Capt. Ed Wilsey was my Great Uncle and served with the 374th. I see you have the photo of him and his Mustang crew. He was killed in a private plane crash in Oct. 1945 while stateside. He was an instructor pilot at an Army airfield in Alabama. I wish I could've known him, but through all the stuff he left behind I've learned much about who he was and what he did.
He was quite the scrapbooker, and kept great records of his time overseas. Here are a few items I scanned in to share. I hope I don't overload this site with all this stuff!
Please feel free to use this as you need. History like this needs to be shared.
Captain Ed Wilsey:
374th squadron photo from July 1944. My uncle is 3rd from the right sitting on the left wing. Even includes Sam the dalmatian:
Here is the back of the photo with all the names of the pilots. There's a discrepancy on the right wing of the Mustang, left side of the photo. Two men, only one name:
Here's a photo he had of Col. Webb and Sam:
Here's a picture of the mural in the O-club, I think Uncle Ed painted it:
Here's his rough draft for the mural:
Here's a squadron photo from October of '44. No names on the back of this one. My uncle is 2nd from the left, standing:
Here's a picture commemorating my Uncle's and Stephen Popy's aerial victories, 11-27-1944:
The encounter report from that kill:
Here's an encounter report from my Uncle's run-in with an Me-163 Komet rocket plane. Note his drawing of it: