Staff Sergent Marion Futrell Pratt was born on October 20th, 1922 in Greene County, Arkansas, the youngest of 11 children to Robert and Callie Pratt.

Like my father, a B-17 pilot, Lt. Ernest Anders Erickson, Futrell joined the Army Air Corps in early 1942 and trained in Texas and in Arizona at Gunnery School. He served his combat flying at Horham Airfield in England in 1944 as a ball turret gunner. Futrell along with my father completed 34 & 35 missions, respectively, aboard twelve different B-17s:

Lili of the Lamplight (44-6085) * Taint A Bird II (230342) * Fireball Red (231876) Able Mable (231920) * Mirandy (231992) * Gen'ril Oop & Lili Brat (231993) Ten Aces (238178) * Smilin' Sandy Sanchez (297290) * Paisano (2102450) Stand By / Goin' My Way (21072014) * The Doodle Bug / What’s Cookin? (2107047) To Hell Or Glory (238123)

Futrell left the service at the end of the war in late Summer of 1945. He married Javine Risner on April 18, 1948 and they have three children, Rita, Vicki, and Randy. He retired as a maintenance mechanic from Metropolitan Water District, LaVerne, California in 1982.

Staff Sergent Marion Futrell Pratt passed in California on March 16th, 2000 and one can visit his headstone at the Riverside National Cemetery in Riverside, California.

Attaching Staff Sergent Pratt and my father's 35 mission list below along with a Lili of the Lamplight (44-6085) crew shot.