Lt. Thomas Armstrong, U.S. Army Air Corp
Flight Officer, 1944 – age 21

Ron Wood accompanied his mother, Susan Armstrong Wood Anderman and attended ceremonies in France to honor her brother and two other pilots who crashed their planes and died there 2DEC44.

The ceremonies came about because on the day of the crash a young 7-year-old boy, Pierre Bouchet, helped his grandfather enter the woods to recover bodies and debris from the crash. The spectacular explosions, forest fire, stampeding cattle and resulting search was a huge event in the little village of Mogues. The day stayed with Pierre, the rest of his life. He grew up to be a Physicist and a Professor. In 2000 his curiosity led to researching that day. The results were celebrated in the erection and unveiling of a monument, ceremonies including a parade, a brass band, a high mass with a choir and a fly over. Also visited was the actual site of the crash. All of this was documented with the pictures here presented. Many people of the hundreds, who attended the ceremonies, expressed undying gratitude for their American liberators. Story after story declared the heroic rescues of loved ones from the terror that was the Nazis.