Sunday April 13 2008 09:11:15 pm

Received in email from Russell Cramer (04/12/2008):

"It was good to hear from you. I am fine and getting older. A question that
I have heard several times is why do persons whose duties are radar
operators or instructors appear as gunners or engineers or other skills. I
answer that during WW11 the word radar was classified as Secret. It could
not be talked about with persons not secured for that purpose, nor shown on
documents unless classified secret. As a result crews and others who may
have been using that equipment were ,many times designated as other skills
to avoid the use of the word. An example is Herb Lingafelt being shown as a
gunner with the Cannon crew. Other varations occured whitch can be
explained with this knowledge. Many mistakes occured becausc of this
problem such as duty assignments and career assignments.I hope your
endeavor at Pratt continues to grow. Russ."

Note: Russell's Flight Records 1944-1945 can be viewed in this websites Documents Section.
Thanks, Mr. Cramer for this insight into historical documentation discrepancies. - Milt Martin