My father, Lt. Ernest Anders Erickson smiling along with the navigator standing behind him laughing because his heated flight pants are wide open. The two are beneath their ship, the "Lily of the Lamplight" (44-6085). Both appear relaxed even though they are just returning from a mission in the early days of June 1944 out of Horham Airfield in England.

Lt. Erickson was piloting B-17s with the 8th Army Air Corps and the 95th Bomb Group (Heavy) and the crew of the Lily were members of the 334th Squadron.

On June 6th the crew would complete their 21st mission, a No-Ball mission over the French coast south of Calais, specifically targeting V-1 sites hidden in forest areas outside of Boulogne. The "Lili of the Lamplight" and crew would carry out two such missions, the second on June 7th, both supporting the Invasion that began in the early morning hours of June 6th, 1944.

That morning after returning from the mission over the French coast my father wrote this letter to his folks and kid sister Dian back in Dakota.