Someone found a cat in San Luis Obispo in the fall of 1929, about the time of the Crash. It must have been a slow news week despite that turning point, because the local paper, the Telegram-Tribune, solicited letters from local children for kitty names.

B-24 44-40188, after a bombing run over Peleliu, was ferrying wounded to safety on Hollandia. Nicholas Covell is buried in the Golden Gate National Cemetry in San Bruno.

Clarence Ballagh fell in love in flight school in Florida, 3,000 miles away from his home town, Arroyo Grande, California.

Sixteen months later, Ballagh’s B-17 crashed into the side of Mt. Skiddaw, 5,5000 miles away from Arroyo Grande, in England’s Lake District. His baby girl was named Enid. In 1944, the Methodist Church dedicated a sidewalk, now gone, on Branch Street, in Clarence’s memory. The church asked little Enid to leave her palm prints in the wet concrete.

Loren Bubar married in the oldest church, next to the Old Mission, in San Luis Obispo, the beautiful redwood St. Stephen’s.

His death was horrific. They misspelled his name in the USAAF records.

Jack played the saxophone at Atascadero High School and here, in the Freshman Talent Show at San Luis Obispo Junior College in 1941.

His P-38 was set afire by ground fire in what was a virtual suicide mission. Every pilot in the 367th knew it. Jack almost made it, because someone saw a parachute. He has never been found.

Clair Tyler married Joanna Renetzky–a Pozo schoolteacher with Dana Family connections–in the oldest church in San Luis Obispo. Note Clair’s best man that day in 1941. Both Clair’s bride and Loren Bubar’s had their bridal showers in the Golden Dragon Restaurant in Chinatown, on Palm Street.

Clair’s Dad took him hunting. Clair’s Mom hosted charity events to help feed and clothe Depression-era kids, and she and Clair traveled all over the state together. They lived on Piney Way in Morro Bay. Clair was their only child.