The Mighty Eighth Air Corps of the U.S. Army lost more combat veterans in the destructive maw of World War II than any other combat unit in the US military, yet these very young crew members climbed aboard their aircrafts daily and, in the leering face of death, ground down the Nazi infrastructure and combat units across the European Theater of Operations.

As the losses mounted, the tours of duty extended. Finally, the Chow-hound was assigned a “milk run” into the edge of France, where a direct hit at the waist of the ship separated the Chow-hound into three pieces at 14,000 feet. The plane and crew were doomed. But fate, human kindness, luck, scientific advancement and coincidence have transformed this ordinary combat loss into an extraordinary story that ripples across time and generations.