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Lou Prucha Collection
Lumir J. "Lou" Prucha enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps on December 9, 1941. He graduated from the Air Corps Clerks course at the Air Corps Technical School in Ft. Logan, Colorado on April 29, 1942.
Lou was promoted to Aviation Cadet on August 15, 1942. He underwent preflight training at Maxwell Field, Alabama (August 15, 1942 to October 17, 1942), primary training at Souther Field, Americus, Georgia (October 21, 1942 to December 27, 1942), basic flight training at Greenville Army Flying School, Greenville, Mississippi (December 27, 1942 to February 27, 1943), and advanced flight training at George Army Air Field, Lawrenceville, Illinois (February 28, 1943 to April 29, 1943). He graduated in Class SE-43-D.
He was eventually assigned to the 668th Bombardment Squadron (Light), 416th Bomb Group of the 9th Air Force, just as the group was moving from England to station A-55 at Melun, France.
Lou flew 37 combat missions between December 6, 1944 and April 26, 1945, primarily against German railroad, communications and marshalling yard targets from air bases in France. While the majority of his training was performed flying A-20's, he piloted most of his combat missions in "Sugar Baby" a Douglas A-26 "Invader." He advanced his formation flight position throughout his missions and was designated flight leader for his last three missions.
Lou was eventually promoted to 1st Lieutenant and the 668th Bomb Squadron moved to base A-69 near Laon/Athies, France to be closer to the front lines. Through his military career, Lou was awarded the European, African, Middle Eastern Ribbon with 3 Bronze Stars; 6 Oak Leaf Clusters and 1st Silver Oak Leaf Cluster to his Air Medal; the American Theatre Ribbon; and Victory Medal. Lou participated in three major European Battles and Campaigns: Ardennes, Rhineland and Central Europe.
After the European war was officially over, Lou remained stationed in France at bases A-59, Cormeilles en Vexin (May 1 to July 13, 1945) and A-74, Cambrai (July 17 to August 30, 1945), continuing training in preparation for transfer to the Pacific Theater of Operations. Fortunately, the war with Japan ended before he was reassigned.
Lou returned to the states and was honorably discharged on January 14, 1946. He remained in the US Air Force Reserve and the Nebraska National Guard until 1951.
Source: Edited and adapted from "Lou Prucha WWII Service" by Rick Prucha. http://www.rgprucha.com/prucha_brennan/lou_wwii/lou_wwii_home.htm (accessed January 2, 2014).
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Image | TitleGG PP | |
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1 |
George Army Air Field Class book for advanced pilot class 43-D at George Army Air Field, Lawrenceville, Illinois. |
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2 |
Greenville Army Flying School, The A pictorial of the Greenville Army Flying School, a basic flight school at Greenville, Mississippi. |
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3 |
Preflight A pictorial of pilot preflight class 43-D at Maxwell Field, Montgomery, Alabama. Volume 4, Number 2, "Eager Beaver." |
New: Items added or revised in the last 30 days. | |||||
Series: Different items with the same title. |
Copies: Identical items, with different attributes. |
Collection: A group of related items. |
Curator: Mike Voisin
All items in the Army Air Forces Collection are licensed by Mike Voisin under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. |