After WWII – Orv following up on some whereabouts
Margaret Trowbridge married a British lad, moved to South Africa shortly after WWII and had a son. Her husband returned to England, but she remained in South Africa with her son for many years, then moved to Australia where she lives now. Her brother Gordon, he was RAF pilot during WWII, lives in the San Francisco area, just an hours drive from me.
Forty years later I returned to Edinburgh with Mary and another couple and tried to locate Helen MacKenzie, but I found out from her neighbor that she had moved to London and left no address.
My Belgium friend remained in Veriviers and went into export-import business. His sister Ninnette married a doctor in Brussels and has a couple of sons. She remarried to Pierre d’Archambeau a world renown Baroque musician who traveled all over the world giving concerts. He produces reproductions on tapes, discs & records, mostly in Denmark. He has given concerts in Middle East, but now he is semi retired, and they live in Portland, Oregon. Ninette has been a French instructor. We have gotten together several times.
I met Lt. Smiley on the 50th anniversary of VE-Day under rather strange circumstances. Mary and I had taken a side tour on our QE-2 trip with the 9th Air Force back to Salisbury, England. We were with a tour group going through the Salisbury Cathedral when I got to talking with one of the 9th AF fellows. He said he had a girlfriend in Salisbury by the name of Margaret. Well, I said knew a family here in Salisbury and they had a daughter Margaret, the last name was “Trowbridge”. At that instant he burst out, loudly in the quiet cathedral, “Oh, so you’re the one who stold my gal!” He went on to explain that they had been engaged, but she apparently broke it off.
Orv - Who was he? Who did he become?
Retrospective
February 26,1985
How very wonderful and exciting to hear from you after 40 years. You really made my day! Your photographs and letter brought back many memories- some good and some bad. Yes, I remember well the bodies stacked up on the beach and the Germans bloated at Point de Hoc- but then I also remember the great people we worked with and sweated out the communications day by day. It was people like you that helped me get to where I did in the Air Forcc. You were a bit more lucky than I was, after we ended up in Weimar, as I was sent directly to Leyte with the advance party of the First Army and 9th TAC. We planned for the invasion of Honshu and expected the rest of you to arrive any day – then the bomb was dropped, and thank goodness the war was over. Col. Meyers and I, and a group of radar people and controllers were sent immediately to Tokyo where we set up a control center for our aircraft. In late November I was returned to the States and sent immediately to Panama where I spent three months working on a radar plan for its defense. Finally in April 1946 I was given my R and R and I spent a month with my wife and two children. We then went to Langley Air Base for station. So I was gone from home from July 18,1942 until April l946- it was a long separation from my family.
Our son was wounded as a Lt. Col. Infantry in Vietnam and our daughter works for Boeing in their lobbying office in Washington. Both are married and have children. We are a happy family.
Our son was stationed at Creenham Commons back in 1967 and we spent three months with him, so we visited Middle Wallop several times- the folks there couldn’t have been nicer -they let us look around and I even showed the family the room I had in the Officer’s Club. The coal to heat the building was piled up out side my window so it very seldom was opened as the coal dust blew right in.
This summer late I expect to visit East Germany including Weimar, but I’m afraid it will be too hurried to see as much as I would like, as it is a plan- ned tour. However, better than not going at all. I ‘m returning some of your memorabilia as I know how much you prize it. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed hearing from you and to know you are doing so well. Our best to you and your Mary,
Sincerely,
Major General E.Blair Garland, USAF, Retired