Recent News:

• xxxxxx
• All Lonesome Polecat II crew members have now passed on.
• February 8th, 2007, Doral A. Hupp, Ball Turret Gunner, died, Lake of Woods, Virgina. Buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Washington D.C.
• January 29th, 2007, Loren E. Dodson, S/Sgt, Top Turret Gunner, died, Carrolton, Illinois.
• May 4th, 2007, a memorial was held on Texel Island, Netherlands, for S/Sgt. Eugene F. Darter. Thirteen members of the Darter family traveled to Texel for the memorial. The Governor of Texel placed a plaque on the Lancaster World War II monument for airmen in honor of S/Sgt. Darter and two other crewmen for giving their lives on 16 December 1943. Many attendees presented flowers at the memorial. Several of the attendees were eyewitnesses, who more than 60 years ago, had seen the badly damaged and stricken B-17 (Lonesome Polecat II) crash just off the Texel beach in the North Sea and some of the crew land either on the island or in S/Sgt. Darter’s case, in the Wadden Sea. This included Cornelius Ellen who saw badly wounded Darter come through the clouds by parachute and was blown out into the Wadden Sea and after splashing down was then blown further out into the sea by the strong wind in his parachute which he was unable to disconnect with only one arm. His remains have never been recovered.
  
  Before the memorial began, and beyond all belief, the Darter family was presented with a piece of the B-17 Lonesome Polecat II which had washed up on the shore of Texel near the location of the submerged aircraft just the week before the memorial. The piece was found by Mr. Paul Dekker of Texel and given to the World War II museum at the Texel airport. The story was carried by various newspapers in the Netherlands and in the United States (see The News-Gazette: “Message from beyond” by Paul Wood, 12 May 2007, Champaign, IL, USA).
  

  

• November 16th, 2006, Cornelius Ellen, celebrates his 80th birthday, on Texel Island, The Netherlands.
• February 1st, 2006, Royal 'Pete' Jackson, Navigator, died, Phoenix, Arizona.
• August 15th, 2003, Charles J. Schreiner, S/Sgt, Ball Turret Gunner, died, Burbank, California.