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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Mrs. Virginia D. Hohmann

Thank you for acknowledging our contribution to honor my husband, we wish we could
do more. He was 90 on March 24th of this year.
Frank has been interested in airplanes and flight almost all his life. He was only seven
when C. Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic and while still in grade school received many
newspaper clippings of a British airship crashing. The airmail planes flew over his
parents house and if he was not busy with chores would run outside to watch the plane
until it was out of sight.
Once a month he had permission to visit the local shoe maker's shop nearby to read the
Modern Mechanics and National Geographic Magazines. The shoe maker gave him the
copy of the magazine with the plans of the Air Camper designed by P. H. Pietenpod when
he was 14. He was also interested in wood working. He built the wood frame of that air
plane, his mother supplied the cloth that he used to cover the frame. He and his Dad after
two years of looking for wheels and an engine had to give up.
He lived in a Polish neighborhood, graduated from high school in 1938.
When Hitler went into Poland in 1939 he joined the US ARMY Air Corps and went to
Panama where he was assigned to the 74th Bomb squad. He got a chance to attend the
19th Wing Tech school at Rio Hata, Rep de Panama and earned very good grades. He
also took and passed exams to attend cadet training in the states. Because of those grades
an Officer offered him a chance to become his flight engineer on the B-17-B. He
eventually was checked out on all B 17s to Fs. He flew 147 round trips to the Galapagos
Islands from Guatemala City.
July 1942 he and his crew went to the SWPA to join the 19th BG 28th Squad and flew 25
combat missions earning the Silver Star and two Air medals. November 1942 his crew
transferred to the 43rd BG 65th squad and flew 25 missions. He was placed on TDY to
train new men in B 17 Es at 8th Photo recon. squad where he did 25 missions. Rejoining
his crew who were now in the 43rd BG 403rd Squad he completed 8 more combat
missions in a B-24-J for a total of 83 missions. He did not keep track of all the other
flights he made while in the service over 5 ½ years. We had the opportunity to visit the
National Museum some years ago with a 19th BG ASSN. Reunion.
He has written about what his duties were while in service and copied it to a CD that I
can make a copy for you if you have a use for such.