Missing In Action Over Frances

Missing in Action Over Frances

Born on September 7, 1920, in the small town of Leesburg, Florida, James Ramsey Golden would live through both the Great Depression and WWII, arguably two of the most impactful events that shaped the United States we know today. Golden served in World War II as a fighter pilot, and after parachuting out of his damaged airplane on D-Day, he spent eleven months as a German prisoner of war at the infamous Stalag Luft III. While surviving the trials of war—and flourishing afterward—might be considered sufficient for one lifetime, Golden’s path would take him through many more pivotal events of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The tumultuousness South of the 1960s, adding the country’s 50th state, hosting ambassadors, befriending future president Jimmy Carter, and being among the first Americans invited to China in the late 1970s are but a few. Through it all, James Golden remained a kind and genuine man who loved family and country, grateful for—and a bit bemused by—how his life unfolded. In the warm and friendly pages of Missing in Action Over Frances: A Life Well Lived, Golden takes you on his life’s story—sometimes alarming, sometimes powerful, often humorous, and always interesting.

THE WARTIME STORY OF FRANCIS JOSEPH MORRISSEY: PILOT SCHOOL, THE 450th BOMBARDMENT GROUP, FLYING THE B-24 LIBERATOR AND PRISONER OF WAR AT DULAG LUFT, STALAG LUFT III SAGAN, STALAG XIII-D NURNBERG AND STALAG VII-A MOOSBURG

This is the story of my grandfather, B-24 Liberator Co-Pilot, Flight Officer and later Lieutenant, Francis Joseph Morrissey. This book chronicles his life: from growing up in Dayton, Ohio; becoming a factory worker just out of high school; enlisting in the Army Air Forces in 1942; completing Pilot School in Lubbock, Texas in August 1943; training to fly a B-24 Liberator; forming and training a crew in Clovis and Alamogordo, New Mexico with Pilot Francis S. Rzatkowski and Navigator “Handsome” Harry E. Parr; being assigned to Crew #302-9-59 in one of the four squadrons in the 450th Bombardment Group - the 722nd Bombardment Squadron (H); flying half way around the world from Herington, Kanas to Manduria, Italy in November and December 1943 with Rzatkowski and Parr on B-24H Liberator Serial No.41- 28603 - the “603” - - painted the “Chiquita Mia” around 10 November 1943; flying missions from Manduria Airfield on three ships; being shot down over Krizevci, Yugoslavia on 30 May 1944 on his 27th mission while Co-Pilot of B-24H Liberator Serial No. 42-94901; interrogation and processing at Dulag Luft; internment at Stalag Luft III; “The March” to Stalag XIII-D Nurnberg Langwasser starting on 27 January 1945; internment at Stalag VII-A; liberation by Patton’s Third Army on 30 April 1945; time spent in the Cigarette Camp Lucky Strike near Le Havre, France; the voyage home on Liberty Ship USS Monticello (AP-61) from 23 May to 3 June 1945; marriage to my grandmother on 16 June 1945; the remainder of his active duty service at Wright Field until October 1946; and post-war service in the Reserve and National Guard until 1972.

Official U. S. Bulletin