Escape and Evasion Air War Symposium

The Air War Symposium on “Escape and Evasion — The Downed Flyers Story” took place in Louisville, KY in October 1992.  It was sponsored by the 8th Air Force Historical Society and the 8th Air Force Memorial Museum Foundation.  Team leader was Ralph K. Patton, president of the Air Forces Escape and Evasion Society, and moderator was WWII historian Roger Freeman.  Panelists were Charlotte Ambach, member of the Service EVA escape and evasion organization in Brussels; Yvonne De Ridder Files, Group G in Antwerp; Dr. Gabriel G. Nahas, Dutch-Paris Line; George van Remmerden, Biesbosch, Netherlands, escape organization; Clayton David, evader; Lee “Shorty” Gordon, evader; George R. Weinbrenner, evader; and Dorothy Smith, WAC captain in intelligence.  This video was posted by AFEES on YouTube in June 2016.

To view the video from the beginning, click on https://www.youtube.com/edit?video_id=6wiLGGYpLJ8.  To skip to just the symposium panel discussion, navigate to the time 38:03.

The first part of the video is devoted to Ralph Patton’s description of his experiences after being shot down but the video quality is poor.  To view a good quality video of his experiences, click on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJ8Oy_lKesw.

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