Jessica would really love to have one with the whole crew in front of the plane!
Dr. William “Bill’ Templeton, M.D., 80, of Kingsport Fla, passed away on Sunday May 1, 2005.
He was born on May 20, 1924. At the age of 17, he volunteered for the U. S. Army Air Corp. and was trained as a pilot.
During WW II he served in the Pacific Theater as a member of the 820th Bomb Squadron of the 41st Bomb Group, 7 th Air Force as a B-25 Bomber pilot of the “Working For The Yankee Dollar”.
the name for the B25 was found in the lyrics to a Andrews Sisters song:
If you ever go down Trinidad
They make you feel so very glad
Calypso sing and make up rhyme
Guarantee you one real good fine time
Drinkin' rum and Coca-Cola
Go down Point Koomahnah
Both mother and daughter
Workin' for the Yankee dollar
Oh, beat it man, beat it
Since the Yankee come to Trinidad
They got the young girls all goin' mad
Young girls say they treat 'em nice
Make Trinidad like paradise
Drinkin' rum and Coca-Cola
Go down Point Koomahnah
Both mother and daughter
Workin' for the Yankee dollar
Oh, you vex me, you vex me
From Chicachicaree to Mona's Isle
Native girls all dance and smile
Help soldier celebrate his leave
Make every day like New Year's Eve
"Rum and Coca-Cola" was a popular calypso song composed by Lionel Belasco with lyrics by Lord Invader.
The song was copyrighted in the United States by entertainer Morey Amsterdam and became a hit in 1945 for the Andrews Sisters, spending ten weeks at the top the Billboard Pop Singles chart.
the Alley Oop Squadron
It moved to Hawkins Field on Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands in December. There, it entered combat and attacked enemy installations, airfields, and shipping in the Marshall Islands in preparation for the invasion by US forces.
After February 1944, the squadron staged through captured fields on Eniwetok to attack shipping in the Caroline Islands.
In April 1944, the squadron moved to Makin Atoll Airfield, Gilbert Islands, where its operations were primarily attacks on enemy shipping and on Japanese installations on islands that had been bypassed as American forces moved westward through the Pacific.
In October 1944, the squadron was withdrawn from combat operations and returned to Hawaii, where it began training with rockets at Wheeler Field. At Wheeler, it also received new Mitchell bombers. It completed training in May and left Hawaii for Okinawa, arriving at Yontan Airfield in June. While it flew some missions against airfields in China, it primarily bombed airfields, railways, and harbor facilities on Kyushu until August 1945.
After V-J Day, the squadron remained on Okinawa until December 1945. Although the rest of the 41st Group moved to the Philippines, the 820th returned to the United States and was inactivated at the port of embarkation on 4 January 1946
