“During the summer of 1943 a fierce battle raged in the skys over Europe. Every day hundreds of young airmen faced death as they flew bombing raids deep into enemy territory. Fewer and fewer were coming back.” Memphis Belle Motion Picture, Warner Bros. 1990. My brother, Sgt. Eugene Darter found himself in that situation as he and crew on their first combat mission were hit badly by flak and then attacked furiously by Nazi fighters and vanished into cloud cover. That is all our family knew for decades until January 3, 2000 when an inadvertent Internet search resulted in crew member names and a potential crash site near a Dutch island in the North Sea. An amazing and miraculous search and discovery followed for over a decade that brought closure not only to the Darter family but other surviving crew members and especially the 95 year old wife of the MIA pilot who still loves her man to this day!Michael Darter ~ Speaker Introduction
Dr. Michael Darter is an Emeritus Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois where he served as a faculty member for over 30 years. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas At Austin and became an international authority in transportation engineering receiving many awards.
However, he often states that nothing he has achieved in his career has been as satisfying as discovering what happened to his older brother whom he met and bonded with as a baby.
He has mourned his loss for decades and many years ago pledged to find out what happened to him when he and his B-17 crew vanished over the skies of Nazi Germany. He is here to relate the fascinating story!
