'We never knew what happened to them'

One of my favorite movies is "Twelve O'Clock High," the 1949 classic about the perils B-17 crews faced during their repeated daylight bombing missions over Hitler's Fortress Europe during World War II.

It starred Gregory Peck, Hugh Marlowe, Gary Merrill and Dean Jagger, who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

Duane Randolph could've had a role in it, too.

Except the Mt. Gilead, Ohio, native was there, a member of the ground crew for the 447th Bomb Group in the Mighty Eighth Air Force in England.

The 84-year-old Bradenton retiree was at American Legion Kirby Stewart Post 24's Pearl Harbor Day anniversary ceremony Monday, and recalled being thrust into war like so many young Americans.

Drafted in 1943, Randolph was eventually shipped to Rattlesden Air Base where he and other maintenance crewmen performed the herculean task of keeping bombers flying, despite the punishment the warbirds took mission after mission.

"It took a miracle to get some of those planes back in the air," he said. "It was quite a job to do."

Many times those planes didn't come back.

Randolph recalled one raid on Berlin where nine of his squadron's 12 Flying Fortresses never returned.

"We never knew what happened to them," he said.

Although Randolph spent two years, four months in uniform, his war lasted 16 months.

"I was lucky," he said.