Lt. Ernest Anders Erickson posed for a photograph sitting on the steps after his graduation from Advanced Flight Training at Blackland Army Air Field in October of 1943.

Blackland is five miles northwest of Waco, was activated in June 1942. It was initially named China Springs Army Air Field and was also known as Waco Army Air Field No. 2 before being renamed after the local black soil. It was first a glider training school and in October 1942 became an advanced two-engine pilot school.

By January 1944 having been assigned to the 334th Squadron of the 95th Bomb Group (Heavy) he would be flying to England. When the crew arrived at Horham, their original ship they had flown from Langley, Virginia up the east coast with stops at Roosevelt Field in New York, Maine, Greenland and Iceland was taken away from them and transferred to another airfield and squadron. My father and crew became a crew without their own ship and over their time at Horham when they began flying combat missions the crew would end up on-board twelve different B-17s.

The twelve B-17s flown: Lili of the Lamplight (44-6085) * Taint A Bird II (42-30342) Fireball Red (42-31876) * Able Mable (42-31920) * Mirandy (42-31992) Gen'ril Oop & Lili Brat (42-31993) * Ten Aces (42-38178) Smilin' Sandy Sanchez (42-97290) * Paisano (42-102450) * Stand By / Goin' My Way (42-107204) The Doodle Bug / What’s Cookin? (42-107047) * To Hell Or Glory (42-38123).

By May 31st, 1944 the crew flew their first mission aboard the "Lili of the Lamplight."(44-6085). It became their ship and so named the "Lili of the Lamplight" by the crew not long after their first few missions on-board.