[aaatripp]

15 Feb 1945 - 'Lest We Forget. Bud Emmer died on this day 65 years ago (DNB) at Dulag Luft Wetzlar. He collapsed into the arms of fellow POW F/O Leonard A. Walker after suffering a fatal heart attack when the nearby air raid siren sounded an alarm. He had been recovering from burns suffered 9 Aug 44 when his P-51D "Arson's Reward" (FT-G) of the 353FS (354FG/9AF) was hit in the fuselage fuel tank by a German 88mm shell, just north of Rouen, France. In the POW camp, Bud had spoken with a B-17 ball turret gunner, Sgt. Don Beal, only 1-2 days before his death....his spirits were high as he looked forward to going home after the war. Dulag Luft Wetzlar would be liberated just 3 weeks later.

Sadly, Bud's younger brother, PFC Raymond P. Emmer, was killed 3 months earlier in the Weisser Stein woods along the International Highway, just west of Udenbreth, Germany. Ray was serving as an ammo loader for a 30cal MG in a heavy weapons platoon of H Company/394th Inf. Regiment/99 Division. It was 2015 on 18 Nov 44 & Ray had recently received a letter from home informing him that Bud had been shot down. Ray exited his foxhole (shared with Bill Williams) and was hit by shrapnel from a German mortar round. The shrapnel pierced an artery & Ray went into shock. They were just over the Belgian-German border, and assigned to Gen. Omar Bradley's 1st Army. One month later many of Ray's fellow soldiers (including his squad sgt., Fred Zimmerman) would be killed, wounded or captured just to the south of this location in the early morning hours of 16 Dec 44....by the massive artillery barrage & panzer onslaught at the start of the Battle of the Bulge.

Both Bud & Ray were brought home from Europe to St. Louis in 1948 and now rest beside their parents.

We remember their service and their sacrifice.....

Tripp