My dad, Lt. Ernest Anders Erickson of the 334th Squadron told me often of certain missions that he recalled more than others. Some were ominous and full of adventure, at least I always thought so as a child. My father was born in Painted Woods, North Dakota and eventually lived in Bismarck till he joined the Air Corps in early 1942.

The closest big cities he and his friends would venture to on weekends in 1939 through 1941 were St. Paul, Minnesota along with Minneapolis. He told me the story of Theodore Hamm, a German immigrant who took over a brewery in St. Paul, and eventually turned it into a successful business.

On his 7th mission on April 22, 1944 the tides took their ship over Hamm, Germany. As they were heading to Hamm he began remembering the name of the brewery back home and thinking of a nice cold beer. Along with multiple of other bombers and fighters, being dispatched to hit a marshaling yard in Hamm the whole experience seemed ironic. He was flying the “Gen’ril Oop” (42-31993) and fulfilled the mission and safely returned to Horham with only minor damage from flak and German fighters.

Just two days later on April 24, 1944 with another crew on-board, the ships #1 engine feathered and #2 was smoking, just after leaving their target area. The “Gen’ril Oop” left formation losing altitude and ended up landing in Switzerland. The crew of ten spent the rest of the war interned in Dubendorf, Switzerland.

I created this tribute to my dad, using his B-17 models along with his small Empire State Building statuette in reference to his original flight from Langley, Virginia to Roosevelt Field in New York and his stay at the Commodore Hotel. He later flew from Roosevelt Field to Maine, then Greenland and Iceland, before ending up at his combat assignment at Horham Airfield (Station 119). It was the same route one of my dad's heroes, Charles Lindbergh flew in 1927 on his well-known flight across the Atlantic.

The mission date 4/22/44 is similar to his birth date of 8/4/22 and these numbers he would mention to me often. He loved to tell me a trick when I was a kid how to recall his birthday. He would say, "By taking the 2+2 of the year (1922) and doubling that to get the day (the 4th) and then doubling that to get the month (August being the 8th month) and you end up with August 4th, 1922. Simple as that."

It always made me laugh and we had fun with that. I guess I had to recall 1922 to make it all work. As an engineer/designer with Lockheed he liked to help me with my math and these little stories were common. So I could never forget his birthday which I never did and never will.