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Freshwater gets honored for his military service

Paul Giannamore FRESHWATER’S HONOR — Ralph Freshwater is wrapped in the Quilt of Valor presented to him Wednesday at the Jefferson County Air Park in the terminal building that bears his name. Freshwater, who was instrumental in helping the airport to thrive after the county purchased it in the late 1980s, was a B-17 gunner during World War II. He earned his pilot’s license after the war and flew his own aircraft out of Wintersville for decades for recreation and in support of his contracting business. With Freshwater is Joyce Burkey, his neighbor who made the quilt.

WINTERSVILLE — The famed World War II B-17 bomber “Memphis Belle,” itself a Hollywood movie star, achieved fame by completing 25 bombing missions over hostile territory in Europe.

Wintersville’s Ralph Freshwater bested the famous airplane.

Freshwater flew 30 missions in 1944 and 1945 in the skies over Germany as a gunner aboard B-17s, with crews facing antiaircraft fire and enemy fighter planes, including the the first jet fighters, the Messerschmitt 262 flown by Germany’s Luftwaffe.

His neighbor, Joyce Burkey, presented him with a Quilt of Valor during a luncheon in his honor Wednesday in the terminal bearing his name at the Jefferson County Air Park.

Freshwater, who established his contracting business after World War II, was instrumental in helping save the airport and growing the airport authority after the county purchased the airport in the mid 1980s.

Burkey said she found out about the Quilts of Valor program and wanted to make a quilt for Freshwater. The quilts are donated, according to Brandy Warthman, state coordinator for the Quilts of Valor Foundation for Ohio. She said the program began in 2003 and seeks to cover all veterans with quilts of comfort and healing. Information about Quilts of Valor is available at www.qovf.org. More than 191,000 quilts have been presented to veterans.

Burkey said she started making quilts after taking a class at the Jefferson County Joint Vocational School about five years ago. She said it took about six weeks to make Freshwater’s quilt.

Freshwater, 98, stopped flying his own airplane when he was in his 80s. He still goes to the airport on Wednesday afternoons to meet with a group of friends at the Ralph Freshwater Terminal Building.

“We present this quilt to you to thank you for your service during World War II and your sacrifice to our country,” Warthman said. She read a certificate of appreciation, outlining the Quilt of Valor as delivering “a three-part message from our hearts.”

“First, we honor you for your service. We honor you for leaving all you hold dear and standing up in harm’s way in times of crisis, protecting us from the effects of war. Our quilters know freedom is not free. The cost is the dedication of lives of men like you and the quilt says thank you for your sacrifice. The quilt is to offer comfort to you and to remind you that although your family and friends cannot always be with you at all times, you are forever in our thoughts and in our hearts,” she said.

His diary from the period of enlisting in August 1943 as an Army Air Corps aviation cadet through his 30th and final mission, flown March 18, 1945, to bomb Berlin, offers a glimpse into the life of aviators during the final year of the air war over Europe.

He went through training at Jefferson Barracks, Mo., during the fall of 1943.

“Toward the end of my stay, I learned that I would become a gunner and not a pilot as I wished to be,” states his diary.

The B-17 he flew on his first mission, Oct. 25, 1944, was hit by flak and there were holes in the plane. It was the first of many flights that included damage inflicted by the enemy. His diary recounts bombing runs to Merseberg, Germany, as the worst. He saw three B-17s shot from the skies on Nov. 2, 1944.

“There were 8 holes in our plane,” Freshwater wrote. “Four minutes after leaving the target, I saw three B-17s go down in flames. That is a sight I shall never forget. The B-17s finally blew up and no chutes were seen.”

The diary takes on an air of routine at times, including details about how much fuel was aboard, praising the escort of the lumbering bombers by nimble P-51 Mustang fighters and helping Gen. Patton’s troops advance 18 miles in one day as a result of a bombing run over the German front lines. Always present, though, are mentions of battle damage and loss of air crews.

Crews weren’t facing danger only from enemy fire. The B-17 could be a troublesome aircraft. Freshwater’s diary recounts a blown engine and a return to England after disarming and then dumping bombs into the English Channel. He also wrote of passing out from a lack of oxygen, and losing planes and crews on takeoff.

At one point Freshwater reports seeing a V-2 German rocket taking off and presumably heading toward England.

An experimental mission with jet-propelled bombs to bust concrete at a German submarine base was flown in February 1945. Freshwater writes about having three colonels and four photographers along on the run.

On the final mission for Freshwater, March 18, 1945, he and the ship’s radarman were hit by flak, but he praises the fighter escort and said other crewmen worked to save another crewman’s life. He said flak from antiaircraft fire struck five 50-caliber gun rounds that exploded in Freshwater’s face.

“My interphone was shot out in five places. The flak suit I was wearing got hits and also my A-3 bag (flight duffel),” he concluded.

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