The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-06-01
|SERCT. MURPHY IN
 VETERAN OUTFIT
Flew on 30 Bombing At= tacks With 8th Air Force;
 Decorated Six Times

An Eighth Air Force Bomber Sta- tion, England - Technical Sergeant Francis x. Murphy, 20-year-old B-17 Flying Fortress radio operator and waist gunner, whose wife, Mrs. Eleanor P. Murphy, lives at B Lydia street, Waterbury, Conn, helped to land the final Allied air blows against Germany.
 Son of MT. and Mrs. John J. Mur- phy, of 49 Granger street, Water bury, and formerly employed at the Waterbury Post Office, Sergeant Murphy has been decorated six times-with the air medal with five oak leaf clusSers-for courage and high achievement in battle. He saw action in more than 30 major bomb ing attacks with the Eighth Air Force. braving savage enemy f1ak and fighter opposition number of times to aid in pacing the way for Allied armies into the heart of the Reich Several times, the Waterbury airman narrowly eluded death. Dur ing an attack on Won Rundsted'S supply lines last Christmas Eve, bombers were knocked down on both sides of his plane but it escaped undamaged. In November 30, Serg- cant Murphy's formation Weathered one of the worst flax storms ever encountered by Allied planes to hammer the great oil refinery at Merseburg, Germany T still Won- der how we came through on that ride" he declares, we flew through solid walls of shrapnel for nearly 20 minutes to get our bombs On the target"
 Formerly a star athlete at Sacred Heart High school, Sergeant Mur phy was credited with shooting down a Focke Wulf 190 near Ber- lin in January. He serves with the veteran 390th Bombardment Group, which has ben cited by the Pres ldent for skill and daring in battle and which holds war record for the destruction of enemy aircraft, having shot down 63 German fight CTS in a single engagement over Munster, Germany, on October 10, l943. The group shares in another distinguished unit citation for aid- ing in the Third Air Divisions epic shuttle attack on Messerschmitt plants at Regensburg, Germany.
 ATC Air Base, Casablanca - Corp oral John J. Greguoli, son of MT. and Mrs. Paul E. Greguoli, 68 Mer- iden road Waterbury, Conn, is taking part in the air movement of war half way around the world.
 Corporal Greguoli is stationed at CaSablanca Air Base, the Hub of the North African Division through which flow the fighting forces of Europe enroute to the United States and the Pacific. This has been term ed by General Marshall as the greatest logiStic move of the war"
 His division, one of the largest in the Air Transport Command, utiI- izes more transport aircraft than all United States airlines combined be- fore the war in this largest air movement in history. His base is commanded by Colonel Alexis B. Nc Mullen.
 A graduate of LeavenWorth High school, the corporal was employed by The Bristol Company prior to his entrance into the Armed Forces in l943.
 Fort Oglethorpe, Ga. - Private Annie w. WhiteWay, 375 Waterville street, Waterbury, Conn. is taking basic training at Third WAC Train ing Center here as a member of one of the newly organized WAC med ical companies.
 FoIloWlng basic training. she will enter the Enlisted Women's Techni- clan School to be trained as a med lcal technician or a medical clerk.
 Prior to enlistment in the Wo- mems Army Corps, Private White way was employed as secretary by the Atwood and Atwood Insurance Company. She is the wife of Corp ora Arthur w. Whiteway, serving overseas.
 S-Sgt. Ralph A. Orsini, Jr.. Hill- crest avenue, Oakville, Conn, has reported for duty at the Air Tech nlcal Service Command, Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, and hsa been assigned to the 4OO0 AAF, Base Unt. Wright Field is the Air Forces en- glneering, procurement, maintenance and supply center.
 An Eighth Air Force Aaerial Re- connalssance Station, England-Sol- ders of this command are now see- ing the tremendous destruction brought on Germany by the bombs Of the Eighth Air Force and the guns of the ground forces in one oI the most unorthodox, spectacu- lar sightseeing trips they will prob ably ever have - a five-hour, 9OO- mile. 1000 foot altitude flight over England, Belgium and Germany.
 Among the soldiers who have flown over the continent to view the amazing panorama of devasta- ton set i'll a patchwork of canals. shaking rivers, dark forests and cattle i'll peaceful fields is Sergt. Fred E. Nelson of Waterbury, Conn. He is an aircraft mechanic for a photo squadron at this Seventh Photo Reconnaissance Group Sta- ton commandde by Colonel George W. Humbrecht of St. Louis, Mo.
 Sergt. Nelson is a son of Mrs. Ellen Nelson, l99 Hillside avenue, Waterbury.
 Pfc. Michael Stakum, g, died May 6, in a hospital in England, his parents, MT. and Mrs. Anthony Stakum, of Jacks Hill, Oxford, were notified by the War Department.
 The soldier, who was former en-