Lost Heroes Of North Rose, New York Will Both Be Remembered For Final Missions
Lost Heroes Of North Rose, New York Will Both Be Remembered For Final Missions
Memorial to be dedicated in apple country
It started with a great uncle I never got to meet. My grandmother’s brother, John Blakeslee Thomas, was lost in Operation Tidal Wave, the daring — and doomed — low-level attack on the Ploesti oilfields of Romania, known as Hitler’s gas station, in 1943. His remains were only identified in 2022 and he finally was laid to rest with his family in 2023. I told the story of his loss in this archived post.
Premium subscribers have full access to these archives. Here is the story of how Uncle John’s remains were identified and returned to North Rose, New York.
This is my essay on all the Allied bombing campaigns against the Ploesti refineries. It is also available for premium subscribers. Perhaps you are seeing a pattern here.
Here is the archived post on the homecoming ceremonies for Uncle John. That area of western New York is beautiful and filled with apple farms. Wayne County is an hour from Rochester, the nearest major city. The local people were amazing. An entire little town turned out for John’s funeral with flags and hands on hearts. I thought this trip was to be my last visit there, but I was wrong.
Because while I was in New York, I discovered that Uncle John had a classmate who was also a pilot. There were only sixteen students in the class of 1938, so they clearly knew one another, and ended up taking complementary roles in the fight. Even more amazing, when I dug into his unit history, I realized that Donald had been lost in an equally heroic mission to the one John flew, and that his family was probably never informed of the nature of his mission.
Working with a local artist, Mark DeCracker, I was able to learn more about Melvin Donald Putnam’s journey home. We are still trying to locate any living relatives. I will join Mark in that search next week when I fly up to present this amazing true story to the Wayne County Historical Society, which is about to dedicate a mural to the memory of both men.
Please consider a premium subscription to this website to help support this research project. While I am there next week, I will be consulting with local historians and looking at local archives to see what I can find. Your premium subscription can help make that happen, so I am offering a flash sale discount until next Friday.
Mark asked me to write the text of the memorial plaques that will go on the mural. This was a solemn responsibility and I cannot wait to see the finished memorial next week. I hope there will be enough material when I come home to write a book. Please consider supporting this endeavor with a premium subscription that allows you full access to these archives.
