Posted by Harriet F. Scott on May 28, 2012:

Was It Just Coincidence? Col. William F. Scott, Ph.D.- Bill - often talked about Colonel Frank P. Hunter, Jr., commanding officer of the 398th Bomb Group. An often told story was about a raid in France they tried to make in support of General Leslie McNair shortly after D-Day, 6 June 1944. Bill's fleet could not find the target, so they returned with all bombs still on board. When they landed, Colonel Hunter hollered "Scott! Where did you drop your bombs?" Bill apologetically replied "Sir, they are still in the bomb bay. We couldn't see the target." "Thank God," Colonel Hunter replied. "They just reported that General McNair was killed by our own bombs." Bill's decision to stay on after he finished his first tour may have been prompted by the fact that his youngest brother, Jim, was in the army, the 271st Infantry Division Company E, and about to go to fight in Germany. Jim visited Bill at the air base, and Bill gave him a compact, detailed military map of Germany, printed on silk. Jim often examined the map during what he called his "walk through Europe". One day Jim noticed they were near a certain anti-aircraft battery. Jim went to the Captain, pulled out Bill's map, pointed to the guns and told the Captain that the guns were shooting at "my brother" and needed to be destroyed. The Captain turned out to be one of Bill's West Point classmates! He asked Jim if he could borrow the map and they destroyed the anti-aircraft guns. After the war, the Captain returned the map to Jim, and Jim had it framed and hung it in his office. One of Bill's strongest memories was of a fateful day, Tuesday the -- 23rd of January --, 1945. Colonel Hunter was leading the aircraft with Bill on his right wing as the Deputy. Colonel Hunter's plane got a fatal hit and was on fire and going down when Bill got one last call from Colonel Hunter: "Bill," he said. "We've been hit. Take over!" Bill relived that mission a thousand times, it seemed. He would tell me again and again those last words Colonel Hunter spoke to him: "Bill, take over!" I'm sure they were on Bill's mind when he died peacefully in his sleep at age 92 on that very same date, -- 23 January --, but this time it was in 2012.

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