On the 80th Anniversary of the Kassel Mission

September 27th 2024 and over 50 of our KMHS members will be together at the Memorial in Friedlos, Germany for the commemoration this morning.

We will also visit a few of the crash sites from where many of our hero’s spent their last moments - The Bolin and Hansen Crews. This has been a wonderful trip with too many stories to share here... but look for an expanded newsletter this fall to do such. Our association will continue to not just survive but thrive because of all you members. After our trip together, where 12 of the 39 crews that went out that day are represented here in Friedlos, I have a strong sense that we will enter a new growth phase and continue to flourish.

KMHS is built on stories, and we need more. Though we were created by the men who survived the KM battle and their families, we exist to honor both those that survived and those that perished. We have lots of stories, pictures and memories of the survivors but little, if anything, on our KIAs. Of those 117 brave men we have only a name and a silhouette for most, but nothing else. We have an obligation to fix that as each has a story too.

I appeal to each member to consider “Adopting a KIA” and assist us in our research to find the surviving families, let them know we exist as an association and that we exist because of their heroes sacrifices. From that we may be able to collect a photo, gather more stories and properly represent them on our website.

As I have done my research, I will share a moving quote that represents our 445th's heroes who perished that day. I found this when searching for information on Staff Sgt. John B Neher Jr., who died in the service of his country on the Kassel Mission of 9/27/44.

“He stands in the unbroken line of patriots who have dared to die that Freedom might live and grow and increase its blessings. Freedom lives…. and through it he lives in a way that humbles the undertakings of most men.“

-Franklin Roosevelt