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These are the staff and ground echelon of the 857th Bomb Squadron not assigned to a combat crew.
There were some men who had changes in assignment that did have them serving with an air crew, as well as with the staff.
Our objective is to supply as much information as we can about what these men did.
As with the other squadrons, we will put here all the information pertaining to the squadron as it is collected.
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The 492nd only had two West Point graduates, Major Donald H Heaton and Captain Austin P Byrne.
Both of them were assigned to the 857th with Heaton commanding and Byrne serving as his Operations Officer.
With that said, the 857th was a bit more military than its sister squadrons.
The documentations and summaries written by this squadron are far more accurate and complete than the others, including the Group records.
The men who served the Heaton/Byrne team said that their commanders were crystal clear as to what they wanted and expected out of everyone.
That made things easier because there was no guesswork involved.
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One of the primary functions of each squadron, of course, was to keep their planes flying.
Each squadron's ground echelon was enormous, as it took a lot men to maintain and repair those planes.
The German guns were very successful at keeping the ground crews busy.
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The links on this page listing the Officers and Enlisted Men that served in the 857th are incomplete and will likely contain errors.
We do have official listings typed up by the 857th showing the squadron as they were when they arrived at North Pickenham.
They also made the distinction between which echelons were in the air versus on the ground.
While they did keep the better records, not all of the changes in personnel, MOSs and job assignments are shown.
By default, we've added to the staff listings all of the names we found that couldn't be identified as having been assigned to a particular crew.
Our lists are a work in progress and will be corrected as new information comes in from our visitors.
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