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(Continued from Page 1)morale of our troops, he said. “1 hope that if we feel we have to go to war that this won’t handicap them.And Ashbaugh should know about waiting around, since he spent 19 months in a German POW camp doing Just that.“The first year wasn’t bad, he said, “but after that thejariesMrs. Ralph (Doris) Myers and Mrs. George (Marlene) Sober, both of Vanaergrift RD2 and Mrs. Anthony (Vonda) Bell of Yates-boro; two brothers. Merle and Vem Delacour, both of Templeton RD2; three sisters, Mrs. Florence McGinnis of Indiana RD6, Mrs. Jean Billheimer of Cambridge. Minn., and Mrs. Myrtle Hooks Lagler of Templeton RD2; 15 grandchildren; six greatgrandchildren: three step-grandchildren and three step-great-grandchildren.She was preceded in death by three infant brothers and sisters.BEATTY — Friend* of Mabel T. Beatty, 78, of Kittanning RD4, who died Sunday, Nov. 11, 1990, will be received from 7 to 9 p.m. Monday and 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at the Snyder-Crissman Funeral Home in Kittanning. where funeral service* will be held Wednesday at 1:30 p.m.. with the Rev. James F. Dersham, pastor of Union Baptist Church,assisted by her nephew, theRev. Richard R. Beatty. Burial 1 will follow in Slate Lick1 Presbyterian Cemetery.' Arrangements by Snyder-1 Crissman.tSellnerLoretta Marie Sellner, 66, of 923 ' Fourth Avenue, Ford City, diedSunday, Nov. 11, 1990 at Armstrong County Memorial Hospital.' She was bom Dec. 5, 1923, in Ford City to August and Mary (Danhof) Sellner.A member of St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Ford City, Miss Sellner was employed as a dietary worker by the former Marcy State Hospital, retiring in 1985.Survivors include a brother, John A Sellner of Kittanning RD7 and several nieces and nephews.In AfMlMnn tn h#r narpntft ah#*Flipping through the three inch scrapbook that highlights his service days, Ashbaugh. 70, recalled the day that he was shot down over Holland on Oct. 8, 1943.He was 23 then and on his 10th mission as a top turret gunner on a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber, known as the Salva Sal. It carried a crew of 10 men including the pilot, WilliamMcDonald.Salvo Sal was part of the100th Bomber Group on a mission to bomb railroad work ers homes in Bremen , Germany, when it was hit by anti-aircraft fire over the target area, according to Ashbaugh.“The flak was so thick that day you could almost walk on the clouds, he recalled. “We lost our number two engine and had to leave the formation. We were on our own when their fighters came in.Ashbaugh recounted how one fighter came in under the bomber and “riddled it from the tail to the nose, causing a fire in the right wing. The waist unner, Donald Agee, was filed. With the plane losing altitude, the pilot ordered the crew to bail out. The plane went dowm in flames.All of the crew were captured by the Germans except for the navigator. Carl Spicer, who managed to contact the underground.After being moved through safe houses in Holland and France,he made it to Spain and was back in England three month-after bailing out.Ashbaugh and the rest of the crew eventually found them selves imprisoned at Stalag 17-B, a POW camp, near Krems, Austria, where they waited out the war with 4,000 other POWs. Shortly before they were freed, they had to endure a two-week forced march of more 147 miles into the Alps. They were liber ated on May 3, 1945.Now Ashbaugh and his wife celebrate that day, along with other ex-POWs of Stalag 17-B, with an annual reunion each spring, where the veterans get together and remlnice about the war.The Ashbaughs also “keep in constant contact with the surviv ing members of the Salva Sal crew.
Newspaper Details
Kittanning Leader Times
Kittanning, Pennsylvania, US
Mon, Nov 12, 1990
Page 3
Full Page
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USA 24 Jul 2020
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