Quilla D Reed
Military
Photo Courtesy of Jaap de Boer from his website : http://www.haulerwijk.com/~seattlesleeper/Crew.html
Object Number - UPL 37375 - Technical Sergeant Quilla D. Reed, 91st Bomb Group, 323rd Bomb Squadron.
Shot down 26 November 1944 in B-17 43-37913 'Seattle Sleeper. ' Evaded. for 91 days in Holland.
In May 1945 - some six months after he had been shot down and while he was on the run in Holland - he had been awarded the DFC. Interviewed by the 'Decateur Daily' in 1989 he preferred not to talk about his time as an evader, 'two or three people lost their lives taking care of me. It's only by the Grace of God and the good Dutch people that I am alive today'. He was finally given his medal in 1989 at Maxwell AFB and even later - in 1995 - some surviving members of the first Dutch family to shelter him all those years ago paid him a visit.
Connections
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Units served with
- Unit Hierarchy: Squadron
- Air Force: Eighth Air Force
- Type Category: Bombardment
- Unit Hierarchy: Group
- Air Force: Eighth Air Force
- Type Category: Bombardment
Aircraft
- Aircraft Type: B-17 Flying Fortress
- Nicknames: Seattle Sleeper
- Unit: 91st Bomb Group 323rd Bomb Squadron
Events
| Event | Location | Date | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Born |
Lansing, Michigan, USA | 8 July 1922 | |
|
Enlisted |
2 July 1942 | Enlisted at Fort McClellan, Alabama. | |
|
Other Evaded |
Germany | 26 November 1944 | |
|
Died |
7 December 2006 |
Revisions
NARA files verified DFC, ASN upon entry and as a POW. He earned at least one bronze star on the EAME Campaign Medal. More than likely he earned the Good Conduct Medal. He would be eligible for the Prisoner of War Medal upon application.
Biography completed by historian Helen Millgate. Information sourced from newsletters of the 91st Bomb Group related to the service of Quilla reed
Jaap de Boer from his website : http://www.haulerwijk.com/~seattlesleeper/Crew.html
Drawn from the records of the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, Savannah, Georgia / MACR 10837 / Paul Andrews, Project Bits and Pieces, 8th Air Force Roll of Honor database
