Barney W. Burgin

Barney W. Burgin was an engineer with the 514 squadron.  He submitted the following:

We were not with the original Halpros.

We were seven days out of Pearl Harbor when Dec. 7th happened. We went to Australia, then to India. Then we left for the Mid-East July 4th, 1942 in a B-17 group. My pilot was Capt. Rowan Thomas. He had been shot down after a mission over Rangoon, India. So we were a pick-up crew made up of fellows from the 7th and 19th Groups in India.

So our arrival in the Mid-East was anew ball game. When the 376th was formed out of the Provisional Group we had temporarily lost Thomas as pilot because he was doing some Army legal work. In civilian life he was a lawyer. So we got Major P. J. Long as pilot. He became C.O. of the first 514th Sqdn. when we transferred from 17' s to 24's. Thomas remained with the 17's and they became the 513th Sqdn. So the original 513th was a B-17 outfit until the 17' s moved to N. Africa.

I continued with theB-24's as a member of the 514th Sqdn. Then Major Long was grounded for physical reasons and we finished our tour with Justus A. Emmens as our pilot. I'd say he was the best. He landed our B-24 on a Beaufort Night Fighter field on our last mission. When we took off the next morning we wondered how he ever did it. So for a brief moment our B-24 became a night fighter lander. But, what a way to end combat.

Click here to read about the Nov 21 1942 mission.

376 ARCHIVES

The website 376bg.org is NOT our site nor is it our endowment fund.

At the 2017 reunion, the board approved the donation of our archives to the Briscoe Center for American History, located on the University of Texas - Austin campus.

Also, the board approved a $5,000 donation to add to Ed Clendenin's $20,000 donation in the memory of his father. Together, these funds begin an endowment for the preservation of the 376 archives.

Donate directly to the 376 Endowment

To read about other endowment donation options, click here.


My Trip to San Pancrazio

October 2019


Reunion

NOTE change in month !!!

DATES: Oct 26-29, 2023

CITY:Tucson, AZ

HOTEL: Double Tree Suites Airport hotel

7051 South Tucson Blvd., Tucson, AZ 85756

520-225-0800


Click here to read about the reunion details.

previous reunions


For Sale

The Other Doolittle Raid


The Broken Wings of Zlatibor


The Liberandos


Three Crawford Brothers


Liberando: Reflections of a Reluctant Warrior


376th Bomb Group Mission History


The Last Liberator


Full Circle


Shadows of Wings


Ten Men, A "Flying Boxcar," and A War


I Survived Ploesti


A Measure of Life


Shot Down In Yugoslavia


Stories of My Life


Attack


Born in Battle


Bombardier's Diary


Lost Airmen


Langdon Liberando