396th Air Service Squadron

3rd Bomb Squadron's B-25J "Smilin' Jack" (named after the popular 3rd Bomb Squadron commander, Maj. Jack M. Hamilton, thence “Smilin’ Jack”). This B-25, A/C #714, serial #43-27809, was taking off from Liangshan on mission #112A to bomb and strafe railroad yards at Loyang when the pilot lost control and crashed just to the side of the runway. 3nd Bomb Squadron...

Lt. Joseph S. Pesek, 396th Air Service Squadron, 12th Air Service Group. Photo from December 1, 1943, Keesler Air Force Base. Lt. Col. Joseph Pesek, USAF, (Retired) was born on January 14, 1918 in Auburn, NY. On December 5, 1936, he enlisted in the Army 28th Infantry, Fort Ontario. "The people I talked to at the gas station where I...

Cpl. Elmer Eugene Zobb, a crew chief in the 396th Air Service Squadron, 12th Air Service Group, was lost upon crash of a B-24, #41-23889 (which had been converted to transport configuration), after departure at around noon January 25, 1944, from Barrackpore, India, for a flight to Chabua, India, when the weather closed at Chabua, despite final contact with the...

Elmer Bukey posing alongside a salvaged P-40 in the service area at Guilin. During WWII.

"This is a picture of one of the eight P-40's that was built from our salvage yard at Kwelin (Guilin) China. The planes had new engines installed and were tested and turned over to the fighter groups for combat service.To our knowledge all planes performed to everyone's satisfaction." Caption courtesy of Elmer Bukey.

"We had many night-time visits from the Japanese and when that happened we headed for the caves around our hostel areas. This picture was taken from inside one of those caves overlooking the 396th hostel area. Needless to say this picture was not taken during an air raid but by someone that wanted to see what the area looked like...

"Lt.Sohl took this cycle with him to every base we serviced. I had never ridden a cycle before and he let me ride it around the revetment one day and I ended up driving right thru the door of the engineering shack and pinned "Rocky" Taurisano against the back wall of the shack. That was the first and last time...

Members of 12th Air Service Group recovering fuel from crashed Nationalist-marked B-25: "Gasoline was a precious commodity in China. All the gas we received had to be flown over the Hump from India into China. This picture shows some members of the 396th pumping gasoline out of the wing tanks of a crashed B-25. With the supply situation of everything...

Wreckage after horrific crash in which numerous American crew, Chinese passengers, and Chinese laborers on the ground, were killed and burned, the accident apparently happening in close proximity to the airfield/runway. During WWII.

A B-24 under maintenance by 396th Air Service Squadron during WWII, in China.