Upcoming Discover Auburn Lecture to feature 'Bomber Boys, WWII Flight Jacket Art' with John Slemp

In the final program of spring 2023, Auburn University Libraries’ Discover Auburn Lecture Series will present John Slemp to speak about his new book “Bomber Boys – WWII Flight Jacket Art.”

The lecture will take place at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, April 5, in the Caroline Marshall Brown Auditorium located on the ground floor of the Ralph Brown Draughon Library. The public is welcome, and there will be a question-and-answer period after the lecture.

“Bomber Boys – WWII Flight Jacket Art” is a visual record of A-2 jackets worn by bomber air crews that represent all World War II theaters of operations. The photos were taken by Slemp from both museums and private owners. Along with artifacts, photos and personal accounts, these jacket photos reveal a visual diary of a man’s service in the U.S. Army Air Corps.

Slemp will be joined in the program by World War II U.S. Army Air Corps veterans Ambers Hansen and Orrin Brown. Tech. Sgt. Hanson was a radio operator on both B-17s and B-24s. Stationed in Mendlesham, England, he flew 25 missions in France, Germany and what was then Czechoslovakia as a member of the 8th Air Force “Mighty Eighth,” 34th Bomb Group, 391st Bomb Squadron, all before turning 21.

His crew also participated in the food drops over Holland, and his plane was a B-17 called the Battlin’ Butch. He joined the U.S. Army Air Corps before finishing high school and returned to his schooling post-war, graduating from Auburn (then API) with the class of 1952.

An Opelika native, Brown (API class of 1941) flew 30 missions in World War II and never dropped a bomb while with the 492nd Bomb Group/801st Squadron. Brown was one of the initial members of the Carpetbaggers, a secret unit that was part of the newly formed Office of Strategic Services, or OSS, the forerunner of today’s CIA. The unit worked in conjunction with the British Special Operations Executive, or SOE, and dropped agents, supplies and leaflets into western Europe from bomber aircraft.

Brown stayed in the Air Force Reserves after the war and retired as a Lt. Col. in 1962. Brown, who will celebrate his 104th birthday on April 4, was honored in March of 2018 with a Congressional Gold Medal as a part of the original OSS during a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.