67TH TACTICAL RECON GROUP

Chapter 9

organized under the 26th Service Group as a whole. I also found an original drawing of their coat of arms where my grandfather’s 2487th Quartermaster Detachment A was listed under the visual breakdown of the Group. This was actually the first time I found my grandfather’s Detachment A even listed in any historical record online. What was really awesome was that this entire Service Group’s motto on their coat of arms was “Victoria Ad Finen”, which translated means “Victory To The Final End”. The 67th Tactical

Reconnaissance Group’s motto was “Light From Darkness”. What I also found online were pictures of each unit’s banners and on their banner was a symbol that I saw before. Can you guess what it was? It was the wings on a propeller, the same exact one my grandfather had pinned to his World War II uniform! Also in my online searches, I found a bunch of amazing photos. I have attached some photos of the 67th Tactical Recon Group, photos of items that I found on Ebay that were for sale and had handwritten information on the back confirming my research, and a painting of a 67th Tactical Recon P-51 Mustang flying over the beaches of Normandy during one of their missions as mentioned earlier. If you look closely at the numbers, you might be able to find the actual plane in my photos or pretty damn close.

Also attached is the only narrative on record that we have found regarding my grandfather’s Detachment A of the 2487th Quartermaster Truck Company (Aviation). There are no other records that we can find regarding actual, factual data regarding their locations and assignments. Special thanks to Larry for finding this. The narrative was written by First Lieutenant Zussman who was the Unit Commander of Detachment A after the Normandy invasion and reads as follows:

“On the 22nd of January 1944 the 2nd Platoon of the 2487th QM TRK CO (AVN) was designated as Detachment “A” then consisting of 1 officer and 44 enlisted men, was assigned to Team “B”, 26th Service Group, which was stationed at AAF 449. Organizational vehicles for operations were twenty six (26) 2½ ton cargo trucks, one (1) ¼ ton truck (Jeep), one (1) ¾ ton weapons carrier.

On the 4th of March 1944, PFC Joe Sedlet was assigned and joined to our Detachment. He had been with us before we had become a Detachment, but at the time of re-designation he was in the hospital recovering from injuries sustained in an accident.

On the 17th of March 1944, Pvts. Flowers and Sanderson were assigned and joined. Pvt. Lackey joined on the 15th of April 1944 bringing this Detachment to its full strength of enlisted personnel, the total of forty eight (48).

On the 30th of March 1944, this Detachment started assault training in Wales.

Our Detachment was alerted for overseas duty 8th May 1944. Waterproofing of vehicles and preparation of men and organizational equipment for shipment was initiated immediately. On 17th May 1944, orders were received lifting alert and we returned to normal operations.

Alert orders were re-issued on 1 July 1944, and for 48 hours without halt, men of this Detachment worked to meet the deadline date for shipment, waterproofing all vehicles. At 0812 on the 4th of July 1944, the convoy pulled out of AAF station 449, and arrived at the marshaling area, Burksley C-12 at 1800 hours the same date.

After three days of processing and orientation at Burksley, convoy proceeded to RCRP-5, Leaving Burksley on the 8th July 1944 and arriving in Box on 9th July 1944. Detachment was broken down into