Capt. Melvin J. Spencer

I enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1942 at age 19. After aerial navigation training in Texas, I was commissioned a second lieutenant and transferred to the 95th Bomb Group, Eighth Air Force stationed in England.

On February 10, 1944 on a bombing mission to Brunswick, Germany our B-17 was shot down by German fighter planes in the vicinity of Osnabruck, Germany. After solitary confinement and interrogation at Dulag Luft 1, Frankfurt-on-Main, we were shipped to Stalag Luft 1 near Barth, Pomerania on the Baltic Sea Coast. Our prisoner of war camp was liberated by the Russian Army in mid-May 1945. I resigned my commission in 1955 after 10 years in the Air Force reserves.