Post by American Foundry Society

During a virtual meeting this week with the Northwestern Pennsylvania Chapter of AFS, President Michael Lenahan shared some interesting family history with an even greater sentiment. His father, James H. Lenahan (pictured below), served as a First Lieutenant Bombardier in the United States Air Force assigned to the 338th Bomb Squadron, 96th Bomb Group during WWII. Lenahan's group flew the B-17 Flying Fortress nicknamed "5-Grand" to targets across occupied Europe from August to December 1944 - completing 35 missions in total. Inspired by the movie "Memphis Belle," Lenahan opened up about his crew's dozens of particularly testing missions. Lenahan told Mike that one of 5-Grand's missions resulted in 200 holes in their plane, two lost engines, and a tail section so heavily damaged they could barely control the airplane. Lenahan said he was certain they were going to die on this mission. But they made it. (Part two in comments)