Lincoln Bundy: Unsung Hero of Towns

The Lincoln Influence

"... that for these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave th last full measure of devotion that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain..."

Abraham Lincoln

Gettysburg

November 19, 1963

The Arizona Strip

• Born: St. George, UT February 12, 1918
• Grew up in Mt. Trumbull, AZ

Family

Pearl Harbor

• Family gathers around the radio to hear Roosevelt December 8, 1941.
• Lincoln was ready to "go at 'em".

Enlistment and Training

• Enlisted: January 23, 1942 - Army Air Force in Las Vegas, Nevada
• Pilot Requirement: high school diploma - Lincoln had 9th grade education.
• Greenville Army Flying School in Greenville, MIssissippi
• Southeast Army Air Forces Training Center

Service Before Joining the Fight

• Second Lieutenant in Army Air Forces-$250/month
• Chose to fight instead of instruct
• P-51 Mustang-White Angus Two

Furlough

April ,1944-back to Trumbull

Into the Fight

• 486th Fighter Squadron of the 352nd Fighter Group
• Stationed in Bodney, England

D-Day +4

• Crossed English Channel before daylight and flew over Normandy
• Fixed on Target - German Amunition Truck
• Hit by flack near La Mailleraue-1015 hours

Just Two Letters

"MY LINCOLN LIVES!"

March 1996-52 Years Later

• Sheriff Glenwood Humphries received letter from Bob Powell (historian of the 352nd)
• Lincoln's name was on Memorial Wall of the Missing at the American Cemetery in Cambridge, England
• Author Paul McCue found Lincoln's Grave
• Requested family's information.

William Pfeffer

• McCue connected the Bundys to William Pfeffer - preserver of American Pilot Liberators' History
• Sent correspondence to the Bundy family
• Logs of Lincoln's contributions in the War
• A piece of Lincoln's plane

Bundy Family Goes to France

• Memorial Service 2002
• William Pfeffer served as tour guide

Bundy Family Goes to France - Crulai

• "Every morning of my life at 11:00, I think about Lieutenant Bundy and the liberty he gave us." - Etienne Cohu
• They were told Lincoln would never be forgotten.

Bundy Family Goes to France - Crulai

• While in Crulai they met Patrick and Catherine de Goussencourts who take them to the crash site.
• They were told Lincoln would never be forgotten.

A Long Walk

Crulai to Poitiers (200 mile walk)

Bundy Family Goes to France - Poitiers

Operation Bullbasket

• British SAS (Special Air Service) paratroopers who were trying to sabotage German efforts to defend German occupied France
• SAS group ambushed by Germans
• Lincoln joined group on July 1, 1944

Lincoln's Capture

• July 3, 1944 - surrounded and captured by 400 German SS (Schutzstaffel)
• 30 British SAS and 1 American pilot become POW's
• Imprisoned in Poitiers

Lincoln's Death

• Commando Order - the German Soldiers had to kill the group or be killed themselves
• Lincoln shot by firing squad on July 7, 1944
• Buried in three mass graves
• Three German Officers convicted of war crimes on April 1, 1947

Finding the Mass Graves

• A group of boar hunters found the mass graves in December of 1944
• 30 SAS identified by names on clothes
• One buried in French civilian clothing was quickly identified as American Pilot, 2nd Lt Lincoln Bundy

Purple Heart Award

• Awarded June 11, 1945
• Received by Great Nephew Major Daniel Bundy, US Air Force November 13, 2018

Visitors to the Grave

• September 2002 - Rom, France

Bring Him Home?

VIDEO

Poppies Laid and Tears Flood the Grave

Poem

His Impact