Theodore Drazkowski, diary part 4

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l never knew any of those fellows from the other ship that went down. I think l have more time at Abu Sueir playing black jack than l did flying. l never saw a B-25. All we had with us was the British. Our bombing altitude according to the Jim Walker was around 22,000'.

I pulled the rip cord pretty quick. I had to be way up there yet cause that German Pilot flew by me and it seemed like he just parked along side of me - which was impossible but he waved to me and I waved back to him - what the hell should I do shoot at him? I thought he was coming in to mow me down.

There were some good pilots there - damn good men. Then there was a Harvey Seeley - he didn't belong to the 376th but I guess he was on loan with them for some time. I was born and raised in a small town of Ironwood, Michigan, and across the street from our home a family moved in and the fellow was a forester and his name was Harvey Seeley. Every morning he'd be going to work and I'd be going to work and we'd spot each other and I'd wave to him and say Hi and that was the end of our conversations.

One day he was packing up a truck and I went over and said “What are you doing Harvey?” He said "Oh I got transferred". He was working for the forestry service. And we got to talking back and forth and it was the first time we ever talked to each other. He said "Were you in the service Ted?” To make a long story short it all boiled down to he was up in the control tower at Abu Sueir and sent us off on our mission. We never knew each other over there and not until we met in Ironwood Michigan.

I don't remember Norman Appold - I understand that he put his heart and soul into everything. I had a visit from a Pilot in the 376th here a couple of weeks ago - Tom something I can't remember his last name. He got shot down over Yugoslavia right at the end of the war - said he spent a couple of weeks in detention there and that was it. He's going to look me up again.