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The date is Dec. 24, 1944, in the midst of World War II,
and while most Americans are at home preparing for a
Christmas with their families, 1st Lt. Cuno Vernal Becker,
an armament officer with the 836th Bomb Squadron, 487th Bomb
Group, is boarding his B-17 Flying Fortress, about to take
part in mission number 760 -- the 8th Air Force's largest
single mission of the war.
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The crew of a B-17 Flying Fortress, to include 1st Lt. Cuno Vernal Becker, standing, far right. Becker is the great-uncle of current U.S. Air Force Chief Master Sgt. James McCloskey. (Courtesy photo
by U.S. Air Force Chief Master Sgt. James McClose)
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Vern, as he is known by
his family, was not originally meant to be part of that
mission, but as the story is told, he gave one of his
enlisted members the day off for Christmas Eve, and manned
the tail gun, said U.S. Air Force Chief Master Sgt. James
McCloskey.
Vern was McCloskey's great uncle, and
Christmas Eve 1944 would be the last mission 1st Lt. Cuno
Vernal Becker would be a part of.
The crew of nine
was shot down that day over Aywaille, Belgium. Seven of the
nine were killed in action; two survived.
Flash
forward more than 70 years later, and the New Jersey Air
National Guard's 177th Fighter Wing is taking part in a
two-week temporary duty on Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany.
During some down time, part of the group took off to explore
Europe.
“When we were driving back from Amsterdam, we
happened to drive through Belgium,” McCloskey said. “As soon
as we passed through Belgium, I thought about my
Grandmother, who passed last year. She would always tell
stories about Vern. It's hard for me to be in Germany, or
anywhere in Europe, and not think about my great uncle and
the pictures of the war.”
McCloskey took this
opportunity to dive deeper into the history of his family,
and he began to further research the events that unfolded on
Christmas Eve, 1944.
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A photograph of the remaining parts of the B-17 Flying Fortress fuselage, manned by 1st Lt. Cuno Vernal Becker, and his crew, taken along the banks of the Ambleve River near Aywaille, Belgium, after the aircraft was shot down, Dec. 24, 1944. (Courtesy Photo)
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“I immediately texted my dad to
see if he could give me more info about Uncle Vern, and he
sent me info about him, and the town he went down in,”
McCloskey said. “I was able to narrow it down to the hamlet
of Septroux in Aywaille, Belgium.”
McCloskey did not
stop there. He took to the streets of Aywaille, asking the
elder locals if they could recall anything from that day.
The survey was unsuccessful.
“After we came back
that day, I felt like I could have made a better effort to
find out more,” McCloskey said. “I decided to do some
internet searching, and found a tiny museum in Aywaille
dedicated to World War II called, 40-45 Memories.”
This led the chief to Fr�d�ric Winkin, a resident of
Aywaille, and the curator of the museum.
“He said he
knew exactly what I was talking about. Not only that, but he
knew the exact location by the river where the main fuselage
came down, as well as an idea of where my uncle came down in
the tail section. From there, we set a date to meet up,”
McCloskey said.
Now for most, this alone is a
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity already, but Winkin had
something else planned for the chief.
“A couple days
later, Fr�d�ric emailed me to say that he had one more
surprise for me. He had found the man who pulled my uncle
out of that plane, 70 years ago, and that he was willing to
meet with me,” McCloskey said. “Honestly, that made me
nervous. I, a great nephew of Vern, was going to represent
my whole family and meet this man.”
So on Aug. 12,
2015, McCloskey, accompanied by Winkin and two 177th FW
members, went to the exact location on the banks of the
Ambleve River near Aywaille, where 1st Lt. Cuno Vernal
Becker's B-17 came down more than 70 years prior.
Directly after, the group was taken to the home of the older
Belgian who was at the crash site in 1944, Gaston Mean.
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An unknown man poses in front of a downed B-17 Flying Fortress, tail number 4337569, following a dogfight which occurred, Dec. 24, 1944. The aircraft's crew included 1st Lt. Vernal Cuno Becker, the tail gunner on the mission, and great-uncle of current U.S. Air Force Chief Master Sgt. James McCloskey. (Courtesy photo)
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Mean, accompanied by his wife, invited the group inside,
sat them down, and pulled out a hand-written letter.
A pin drop could be heard in the living room of this
long-standing Belgian home, as all eyes were focused on the
older man while he precisely detailed what took place that
day, in classic French dialect, as Winkin translated for the
group.
“Since Mr. Mean was the one who found my
uncle, he obviously had an emotional bond with him. He never
knew what happened to my uncle after that day. He wondered
if he survived or died; he wondered if he went on to have a
life in America,” McCloskey said.
McCloskey then
informed Mean of something that had been unknown to him for
more than 70 years. Becker tragically died two days later
from injuries sustained in the crash, at an allied hospital
in Belgium. At this point, it had come full circle for both
Mean, and McCloskey.
“I can't put into words how
much all of this meant to my family,” McCloskey said.
“Everyone is fascinated and touched; I get calls from
different family members all the time now who want to hear
the story. I wish I could tell them more. I wish they were
all in that town and that living room with me.”
Chief
McCloskey may not have been part of his great uncle's
mission number 760, but after the experience in Aywaille,
Belgium, he got as close to that crew as any man today
possibly could.
By U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Shane S. Karp
Provided through DVIDS
Copyright 2015
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