Today, we salute WWII Air Force Veteran Lester Schrenk. Lester was a Sergeant in the U.S. Eighth Air Force, serving with the 92nd Bomb Group, 327th Squadron. He was captured on Feb. 22, 1944, after his B-17 bomber, “Pot O’ Gold,” was shot down during “Operation Argument,” a raid on the German airfield Aalborg-West in Denmark. He managed a harrowing escape from the plummeting aircraft moments before it crashed, parachuting to the ground and into the hands of the Germans. His capture marked the beginning of a harrowing 15 months in captivity. Last Friday, eighty years after his liberation from the camp that held him for 15 months, 101-year-old Lester F. Schrenk returned to the site of his captivity, Stalag Luft IV, in Poland. “To be back here in Poland after all these years, it’s truly a blessing. There was a time when this place held painful memories, but that anger, that resentment… it has no place in my heart anymore.” Thank you for sharing your story, Lester, and THANK YOU for your service.
