My Dad

This is a picture of my Father, Lewis Burleigh Sheen, Jr. taken sixteen years before I was born.

Dad's the smiling, dashing, shadowy pilot on the left in the forground.
The nose art tells us that this was not Dad's plane, which was adorned with a naked pin-up painting, and the name, The Secksma Sheen.
The caption was on a piece of paper taped to the back of the photograph.
Also on that piece of paper, in light, neat cursive handwriting, in pencil, was
"Page 13, July 16"

This just in! A photograph of my Dad's plane -- with another of its crews, not Dad's -- is available on the web at: http://www.b26.com/html/387/558/ra/3.htm.
I stole the image. Here it is:

The crew here: L-R: William Dale Matlock (tech Sergeant), H.E. Dean, tail gunner; Richard C. Everett, Radio/Gunner; Lt. Richard A. Ainsworth, Co-Pilot; Lt. Richard H. Gunn, Pilot.
Apparently, the Gunn/Ainsworth crew flew many missions on Dad's plane.

According to http://www.harwood.plus.com/558thBS.htm, the Secksma Sheen was a B-26B-15, KX-G, Serial Number 41-31647, and it Crashed 26 Dec 44 after 110 missions -- the third most of any plane in its Bomb Group.

Here are four more pictures of my Dad, courtesy of Colonel Walter C. "Clyde" Harkins, who served with my Dad during World War II.

Seen here: Dad, Clyde Harkins, his wife, Amy, and an unidentified Lieutenant, in Greensborough, North Carolina, in August, 1945. Returning veterans reported there for their next assignments.

Clyde Harkins, Dad, a Captain Snyder, and two others, in Chipping Ongar, England, returning home after 65 missions, in 1944.

Captain Gunn, Lieutenant Block, Lieutenant Butterfield, and my Dad, at their Air Base near St. Quentin, France, in 1944.

My Dad with Clyde Harkins, at St. Quentin, France, in the winter of 1944. Dad had just returned from flying a combat mission.

This portrait is a close-up taken from the first picture Colonel Harkins provided above.

Here, courtesy of Col. Robert W. Keller, Dad's C.O., is Dad shaking hands with Captain Rollin Childress, a flight leader.

Also through the good graces of Col. Keller, we see what has been the "Holy Grail" of my searches, a photo of my Dad and his flight crew standing in front of the "Secksma Sheen." The nose art is beautifully clear here. Dad is standing at the left. Notice that he's wearing moccasins! Boy does that bring me back! Click the image for a larger version.

The crew, left to right: Major Lewis Burliegh Sheen, Jr: Pilot; Lt. James Miller: Co-pilot; Lt. Lawrence O'Brien: Navigator-Bombadier; S/Sgt. Randall Murff: Engineer - gunner; S/Sgt. William Lindsey: Radio Operator-gunner; Sgt. Vearl Jasperson: Gunner

Once again, a closeup of Dad that's a detail cropped from a shot above, this time the shot of Dad shaking hands with Captain Childress. Again, click the picture for a larger version.

Colonel Keller comes through with another picture of Dad, his crew, and the Secksma Sheen. I took an unconsionaby long time getting this shot scanned and returning it to Colonel Keller, for which he has my apologies.

Click the picture for a larger view

And a close-up of Dad from that shot:

Tom Britton just sent me this picture:

Tom tells me: "The crew in front of the aircraft is Capt. Dan Morse's. I was Dan's Bombardier-Navigator...the kid wearing the white silk scarf."

Paul Osborne and Nick Challoner hunted through the fields, and found the airfield at Chipping Ongar as it is today.

During the Korean "Police Action" my Dad served as a U.S. Army Chaplain. Here's a picture. This looks a lot more like Dad as I remember him.

Again, click the picture for a larger version.

There's a bit here about Dad's service during the Korean conflict. Search for the name "Sheen" on the page.
Dad spoke about it once or twice. He was performing a service at a forward unit, and the lines moved past them overnight. He was the ranking officer on-site, so he took command of the unit and led them out, through a pea-soup fog, in the middle of the night, to friendly territory. Dad spoke of the unit marching in single file, each following the man in front of him, barely visible through the fog, while they could hear, but not see, the North Koreans marching past them through the fog.