Washington Area Marauder Men Visit Museum

By Al LaPorte

This past May the Museum was visited by a group from the Washington Area Marauder Men. This organization consists of local veterans with ties to the Martin B-26 Marauder, their relatives, and aviation enthusiasts interested in the Marauder’s history. Following a morning tour of the Museum, the group enjoyed a good lunch at the “The Landing Strip” restaurant. During the afternoon, Museum tour guides showed the Marauder Men group our static aircraft display at Strawberry Point.

Among the visitors was Jeanne L. Newell whose father, Lieutenant Colonel Franklin Allen, was one of the first U.S. Army Air Force pilots to fly the B-26 Marauder. His wartime experiences included service in both the South Pacific and Europe. He was instrumental in developing techniques to utilize the Marauder as a torpedo bomber and flew more than 60 combat missions in both theatres. His candid observations of his wartime service are chronicled in his written recollections of the war titled “Frank Allen goes to War” and in a book co-authored by his daughter titled The Martin Marauder and the Franklin Allens: a Wartime Love Story. Copies of both these documents have been generously donated to the Museum by Jeanne Newell and will be stored in our archives.

We look forward to a return visit by the Washington Area Marauder Men.