The crew of Lt Norman E. Gross and B-24H 42-52629 ‘Sweatin’ It Out’ of the 838th Bomb Squadron at Herington, Kansas in March 1944, during the deployment to England.
Back Row (L to R): S/Sgt Max I. Markowitz (radio operator), Lt Norman E. Gross (pilot), 2/Lt Willard D. Haskell (copilot), F/O Milton Levine (bombardier), 2/Lt Edmund W. Law (navigator), M/Sgt Vernon O. Lee (ground crew chief; not a member of flight crew)
Front Row (L to R): S/Sgt Benjamin A. Huebel Jr (engineer), Sgt Charles A. McWilliams (nose turret gunner), Sgt Thomas E. McDonald (tail gunner), Sgt Stanley J. Benson (top turret gunner)
All except Edmund W. Law, Thomas E. McDonald, and Vernon O. Lee, who were not on the crew that day, went missing in action on D-Day, June 6, 1944, when the Gross crew went down in the English Channel. Only the remains of Flight Officer Levine, the bombardier, were found by the crew of the British ship HSL 192 (High Speed Launch 192) and were buried at sea, in the English Channel, on July 3, 1944. None of the other crew members was ever found.
(Photo provided by Vernon O. Lee via Ivo de Jong; identities confirmed by F/O Milton Levine in correspondence to his family after arrival in the European Theatre)