January 21, 2005
Oroville Mercury Register May 31, 1945
GOES TO NEW DUTIES
OAKLAND- The assignment of Sgt. Frank J. Cowan, whose home
address is Spruce St., Gridley, to the Pacific overseas air technical
service command has been announced here by Brig. Gen. Farthing.
GETS SILVER LEAF CLUSTER
A NINTH AIR FORCE BOMBER BASE, Belgium
Second Lt. Charles H. Ford, 28, B-26 Marauder bombardier
from Gridley, Calif., recently was awarded the Silver Leaf Cluster
to his Air Medal. Lt. Ford has completed 37 bombing missions over
bridges, troop concentrations, communication centers and other tactical
targets in Germany.
HOWARD MOONEY AWARDED SECOND OAK LEAF CLUSTER
AN EIGHTH AIR FORCE BOMBER STATION, England
Staff Sgt. Howard Mooney, 24, whose wife, Mrs Phyllis Mooney
lives on Bridge Street, has been awarded the second Oak Leaf Cluster
to the Air Medal. The award is equivalent to a third award of the
medal, for “meritorious achievement” on bombing attacks against
German military and industrial installations and on battle area
air attacks in cooperation with the Allied ground forces. The airman
showed “courage, coolness and skill” while serving as waist gunner
with the 490th Bomb. Group, a B-17 Flying Fortress unit
of the Eighth Air Force. Prior to entering the army air forces in
December 1943 he was employed by the Western Electric Company. He
is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Mooney of Rt. 2, Oroville.
CLINTON EVANS, GUNNER, PROMOTED TO SERGEANT
AN EIGHTH AIR FORCE BOMBER STATION, ENGLAND
Clinton W. Evans, the 22-year-old son of Mrs. Myrtle Evans,
of Richvale, California, has recently been promoted from the rank
of corporal to sergeant. Sgt. Evans, ball turret gunner on a B-17
Flying Fortress heavy bomber, participated in thirteen daylight
bombing assaults against the Nazi war machine in Europe. Since his
arrival in the European Theater of Operations on February 8, 1945,
Sgt. Evans has been serving with the veteran 305th Bombardment
Group. One of his missions was the 1400-plane Eighth Air Force assault
on the three principal ports in northern Germany on March 30. Flying
with the 305th Group, his target was an important bridge
over the Weser River at Bremen, where the B-17’s unloaded their
thousand-pound bombs with good results. Before entering the AAF
on April 18, 1944, Sgt. Evans was engaged in farming.
Stu’s notes: Please check out our web site, put together by Committee
member Daryl Autrey, www.orovilleveteransmemorialpark.org.
It gets better and better all the time. Daryl has done a marvelous
job on this. Working countless hours at his computer. I went to
OHS with Daryl a long time ago. Which reminds me, we are planning
a 100 year reunion of Oroville and Las Plumas High School. It will
be big, all of the high school classes of the last 100 years are
invited (to me, especially the veterans). We can surely be proud
of the accomplishments of those who marched off to serve our country
from Oroville. I read their stories, I know what they’ve done. I
can truly say there is no other place in America that has done more
than those from Oroville. The reunion will be held in October 2006.
Last Monday was our 4th January that we have met.
Ted Grainger opened our Oroville Veterans Memorial Park Committee
Meeting with a prayer and the flag salute as always. This month
we had the honor to salute a flag that was brought home from Kuwait.
It was flown over Camp Victory, brought here by Ted’s son-in-law,
Major Michael Hoyle. Four long years and this year Oroville will
finally see some results. Soon we will ask the citizens of Oroville
to come forward and show their support, as some already have.