Flak-Happy
A Tribute to an American Warrior and Crew 613

This is a true story about an American World War II bomber pilot, Nicholas B. Kehoe Jr., and his crew, who flew a B-24 Liberator bomber with the 8th Air Force, 492nd Bombardment Group in 1944.

"FLAK-HAPPY" was the nickname of Lt. Kehoe's aircraft. His mission on June 20, 1944, started off with eleven men on board. Eight of them died that day. Two were captured by the Germans.

In the blink of an eye, nine of the 10 aircraft flying that mission with Lt. Kehoe were blown out of the sky by the German Luftwaffe over the Baltic Sea. Lt. Kehoe was the only one left aboard the burning aircraft when he had no choice but to bail out. In that decisive moment, he had not yet seen his second-born son, who was only 50 days old.

The 492nd Bombardment Group sustained some of the heaviest losses of the war and was disbanded after only 89 days of combat. Of the original seventy-three B-24 aircraft assigned to the group, 40 were lost in combat.

But this is also a story about a once-in-a-lifetime love, hope, family, hardship, sacrifice, heroism, truth, tragedy, lies, espionage, service to country, grace, and the penultimate fight between good and evil.