The National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force’s monthly Mighty Talk series is proud to present editor Bob Korkuc, who will be discussing his book Life of the 381st Bomb Group: The World War II Diary of Eighth Air Force Chaplain James Good Brown. This program will take place on May 24th at 2:30 pm at the museum as part of the Flags for the Fallen weekend programming.
The program is free to the public, but please register at https://forms.gle/2iU4oTGC1Jg3vYjy5
About the Book
While working on his first book, Bob Korkuc became intimately familiar with the 381st Bombardment Group of the Mighty Eighth Air Force and met the group’s chaplain, James Good Brown. Brown kept a diary during his time with the bomb group (1943 to 1945) in which he chronicled the daily experiences of the men.
Years after the war, Brown self-published his diary, which today is hard to find. Through his friendship with Brown, Korkuc gained access to and chose to edit the original document so that more readers might appreciate this insightful wartime eyewitness account.
Serving in his early forties alongside men twenty years his junior—whom he called the “Mighty Men of the 381st”—Brown took part in morning briefings, shared meals with crews, and anxiously awaited their return from dangerous daylight bombing missions. Flying as a noncombatant, an unnecessary eleventh crewmember, Brown describes his own observations of a Flying Fortress combat mission over Germany. Writing with extraordinary candor, Brown documents the inner workings of a bomb group that flew 297 combat missions over Europe, providing vivid character assessments of his fellow airmen and capturing both their victories and devastating losses.
In addition to judiciously editing Brown’s original diary for readability, Korkuc created a unique appendix, which reveals the fate of every airman who served with Brown. The immediacy of Brown’s narration combined with Korkuc’s meticulous editing make this a promising new resource for scholars and general readers alike.
About the Author
Bob Korkuc is an electrical engineer and the author of Finding a Fallen Hero: The Death of a Ball Turret Gunner. During the research and writing of this book, Korkuc became a student of the 381st Bomb Group and was privileged to learn about their exploits during World War II.
