Lynn's Documents

 362 Fighter squadron patch.
Everything on this page was held on to by Lynn Howard Drollinger. For those of you unfamiliar with his story he was a fighter pilot in WW2. His most memorable time was with the Eighth Air Force, in the 357th fighter group, 362nd fighter squadron. He flew with the 9th for a little while before that, but he must not have talked very much about his time there. Not even my father knew that before we read Howard's old letters.

Lynn, better known as either Junior or Howard, was adored by nearly everyone he met. Which was fortunate, because when he was shot down over German Occupied France he needed all the friends he could get. If you want to hear the rest of that story you will have to wait for me to finish writing it :)

Feel free to peruse through his old photos, Army documents, letters from friends, etc. Most are self explanatory. If you have an interest in learning more you may flip over to the contacts page and send me an email.

 This is Howard standing next to a tester plane. The cadets flew these in flying schools so that they were accompanied by instructors. Most of his papers say he did his training in Spokane and tested in Seattle. Thats only partly true. He actually trained in Walla Walla Washington, but even today that town is easily overlooked. Its just a dot on the map in Eastern Washington, sitting out in the Palouse with miles of nothing around it. I believe I read once that the only reason there is even a town called Walla Walla is becasue they put a prison out there. On the bright side, if someone crashed a plane during training there was nothing around to hit.


Did you notice his height on here? Howard was a little guy, but my dad and uncle are about 6ft. Funny how that works out. I wish the grey eyes had been passed down. I've never seen grey eyes that I can remember. Howard passed away when I was about three. All I really remember are his legs....
 The telegram sent to the family after Howard was shot down over occupied France. Other people sent letters to the family when they heard Howard was missing. Friends of his from England, in the Army, etc. Those can be found under the "Lynn's Letter" tab. They are sorted by date, so search for anything from March 28th onwards.
A telegram Howard sent home after he was safely in Spain. Apparently they were charged per letter so he kept his message short.
 Mira Loma Flight Academy
Oxnard California
Howard did his training here for instruments flying

 It's kinda funny how much people got paid back then.


 Legion Leaders: post 73, located in Sunnyside Washington. I'm not sure when this pic was taken but it was several years after the war.
 *I'm not sure if people will be able to read this. I'm still fiddling with the blogger set up to make the images better* An article Howard held onto. I believe this visit was shortly after Howard was deployed to England with the 9th, so he was probably present for Ike's visit.
 Howards test scores. I believe these are from his cadet days. He got a 90 :) After he got back from Spain Howard couldn't return to the European theater. This was out of fear that if any pilots returned there was a chance they could be shot down again and questioned/tortured by the Germans into giving up the members of the French underground. So he was given a choice: Go to another theater or teach escape and evasion as well as instruments flying. He took the latter. To be fair, the school was in Florida.

I can just imagine how that thought process went. "Hmm go to war and get shot at or go to sunny Florida. Sandy beaches. Girls in swimsuits. Not getting killed....hmm. Decisions. Decisions." Anyway, he had to be retrained using instruments--its blind flying, which he didn't like as much--but I don't have those papers.
 A punch card. I guess it's a payment card. I'm not 100% sure how that worked...
 I believe these badges were from his time in Korea.


 This one I added for fun. It's a letter Howard wrote. It's also a good example of the headaches I endured trying to read all of his letters. The beginning of this one says:
Dear Mom and Dad,
Well I guess its about time I drop you a line, The dont have mail service where I was at....


Look at that baby face! Already off and fighting in wars too.

 That's Howard on the right. I don't know who that is with him...
 Just playing some volley ball at the base...Actually, I'm not sure where this is. I wish Lynn was one of those people that wrote on the back of photos.
 Letter from Lucien to Lynn. Trying to keep in touch after the war.
 Below is a letter from Lucien to Lynn's mom after she sent some thank you gift's to him and his family.



 One of the Gal's Lynn made friends with in England by the name of Joan. She sure wrote a lot. Sounds like a nice girl :) I wish I knew her story.