Robert Shoens was assigned to the 100th Bomb Group, 351^st Bomb Squadron for combat duty in December 1943. On the famous BERLIN raid of March 6, 1944, while piloting his B-17G "Our Gal Sal" his crew were credited with shooting down two enemy aircraft. During this mission the 8^th Air Force lost 69 bombers, with the 100^th Bomb Group losing  15 .  Bob and his Crew were the only aircraft to return from the 351^st squadron that day.  During his tour Capt Shoens completed 28 missions, hitting such heavily defended  targets  as BERLIN, REGENSBURG, FRANKFURT and MUNICH.  His 28th and final mission was flown on May 1, 1944 in 'Our Gal Sal'. His medals include the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with Oak Leaf Clusters.  

Joseph W. Edwards  Joe enlisted in the U. S. Army Air Corps  in 1942. He was a pilot with the Flying Forces of the 96th bomber group stationed in Snetterton Heath, England. In the months after V-E Day, he piloted humanitarian missions with food rations and supplies to war-ravaged Holland. Accustomed to higher altitudes, Joe remembered having to fly dangerously close to the ground to drop the rations, dodging church spires over The Hague and seeing Dutch civilians eagerly cheering on the American pilots from bridges. From Holland, they flew on to Austria to retrieve French prisoners of war, and transported them back to Paris before returning to England. Joe later recounted seeing Frenchmen risk their lives jumping out of his plane before he could bring it to a halt, to kiss the ground in their euphoria to be repatriated. After earning a degree in business administration from the U of M he joined Edwards Bros Book Publishers. in 1948, and became president of the Ann Arbor-based company.