Sergeant Vincent Neefus, Staff Sergeant Richard Fleming and Sergeant Ray Leesman

Creator

Preview

Identifier

20026080

Description

Left to right, Sergeant Vincent Neefus, Staff Sergeant Richard Fleming and Sergeant Ray Leesman. Staff Sergeant Richard Fleming and Sergeant Vincent Neefus were schoolmates back in Brooklyn, New York, live within two blocks of each other and went in service together 50 months ago. Both were discharged at Fort Bliss after serving overseas on 10 missions, where Fleming was flight engineer on a B-29 and Neefus served as tail gunner on the same plane. They still were together in the Service Men's Center. Both wore the Air Medal and two battle stars for action in the air offensive against Japan. Fleming was returning to his wife and 14-month-old daughter. Fleming will be returning to his former position as a plant manager for Chrysler motors, Neefus said he planned to enter St. John's University. With them in the Center was their buddy Sergeant Ray Leesman from Lincoln, Illinois, who had been with them overseas and who also participated in 10 missions as a gunner on a B-29 for which he received the Air Medal and battle stars. He was a retail furniture salesman before his induction and he was returning to his old job. The men are standing next to each other and wearing their military uniforms. Published in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram morning edition, December 16, 1945.

Archival Date

1945-12-10

Collection Name

Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection

Collection Number

AR406-6-377

Original Format

Negatives, Black & White

File Format

JPG

Rights

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License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Subjects

Neefus, Vincent (Sgt.); Fleming, Richard (SSG); Leesman, Ray (Sgt.); Veterans; Military discharges; Friendship; Medals; Service Men's Center; Military uniforms