The National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, Pooler, GA, will host two Mighty Talk programs on Sunday, May 24, as part of its Flags for the Fallen weekend programming in Chatham County, Georgia. The talks will feature author Jan Cress Dondi at 1 p.m. and editor Bob Korkuc at 2:30 p.m. Both programs are free to the public, though registration is requested. Dondi will discuss her bestselling book The Navigator’s Letter, which follows a WWII story tied to Operation Tidal Wave, the August 1, 1943, raid on the oil fields at Ploesti, Romania. The raid targeted Nazi Germany’s main fuel source and became the costliest U.S. air raid of the war, with 53 aircraft and 532 crewmen lost.
The book tells the story through two B-24 Liberator navigators from the same small Illinois town. Both joined the Air Corps, both became navigators, both flew missions over Europe, and both were forced down over Ploesti and listed as missing in action. Their story is also tied to the same woman, giving the book a personal thread alongside its account of wartime service. The Navigator’s Letter also covers later events connected to the Ploesti campaign, including Operation Reunion, the large-scale air evacuation that returned 1,162 prisoners of war from Romania to American air bases in Italy, with the Tuskegee Airmen of the 332nd Fighter Group flying escort. Dondi has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Georgia, completed post-graduate studies at the University of Alaska, and has spent decades working in research and legal writing. She lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Click HERE to register for Dondi’s 1 p.m. talk.
The second Mighty Talk will feature Bob Korkuc, editor of Life of the 381st Bomb Group: The World War II Diary of Eighth Air Force Chaplain James Good Brown. Korkuc became familiar with the 381st Bombardment Group while working on his earlier book, Finding a Fallen Hero: The Death of a Ball Turret Gunner, and later met the group’s chaplain, James Good Brown. Brown kept a diary during his service with the 381st Bomb Group from 1943 to 1945, recording the daily experiences of the men around him. He later self-published the diary, though copies are now difficult to find. Through his friendship with Brown, Korkuc gained access to the original document and edited it for a wider readership.
(Image credit: National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force)
Brown served in his early forties alongside airmen much younger than himself, whom he called the “Mighty Men of the 381st.” His diary follows morning briefings, meals with crews, the wait for aircraft to return from daylight bombing missions, and his own observations from a Flying Fortress combat mission over Germany as a noncombatant. The 381st Bomb Group flew 297 combat missions over Europe. Brown’s diary records the group’s daily life, losses, personalities, and victories, while Korkuc’s edition also includes an appendix tracing the fate of every airman who served with Brown. Korkuc is an electrical engineer and author who became a student of the 381st Bomb Group through his research into WWII aviation history. Registration for Korkuc’s 2:30 p.m. talk is available HERE. For more information and to support the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, click on this link: www.mightyeighth.org.
