army service, I discovered my dad had chronicled his wartime experiences with a fine collection of photographs mostly shot by him. He went on to be a part of the new USAF after WWII, flying as a communications NCO aboard B-29's, B-36's and B-50's at the height of the Cold War, including 14 nuclear weapons drops. Whether radiation exposure contributed to his premature death at age 55 in 1976 is not clear; he retired after 20 years of service in 1966. He left me and his widow, Mrs. G.E. Oligschlaeger and my five of my seven brothers and sisters, Mary, Mark, Tim, Shelly and Elizabeth. Robert (Leroy's younger brother) served in the USMC while J.D. (now deceased) made a career of the Navy. There remains a large extended family in Ohio, Iowa, and Missouri.
SGT Bernard Leroy 'Olie' Oligschlaeger USAAF, c.1944
Listing Site Updates
12/08/00 - 12/24/00 Started working on the site, filling four photo pages and beginning work on the other pages - contact, links, index, guest book, etc.
1/16/01 - added page 6 and made corrections.
8/7/01 - added information about new website to view all photos in my collection.
9/5/08 - Complete revision of site after transfer to iWeb begun
A Word About Squadron and Ship Identities
I am predisposed like many interested persons to presume not only crews but Marauders were consistently used in one plane or one squadron or another. For example, my father's USAAF documents list him as a member of the 586th BS, but the truth is (thanks to Trevor Allen) that the 394th BG in particular mixed and matched crews, squadrons and aircraft. Also, after replacement Marauders started to arrive, marking ID numbers issued by the Air Ministry (British, presumably) rarely were directed to their appropriate squadrons. Like all things in combat, the rules evidently soon broke down due to the needs existing in a wartime situation