206138 T/Sgt Orville Dean Hooper United States Army Air Force 77th Fighter Squadron from:California, USA My dad was stationed at Kings Cliffe during the War. He maintained the planes and painted nose art. He was at Glen Miller's final concert, it was apparently a really great concert. He spent much of his off time in Peterborough at a fish & chips shop run by Catherine Cullip. During the course of the war he and Catherine grew close and he fathered her daughter, named Eileen, even though he was married and had a child at home.
I took him back to Kings Cliffe in 2008 to see how it looked and get his perspective on the War. He remembered clearly the layout of the base and described many of the daily activities during the war. One of his most vivid memories was of the bombers forming up before heading to Germany. He recalled many incidents of planes getting too close to others in the formation and crashing before even leaving their home base area. He clearly described the D-Day prep he performed, all night long, on the fighters, painting the stripes on the wings to help identify the friendlies. Dad died June 4, 2008.
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