319th Bomb Group, 439th Bomb Squadron, B-25 Crew Chief, MTO, WWII

Ralph Greco Was born in 1920 one ofd nine children,seven boys and two girls, grew up in Providence,Rhode Island..I joined the air corp the day after Pearl Harbour. Later on my six brothers joined ,four in the Navy and two in the Army [ all seven brothers served to the end of the war ] I was trained as an airplane mechanic at Kessler field in Beloxi Mississippi.. I was then shipped to Baltimore Maryland to the Glen L.Martin Palnt to learn about the B 26 Maurader.. Joined up with the 319th. Bomb group at Barksdale Field. Then went to New Jersey to ship overseas aboard the Queen Mary.heading to England. We witnessed our first casualty when the Queen Mary cut a British Cruiser in two with 130 British Sailors lost off the coast of Scotland.. Went by train to England. After a short stay at Norwich, Norfork we boarded a ship for a trip with the invasion forces to .N.Africa . We had no planes yet so while waiting for them to arrive we worked on assembling P 51 Mustang Fighters which arrived in crates. When our planes arrived I was crew chief for the rest of my time . I had gone through 3 B 26 { Rhode Island Express, Miss Rhode island and Gremlin Headquarters] We spent about nine months moveing across N.Africa. While in the Tunis areathe 439 Squardron sponserd a dance in town on the 25th of Sept.1943. There I met a young French girl, her mother and her sister.She was born in Paris and went to Tunis when she was 8 years old. Her name was Liliane Hamlin. I managed to see quit a bit of her and when we left for Sardinia we would fly back there several times to pick up beer from their brewery. Each time I would visit her.[After the war I sent for her and we were married May 11th 1946 and had four children] Leaveing Sardinia we went to Corsica.. After a time there we Switched to B25 Mitchel Bombers. When the war was there we came back to the states and after a short leave I had to go Charlet,N. Carolina traing men on the B 25 while I was waiting for orders to go to the Pacific, but the the war was over and sent to Fort Devens for discharge. After my discharge my Brother Henry and myself started a manufacturering Co.. of cleaning and drying and plating equipment for the metal finishing industries.. The co. name is Greco Brothers Inc.

(Alan Smith of the 439th squadron passed away on Jan. 24th and was buried on the 29th. He was a crew chief and one of the best)

Ralph Greco