media-19491.jpeg UPL 19491 MacKinnon aircrew - 412th Bomb Sqdn B-17F-65-BO “Lonesome Polecat I” #42-29693 BACK ROW 1st Lt. Malcolm B. MacKinnon (pilot) F/O Eugene W. Wood (co-pilot) 2nd Lt. William H. Powell (navigator) 2nd Lt. Gerald J. Jenkins (bombardier) MIDDLE ROW T/Sgt Alexander A. Mareck (waist gunner) T/Sgt John J. Vail (radio operator) S/Sgt John F. Davoren (waist gunner) S/Sgt George Babich (top turret gunner) FRONT ROW S/Sgt Stanley D. Bennett (tail gunner) S/Sgt Lyle P. Blackridge (ball turret gunner).

This photo is believed to have been taken while the 95th Bomb Group was still in Rapid City, South Dakota. The crew, as shown above, is not the crew that was flying in the Lonesome Polecat on June 11th, 1943, when it was shot down and all aboard were KIA. Not with the crew that day were S/SGT Blackridge, 2LT Powell, and 2LT Jenkins.

Jim Hersom