4021 Borman Drive • Batavia OH 45103 • (513) 735-4500 • map
We love our Veterans!
Honored Veterans
| Vito Aloisio | LCDR Ret., flew PV-1 bombers in the Pacific War, seaplanes in Korea, helicopters in Vietnam, and airships for the Navy in a career spanning 21 years. |
| William Barr | a U. S. Navy pilot of PB4, PBM and PV in the Atlantic, Caribbean and Pacific from 1942 to 1945.  |
| Gordon Beard | a B-17 pilot with the 457th Bomb Group in the European Theater. Went on to serve in the U.S. Air Force for 40 years, 21 as a pilot and 19 as a civilian with Air Force Intelligence. |
| Albert Blair | Master Sergeant, B-24 Crew Chief, 13th Air Force, 4th Photographic Reconnaissance and Mapping Group. |
| Ray Blankenship | USS Hancock (CV-19) part of the 3rd and 5th fleets, off the coast of Japan. Entered Tokyo Bay just after the Peace treaty was signed. Entered the Navy on his 17th birthday, discharged March 1946 still a teenager. Trained in aircraft maintenance and anti-aircraft gunnery. Flew in training flights in SBD Dauntless and TBM Avenger dive bombers. |
| Don Brandt |
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| Bob Brinsmaid | bio coming soon |
| Frank W. Buschmeier | B-17 waist gunner in the 350th Squadron of the 100th Bomb Group ("The Bloody Hundredth") of the 8th Air Force. Based at Thorpe Abbotss, England. 34 missions until he was taken prisoner by the Germans after getting hit and bailing out of the heavily damaged B-17 "Randi Lou". Spent 9 months as a German POW, liberated in May 1945. |
| Leo Cavender | A B-25 pilot with the island-hopping 41st Bomb Group (M) of the 7th Air Force in the South Pacific. His missions took him through the Gilbert, Marshall and Marianas Islands. While on Okinawa he was among the first "land based" B-25's to attack the Japanese mainland on Kyushu. He also witnessed the second atomic bomb over Nagasaki while returning from a bombing mission.  |
| Bruce Cook | bio coming soon |
| John Dennison | a B-25 pilot with the 7th Air Force, 41st Group, 48th Squadron. |
| Cliff Dornette | B-25 Pilot |
| Walter Downs | top turret gunner, 10th AAF, 12th Bomb Group, 82nd Squadron. Stationed in India from November 1944 through September 1945. Flew 55 combat missions in a B-25 Bomber. Participated in the "fly-over" at the Victory Parade in Rangoon, Burma on June 15, 1945. Assigned to C-47 for "hump" flights in helping to move the 12th Bomb Group to China. Awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal with two oak leaf clusters. |
| C. Don Fairbanks |  A tail gunner in a Consolidated B-24 Liberator with the "Carpetbaggers" in the 8th Air Force. All night missions dispatching supplies to the French and Belgium underground resistance, flew 30 missions. Author of the book Once Around the Patch, of Life. Don has over 33,000 flight hours in 335 makes and models of aircraft and is currently operating his helicopter flight training business since 1957.Tri-State Warbird Museum Contribution to Freedom Award recipient. |
| Raymond B. Fine | Information |
| Dan Fulton | WWII B-26 Martin Marauder medium bomber co-pilot with 23 missions over Germany. Served with the 375th Bomb Squadron, 391st Bomb Group. Entered service in 1943 and served until 1946 |
| Theodore "Ted" "Taffy Three" Gardner |  enlisted as a gunnery officer then received a field commission becoming an Ensign on board ship in the Pacific Theater. Transferred to flight training. Ted is the Contribution to Freedom Award recipient for 2009. |
| Ken Glass |  U.S. Navy pilot flying from the USS Hornet ship with Torpedo Squadron Two. After the war he remained in the Naval Reserve as a pilot until 1972, retiring with the rank of Captain. |
| Charles L. Gribi | Based in England as the bombadier on the B-24 "Briney Martin". 31 missions from April through October 1944. On his 4th mission on May 27, 2944 Charlie survived a mid-air collisions with another B-24 in formation. The Briney Martin had extensive damage to the right wing but was able to land at the home base while the other B-24 and crew was lost. Crew 71, 755th Squadron, 458th Bombardment Group, 2nd Air Division. October 1944 went to Midland, Texas as an instructor at Bombadier School until the war's end. Charles Gribi website: http://creativefolk.com/ww2/CharlesGribi.htm  l |
| Tom Griffin |  B-25 Navigator, one of the famous "Doolittle Raiders", flew with Lt. Col Jimmy Doolittle in the first mission against Japan in April 1942. Flew with Gen. Doolittle in the 12th Air Force in Africa from November 1942 until shot down and captured by the Germans on July 4, 1943. Tri-State Warbird Museum Contribution to Freedom Award recipient. |
| Herbert Heilbrun |  B-17 Bomber Pilot with many missions over enemy territory, served in Italy and on one occasion returned to base with a badly damaged aircraft with members of his crew killed. He credits the Tuskegee Airmen with saving his life. A recipient of the Harvard Foundation Award for his efforts to educate the public on his experiences in the war, his appreciation for the role the Tuskegee Airmen played in the war and the unfairness of racism. Tri-State Warbird Museum Contribution to Freedom Award recipient. |
| Robert Hippert | A navigator with the 11th Bomb Squadron of the 7th Bomb Group which became a squadron of the 341st Bomb Group serving in India and China. In July 1943 instructed with the Chinese-American Composite Wing at Malit, India.  |
| Richard Hunt |  Joined the Navy's V-5 Program after leaving the U.S. Army Reserve at age 19. After two years of intensive flight training became a Naval Aviator designated as an F4U Fighter Bomber Pilot. His last training event was carrier qualification completed on August 12, 1945, three days before "V-J Day". Dick has 158 hours in the Corsair. |
| Olaf Kahn | Major in the US Air Force, retired. Called for active duty for the Korean War in 1950 after serving in the West Virginia Air National Guard. Returning to active duty in 1962 for the Cuban missile crisis and continued active duty until retiring in 1979. Flown: C-123, C-130(over 5,000 hours in the C-130), PA-18, T-6, T-28, T-33, F-84, P-51, C-119. Flew in the US, Phillippines, Japan, England, Viet Nam, Europe, the Middle East, the Far East, and Africa. |
| Hank Kreuzman | bio coming soon |
| Bill Lahke |  P-51 pilot with the 353rd Fighter Group |
| John Leahr |  P-51 pilot and member of the Tuskegee Airmen. John served in the European Theater and had over 100 missions. He escorted his second grade Cincinnati classmate Herb Heilbrun's B-17 Bomber in combat. Awarded the Tri-State Warbird Museum Contribution to Freedom Award. |
| Robert Lorenz | Enlisted July 27, 1944 into the Navy. Basic training at Sampson, New York. Radio School at Bainbridge, Maryland then on to Newport, Rhode Island. Stationed on the USS Pocano, a command post communications flagship. Discharged out of the Navy June 14, 1946. Retired from the Cincinnati Fire Department after serving 28 years. |
| J. Arnold McCann | Personal body guard and chauffeur to General Stace in Guam, Served Army Air Corps 1943-1946, 25th Air Depot Group, 20th Air Force. |
| Milford Austin Merrill | U.S. Navy Commander Austin Merrill earned the Navy Cross flying the Douglas Dauntless SBD dive bomber in the Battle of Midway in June 1942 - (he was then Ensign Merrill). Merrill was involved in 9 naval battles including Wake Island and Marcus Island. He was assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga. He also landed on the USS Hornet immediately after Jimmy Doolittle took off from the flight deck in a B-25 as the infamous Doolittle Raiders flight. |
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Dan Meyer
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Information |
| Fred Naeve | P-51 pilot flying with the 363rd Group in the European Theater |
| Charles G. Nau | Flight Officer Army Air Corps November 1942 - December 1945. Radar Observer B-29. 485th Replacement Bomb Group, Smokey Hill Air Force Base, Celina, Kansas. |
| Richard Nichols | C-47 pilot until 1945 flying evacuation routes ferrying wounded out of Europe to Rome, Georgia, Denver, Colorado and Buffalo, New York. Was part of the 8th and 5th Air Force. In 1942 resigned a Field Artillery Commission while a Dentistry student at Ohio State University in order to join the Army Air Force. Flight training was at the new (then) Kearns Army Air Base, Salt Lake City. Richard recently attended the second Honor Flight from Ohio to Washington, DC and is currently a resident of the Ohio Veterans Home in Georgetown, Ohio. |
| Lincoln W. Pavey | Sergeant in the US Army 1944-1946. 104th AAA (AW) Batallion in the Asia-Pacific Theater as Master-Gunner. Positioned 16 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns guarding around airbases, etc. Fought in NewGuinea, helped Douglas MacArthur return to the Phillipines and liberate Manilla, occupied Japan after Harry Truman ended the was by dropping the bombs.  |
| Otto Pobanz | Naval Aviator 1942 - 1946 with the Naval Aviation Navigation Squadron. Primary mission was pilot training - transitioned new pilots to multi engine andTransport category aircraft and advanced instrument flying. Stationed in Texas, Florida and Oklahoma. LCDR US Naval Reserves. |
| Dick Pandorf |  Photo-Gunner on B-25's flying with the 341st Bomb Group out of India and later out of China. Recipient of the Tri-State Warbird Museum Contribution to Freedom Award. |
| Walter Paranuk | served in the submarine service on the Razorback from 1943 - 1946 in the South Pacific. |
| Bruce Richardson |  B-17 tail gunner on the "Reluctant Dragon" with the 100th Bomb Group (the "Bloody Hundredth")in the European Theater, 33 missions. |
| James Burt Rishel | After attending the University of Nebraska and becoming a Second Lt. in the Army Field Artillery, Burt transferred to the Army Air Corps to become an engineer working in the Glider Branch of Aircraft Laboratory at Wright Field, Ohio in June 1942. He worked for Lew Stowe, the civilian chief of the branch and the principal designer for the CG-10A glider. The design of this glider eventually developed into the first Assault Cargo aircraft. In 1945 Burt was given the temporary rank of Captain and in 1946 he left the Air Corps and returned to Lincoln, Nebraska to finish his education becoming a Professional Engineer. |
| D. James Robinson | Originally from Amelia, Ohio, was a student at Ohio State when enlisted into the Army becoming a member of the 3rd Platoon, A Company. Late 1944 moving from France into Belgium Jim's platoon was overrun by the Germans and was lucky to escape. Saw fighting in the Battle of the Bulge, transitioned to the M-18 tank destroyer as a gunner. As a part of the 83rd Infantry division he fought his way across Germany to cross the Elbe River. Also served 4 years in the reserves during the Korean War. |
| Lawrence Rogers | Served as an armored artillery officer in Europe in support of General Patton's push to Germany. |
| John A. Ruthven | Drafted into the US Navy at age 18 in 1942. Anti-sub missions for 2 years aboard the Destroyer Escort U.S.S. J.R.Y. Blakely, DE-140 in the North Atlantic theater. On the way to the Pacific to prepare for an invasion of Japan the atomic bomb was dropped and they spent V-J Day in Honolulu. After the war ended an additional year was spent removing Japanese troops from bypassed islands. Picture is of John - top left- and mates sitting on a wrecked Japanese Zero.  |
| John Sawyer | B-17 pilot with the 548th Squadron, 385th Bomb Group based in Great Ashfield, England flying the European Theater. Training included primary in Hobbs, New Mexico and advanced training in Douglas, Arizona and then B-17 transition training at McGill Field, Tampa Florida. Headed to England aboard the QE2, John flew one mission in England before the war ended. |
| George Schultz | Infantry Rifleman, U.S. Army in the Italian Theater 1945 - 1946. |
| Leo Shuller | Information |
| Douglas Short | B-25 pilot |
| Gerry Siddall |  Served in the Atlantic and the Caribbean as the Senior Fire Control assigned to the Destroyer USS Dianchenko APD123. Following the war years became an engineer with Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. |
| Earl Slanker | Flew the B-26 Martin Maurader for 63 missions in the Army Air Corps. |
| S. Arthur Spiegel |  Marine Corps Officer, served as a Forward Observer for numerous island assaults in the Pacific. Later served as an airborne observer in Stinson L-5 and TBM Avenger. |
| Jean Springer | Ferry pilot in the Women's Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) flying PT-19, AT-6, DC-3/C-47, B-24, B-25, B-17.  |
| John Steele, Sr. |  Naval Aviator serving in the Pacific. Pilot of the torpedo bomber TBM3 Avenger (same type airplane flown by President Bush '41). John had 270 carrier landings including 40 at night, and flew in 25 combat missions. |
| Charles Stix | At age 17 enlisted in the Marine Corps, served with the First Marine Division, 3rd Armored Amphibian Tank Bn, in the landings on Peleliu and Okinawa. Also too part in the occupation of Japan. Was discharged at Great Lakes in 1946 as a corporal.  |
| Daniel L. Wiot | Army Air Corps 1943-1945. From Mt. Lookout, Cincinnati, Ohio. Flew 49 missions as an engineer gunner/bomber on a B-26 . Earned the Distinguished Flying Cross when he risked his life to get the stuck bomb bay doors to fully open before the bombs detonated still in the airplane. In the theaters: European, African, Middle Eastern. Was in the Battles: Ardennes, Rhineland, Central Europe, battle of the Bulge. Also earned the Air Medal with 8 bronze stars. |
| Russell B. Witte, Jr. |  B-25 Mitchell Bomber pilot with over 50 missions flying from North Africa over Sicily and Italy. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and 9 Air Medals. Later served as a test pilot at Eglin Field in Florida where he flew the camera planes during the filming of "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo". |
| Chris Wunnenberg, Jr. | B-17 Bomber pilot assigned to the 96th Bomber Group flying from Snetterton Heath, England. The Wunnenberg crew completed 25 missions in 93 days on April 1, 1944, then an unofficial 8th Air Force record. That was also the day that the tour completion number was revised to 30 missions. The crew negotiated to fly 2 more. After 27 missions, Major Wunnenberg returned to the U.S. for B-17 instructor duties and later instructed in the B-29. He was ultimately transferred to a B-29 squadron which was alerted for duty in the Far East, but the war ended shortly before they were to deploy. Chris earned the Distinguished Flying Cross and multiple Air Medals. |
| Gordon W. Yuellig |  B-25 student officer instructor pilot at Enid Army Air Field until October 1945. Born in Cincinnati, Married Shirley Lance 1942, happily married for 62 years until she passed away February 2004. Currently boasts 8 grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren. Still fits into his uniform. |
A U.S. Navy pilot flying from the USS Hornet Don flew Hellcats and Corsairs. He was shot down off the coast of Guam and rescued by the submarine Swordfish by clinging to the periscope while being towed to safety.