My
life began in Easton, Pennsylvania. A city on the Delaware River...
A year later my parents moved, with me to Phillipsburg, New Jersey,
just across the river. I attended St. Phillip and St. James School
there until half way through the senior grade and then entered
college at Lafayette College in Easton Pa. It was Jan 1943, I
was still not 17 years old, and the war was on. My father had
served in the army in WWI, and I wanted to serve in the Army too,
but not in the infantry as he did. I wanted to be an Army AF pilot...I
took the written test for acceptance into the pilot training program
that June and was sworn into the Enlisted Reserve Corps and told
that I would be called into active service when I reached the
age of 18, the following January.
I
did my basic training in Miami FL. There were 72 of us trainees
in my training squadron. I attended Gunnery school and was shipped
to Lincoln Neb. where we were introduced to the B-29. The most
important occurrence in my life up to that time was joining Crew
#7......
|
Ed
Reilly
1st
Crew Reunion
09/02/80
|
After
the war, I returned to Lafayette for another year. Then I took
a job with a financial corporation, which was expanding. I convinced
a beautiful Yvonne Peterson to marry me and then I opened offices
and managed for them in Gadsden Alabama, Philadelphia Pa, Albuquerque
New Mexico, and San Francisco, Ca. I joined another finance corporation
there and worked in Sacramento California. There I took a job
with the State Of California, and stayed 25 years. I served as
a Management Analyst performing a series of studies involving
work processes and staffing. Later I was promoted and transferred
to Fresno as Asst Deputy Director, in charge of personnel activities.
I later transferred to San Diego, in charge of Human Relations
activities. I did subsequently serve for 6 months as Deputy District
Director in charge of all Administrative activities. I retired
in Dec 1991. 3 members of crew 7 (Elmo,
Ralph and Biff) attended my retirement
party.
My
wife of over 52 years Yvonne and I have 2 children, Peggy and
Sean. Peggy and husband Marty Bell live in Miami only a block
away from us.. They own and operate a tree nursery.. They have
a 24 ft boat and regularly go out for the big ones. Sean is in
a special training and development program in San Diego and visits
us usually twice a year. Peggy spent over 20 years as a Flight
Attendant for Eastern and Pan Am (both now defunct) and during
the Gulf war she volunteered to transport our troops to the war
zone... I advised against it but she did it, and was awarded a
medal by the Air Force for her efforts.
We
have a grandson, Jamie, who is currently 7 years old and enjoys
going to Marlin, he is remarkable.
Editor's
note: Ed has been instrumental in providing copies of various
military orders, crew and personal photos from his collection
pertaining to his service with the 39th Bomb Group for use
on this web site. Without his willingness to share this
material and his personal accounts as well as the other
member of the crew, P-7's section would much less than it
is.
Additional
Note: Of the photos Ed supplied for the Crew 7's section
of this web site one was of "4 Meatballs" that
were on 44-69810 named "Old P-7". One of which
was credited to Ed. By having this photo, I was able to
enlarge the photo with scanning software, and making it
possible to read (partially). By matching these names other
3 names against Replacement Crew
P-11 roster, it was possible to honor these 39th Veterans
also for their accomplishment.
Many
thanks for your contribution to this site.
|
Elmo Huston, Flight Engineer of Crew 7 notified us that
Edward T. Reilly took his Final Flight 15 August 2007. |
Crew
7 Main Page
60th Squadron Crew Index
|