Wednesday, October 10, 2018

354th Service Squadron Reunion Olean New York 1972

Due to a recent scare from a flooded basement I have been scanning bunches of photos. My dad had one of those photo albums that ruin the photos if left too long so I wanted to get the photos out of that book and preserve them. This was the first photo in the book and I did not know where it was taken. I Googled  Castle Inn and found them all over the country but a lot in California. He had went to a reunion in Ventura California in 1978 but Google did not find a Castle Inn in Ventura.
The 354th Service Squadron was formed at Geiger Army Air Field soon after Pearl Harbor, they serviced the B-17 and B-24 bombers. They were first sent to England then to North Africa and near the end to Italy.
This photo from the parking lot shows a Motel DeSoto across the street, so I Googled that and the first entry came up Olean New York. The 354th had a reunion in Olean in 1972, so I Googled Castle Inn Olean New York. First hit was a picture of the Olean New York Castle Inn being demolished!! The rubble did not look like the above photo. A couple of hits below the top one was a postcard on Amazon of the Castle Restaurant and Castle Inn of Olean New York. The Castle Inn looks just like the photo above, so now I know these photos are from the 1972 354th reunion in Olean New York. The postcard will be here next week. I also have the sheets where all the veterans and their wives that came signed in.
In with these 1972 photos was four old black and white photos. Three did not have a location.
 This one said Camp San Sevro on the back. I was not sure that was spelled correctly so I Googled San Sevro Italy since I remember pop saying they stayed there a while. Found out that the USA had a large base of P-51 fighters at San Severo Italy in April 1944 and 1945, so I guess this photo was taken there at San Severo Italy.

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