McCook’s own Sgt. Forrest Dillman and the Lucky 666

Dear Editor,

It came with great interest to me while reading Bob Drury and Tom Clavin’s book Lucky 666 that one of the heroic members of the title’s B-17 Flying Fortress was a McCook native. Technical Sergeant Forrest Dillman was a ball turret gunner who was chosen to serve with this plane’s crew as they flew many dangerous missions over the Solomon Islands in World War II.

While there was no picture of Sergeant Dillman in the book, he is painted as a hero, one who “volunteered for training as a belly gunner” after three semesters at the University of Denver “because he thought it offered the quickest route to combat.” His combat included the fateful reconnaissance mission over Buka and Bougainville June 16, 1943, that earned all of the crew medals of valor, including two Medals of Honor, and seven Distinguished Service Crosses.

In the epilogue of this book, it says Sergeant Dillman returned to Nebraska after being honorably discharged after the Korean conflict and then moved to California, dying in 1975. It was interesting to me to see that the McCook Public Library and you, Bruce [Crosby], of the Gazette were mentioned in the acknowledgments section of the book. I read many WWII books as I try to process what my own father went through on the ground as an Army staff sergeant in Europe. For me to find a man mentioned in a bestseller from McCook puts things in perspective: All walks of life from all parts of the U.S. gave up their home lives to protect our freedoms.

Sergeant Dillman is the second such Nebraskan that I’ve encountered in my reading. There was a young man, Lieutenant Karl Timmermann, from West Point who was the first to step foot in Germany while crossing the Rhine River during the Battle of Remagen.

I’m sure that the Gazette’s staff have read Lucky 666. It is a well-written book that details the selfless courage of so many flight crews during WWII. One shocking detail I learned was that during the war, there was an average of 70 U.S. aircraft lost each day with more than 40,000 men losing their lives.

Thank you for your part in providing key details about one of the crew members of the 666. It’s a story I will not soon forget.

Sincerely,

Kevin Fields,

Seward, Neb.