My father, John D. McClurkin, did not voluntarily share details with us kids about his World War II service in the Army Air Corps, but his mother saved his letters, postcards and V-mails and they are now entrusted to me. I am finally scanning, transcribing, and publishing all 200+ here for my relatives and anyone interested in what a quiet Kansas-born mechanical engineering student and aviation enthusiast experienced during the war (at least what would pass through Army censors).

His correspondence covers the years of his enlistment, training, and flying B-26 Marauders out of Matching Green, England with the 9th Air Force, 391st Bombardment Group, 574th Bomb Squad. After flying and surviving 67 missions over France, Belgium and Holland, he continued his air force service stateside until the war’s end in 1945. And he continued to write.

Photographed above are his “folks” at the family farm in Clay Center, KS in 1946. Left to right: Arlan, his younger brother; Marvel Lee his oldest sister; Josephine (Jo) his youngest sister; John peeking around Jo; his mother Ruby; and his father Albert Wilbur (A.W.) McClurkin.