Picture of my mother Gerda Schridde Dowd and father Thomas Dowd. This was their wedding picture taken one week before he left for England in WW II.
Now if I had not know where this certificate was located and they had been married in Goldsboro NC, I would be going crazy looking for where they had gotten married.
The insignia is from the Army Air Corps, a precursor of the Air Force.
My dad’s job was to repair the airplanes that were on bombing missions over Europe. After being drafted everyone started out in the Infantry and had decided that he did not want to get shot.
While in England Dad went to the Library and studied Air Plane Mechanic books. Then my father took the test and qualified to be a mechanic. Dad said that he did this while most of his buddies went into to town and drank alcohol. Tom said that he could not afford to do that since he had a wife and mother to support at home.
The worst part of it was that he would never know who would return or be shot down. Once a crew did twenty five missions they were retired. I think most of them never saw ten missions. I have to read about the longevity of the bombing crews. I would venture a guess that it was not very long.
I have a whole collections of his WW II pictures, I should scan and post them.
Wonderful photograph and story. What a handsome couple they are.
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