Vet's daughter recalls reunion
Jeanette Laxton/courtesy photoFormer Moses Lake resident Jerry Hopkins died in 1987 and was recently recognized posthumously at the final reunion of survivors of the 451st Bomb Group of World War II. Hopkins is shown in this undated photo.
World War II bomb group honored
SPOKANE - Although Moses Lake resident Jerry Hopkins died 21 years ago, his memory lives on as his daughter talks about a final reunion recently held for Hopkins' World War II bomb group.
"It was absolutely wonderful," Hopkins' daughter Jeanette Laxton said on Monday. "My son (Kenneth) and I talked about what a shame it was that it wasn't tape recorded or video (recorded). The history was wonderful. They had men from each position in the plane share their experiences."
Laxton, now of Spokane, previously lived in Moses Lake with her husband Dean, a dentist, and their three children. Her father, Hopkins, and mother, Thelma, moved to Moses Lake in 1972.
The reunion honoring Laxton's father was held last month at the Hyatt Deerfield Hotel near Chicago where about 100 survivors and their families attended.
The gathering was the group's last because many survivors have died in the last few years, Laxton said.
"The families made a big effort to come to this," she explained. "There were sons and daughters and wives and grandchildren there."
Hopkins was a B-24 liberator pilot who flew 10 dangerous missions to targets in several countries controlled by the Germans, stated Winson Jones, manager of the 451st Bomb Group Reunion.
The 451st was known as one of the most decorated flying units of World War II, as it was honored with three Presidential Unit Citations, Jones stated.
The group's targets in Southern Italy included the Ploesti Oil Refineries and the Prufening Aircraft Factory at Regensburg.
"Some measure of the bomb group's activities can be gained by the realization that there were missions that resulted in the loss of one-third or more of the B-24s involved due to aggressive enemy fighter-plane attacks and to antiaircraft guns protecting the targets," according to Jones.
Laxton said the reunion honored all of the veterans from the 451st and the event "was an amazing gathering of history."
Although some veterans were using canes and wheelchairs, many were in good health, she said.
Among her dad's crew, there are four surviving members and three survivors attended, she said.
Her dad was a pilot all his life and when Laxton was 16, he taught her how to fly, she recalled
"He was a wonderful man," she said. "He absolutely loved flying from the time he was a young man."
Hopkins was born in 1909 and his career spanned from the beginning of flight and he lived to see a man on the moon, she noted.