Editor Emeritus Lothar "Bud" Fieg Cited in War Remembrance

The late Capt. Lothar Fieg, a World War II fighter pilot and Fieg Family News editor emeritus, is cited in a newly-published book titled Fighter Group: The 352nd "Blue Nosed Bastards" in World War II.  

Author Lt. Col. (Ret.) Jay A. Stout mentions Bud once regarding the strafing of a German air base and again, more colorfully, with a description of the parties thrown at the 352nd's base in Bodney, England.  The passages appear below, sent to your editor by Sue Fieg Williams:

Page 135: 

Very little of value was destroyed or even damaged. The poor weather simply made it too difficult to see, and if something worthwhile was spotted it was often too late to fly into a good position to attack it. What was hit reads like an assorted list of scraps: The 352nd's commander, Joe Mason, blasted away at a flak tower and a gun emplacement on the beach; John Thornell shot up a radio tower, some troops and a B-17 that had belly-landed in a field sometime before; Jack Donalson worked over a number of gun emplacements and shot up a rifle range where German solders were practicing their marksmanship. Lothar Fieg fired at a flak tower; after shooting at another tower of some sort, William Halton fired his guns "purely at random," John Coleman shot his guns at "some suspicious looking buildings," and John Meyer "observed strikes on the rear portion of an army truck."

Page 154:

Many of the 352nd's fliers fit the stereotype of the hard-drinking, hard-partying, hard-flying fighter pilot, but some of them didn't. Robert Powell remembered that Lothar Fieg was not a riotous reveler. "His bed was next to mine in the Nissen hut. He was a non-typical fighter pilot--quiet and shy and conservative. He never came to the parties.

"At one point while we were still flying P-47's Lothar was getting a little flak happy," Powell recalled. "I finally persuaded him go to one of our parties. He was curious and I told him that our flight surgeons mixed up a vat of grain alcohol with fruit juices that we called Thunderbolt Joy Juice. The idea was to have a couple of slugs of that before the trucks arrived with the girls. If you did that, then the girls looked more beautiful. After they showed up you picked one out and gave her a slug or two, took her over to the food and then......well, the rest was up to you. Ultimately, Fieg returned to the states and married his longtime sweetheart."

Sue also mentioned that she was happy and pleased to see that the book is dedicated to Betty Powell, wife of Robert "Punchy" Powell.  It reads, " Especially for Betty Powell because she deserves it."

P-51 Bluenoser "E Pluribus Unum"