The National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force had a special visitor on Thursday, October 6th, decorated veteran, Captain Richard “Dick” Nelms. Captain Nelms was to have visited the museum back in February but was canceled at the last minute due to weather.
Captain Nelms enlisted in the Army Air Forces in 1942 and was assigned to the 8th Air Force, 447th Bomb Group at Rattlesden, Suffolk County, England. He flew 35 missions over Germany and Nazi Occupied Europe between May 13, 1944, and September 8, 1944, at just the age of 21. His B-17 sustained battle damage on 25 of his 35 missions; he returned from his third mission, a ten-hour trip to Berlin, with more than 300 holes in his B-17.