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| K e n s m e n : 4 3 r d B o m b G r o u p (H), 5 t h A A F | ||
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Who's Next
by Al O'Brien, 10 April 1999 A poem to honor a small group of airmen killed on 7 December 1944 when they crashed into Mt. Malisimbo on Mindoro Island in the Philippines while returning from a night mission to Clark Field in their B-24 named "Who's Next?" December seventh, nineteen hundred and forty four A date of sorrow, (like that infamous one three years before) For families of twelve Air Corps men Who, while flying in the dead of night, and then They were next Their plane, with such a prophetic name was a veteran, scarred, plying in this deadly game Had traveled o'er the Pacific ocean wide To now forgotten places, Owi, Tacloban, Anguar, Moratai They were next A bomber of the Forty Third Bomb Group, A night flying Sixty Third Bomb Squad snoop With the latest marvel - Radar - set up inside Making it harder for our Japanese foes to hide They were next Who were these men; courageous, enduring this war, this ravage the pilot who's time was in, was named Tom Savage Unselfishly, he choose to fly again so others of his crew Could land at mission's end and also say "I'm Through " They were next The co-pilot, Jim O'Brien, I knew quite well An Irish kid, my brother, and when he fell our family, in deep sorrow, mourning, crying, Asked, how could this happen? Bucky dying? They were next For our fight against Japan's barbaric throng We paid a price with Snyder, Schmidt, and Long; Williams, Acker, Bowling, Desmond, Harrison, McKee, & Mathis Complete this mission's doleful, deadly list They were next Many of this veteran crew from all across our land could have finished combat time: deliverance had been near at hand But cruel fate raised its head and with a resounding "No" For on that night they flew into Malisimbo "They were next"  |
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