Capt.Wallace Emmer 354th Fighter Group

[aaatripp]

We remember with pride Capt. Wallace N. "Bud/Wally" Emmer, USAAF who died on Feb. 15, 1945 in the arms of his fellow POW, Royal Australian Air Force F/O Navigator, Leonard A. Walker, as they were preparing to depart the POW transit camp Dulag Luft Wetzlar, bound for a German hospital. Apparenntly, the concussion from nearby bomb blasts of an Allied raid hastened Capt. Emmer's death from myocarditis.


To remember those days in February, 1945 when the war in the European Theater was moving to a rapid conclusion with Allied forces rapidly advancing towards Berlin from the west and the east. The Battle of the Bulge in SE Belgium was over and the German salient had been flanked and defeated.

Any news reaching the krieges (kriegegefangenen---POWs) in the many Dulags & Stalags, POW camps, was hopeful that they would soon be liberated. Around the time of Feb. 12-14, during an air raid alert at the camp, B-17 ball turret gunner Don Beal from Utah noticed a kriege limping towards the air raid shelter. Beal offered his shoulder to the airman and they got him to a bench to wait out the raid. During that time they talked and the airman talked of going home and looking forward to a turkey dinner with his family. After the "All Clear" signal was given, the two parted ways. A few days later Beal learned that the airman had died while in the process of leaving the camp.....30...40...50 years passed until Beal was in the home of a cousin in Riverside, CA and they were chatting in the cousin's home-office. Photos and mementos from the cousin's military service were displayed on the wall and the two started comparing notes....realizing that both had served in the U.S. Army Air Force. Ed Regis as a P-51 fighter pilot and Don Beal as a B-17 ball turret gunner. They also learned that both had been captured by the Germans and had been in various POW camps. Beal related to Regis how something unusual had occurred near the end of his time in the Dulag.....and he proceeded to tell Regis about encountering the airman, helping him...and then the sadness of hearing how he had died just a few days later while leaving the camp. Regis sat upright and told Beal to go over to the wall and look at the photo (of the 353rd Fighter Squadron at Tonopah NV in July '43).
Regis then said "Do you see that airman?"........

Beal pointed straight at the leader of D Flight......Bud Emmer......and Bud was Ed Regis' flight leader before Ed was captured in April '44.

In the coming months we hope to learn more about Bud's final minutes of life from the records of F/O Leonard A. Walker, courtesy of his daughter, Tiana Adair.


Rest in Peace, Bud----you are missed by your family.


Tripp

[aaatripp]

Remembering this day, August 9, 1944----73 years ago when Bud's P-51D "Arson's Reward" FT-G was hit be accurate AA fire near Rouen, France. He bailed out of his burning aircraft as his wingman, Jack Miller, followed it down. Only a few years ago, when I spoke with Jack, was he finally aware that Bud had gotten out of his a/c and parachuted safely to the ground while suffering burns on his hands and legs from the fire in the cockpit.

Bud was captured and would spend the next six months and six days as a "kriege" before his death at Dulag Luft Wetzlar on 15 Feb 45 during an air raid.

RIP Bud....you are dearly missed.

Tripp and your family