LT Tunis Vanden Berg, Navigator, 1943-1945

Extracted from a letter dated October 25, 1993, to the 456th Bomb Group History Book project.

Cerignola, Italy, 1944

My name is Tunis Vanden Berg, a former member of the 745th Squadron of the 456th Bomb Group. I enlisted in the Army Air Corp in June 1942 and was called to active duty in January 1943.

I was sent to the classification center in Nashville, Tennessee and took all of the tests and exams and was found to be best qualified to go to navigation school.

I went to pre-flight training at Ellington Field, Houston, Texas, and after completing pre-flight was sent to Navigation School in San Marcos, Texas.

I was graduated from navigation school in September 1943 and was commission a 2nd Lt.

I was sent home on a 2-week leave and then to gunnery school in Boise, Idaho. From Boise I was sent to Muroc Army Airfield in California, in December 1943. I was put on the crew of Lt. Roy Lassiter as the navigator.

We stayed at Muroc for about a month and then to Hamilton Field near San Rafael in California to pick up our B-24 bomber. From there we flew to Italy with stops at Palm Springs, California, Midland, Texas, Memphis Tennessee, and West Palm Beach, Florida. From West Palm Beach we flew to Italy with stops in Puerto Rico, Georgetown, British Guiana, Brazil, Dakar, Marrakech, Morocco, and Tunis, Tunisia.  We then went to our base in Stornara, Italy.

We arrived the first part of February 1944. We started flying combat missions soon after arrival. On our 8th mission we crashed in Italy returning from a bombing mission to Vienna [Budapest]. Our crew never flew together again.

I completed 35 missions and received the Air Medal with 5 oak-leaf clusters, the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Purple Heart and also some unit citations. About halfway through my tour of duty I was appointed squadron navigator which meant that I flew in the lead ship or near the lead on my missions. I stayed on in Italy with the 456th Bomb Group, managing the Officers Club after my missions were completed. Somewhere along the line I was promoted to 1st Lt. I arrived in my hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan in July 1945 sand was subsequently discharged in October 1945.

In January 1946 I resumed my pre-medical studies at Calvin College in Grand Rapids and then went on to Wayne State University Medical School in Detroit in 1947.  I was graduated in 1951 with the M.D. degree and did post-graduate studies at Butterworth Hospital in Grand Rapids. I began practice in Fremont, Michigan in 1952 and retired after 32 years of Family Practice. We moved back to Grand Rapids in July 1994.

I was married in 1949 to my wife Bernice. We have five children and five grandchildren.