Your question answered
I was also a member of class 53C at Greenville ,Miss. Desire Van Gerwen (157) was my roomate at the time. I did not see him again until I was on a trip to Belgium in the late 1970"s. I met his family and had a great visit. Unfortunately as you know he was killed flying his little By Plane in and airshow not longer after that. I do not have any of the details but I did visit with the family once again while on a trip to Brussels.
I wish more Cadet classes had a similar web site so that we might remain in contact.
Thank you.
Robert W. Weber
USAF 53C
Robert Weber, Monday 19 April 2010
Dear Robert,
Thank you for visiting our new website (Feb 2010) and for your kind words of appreciation. How did you get a chance to find it?
I am interested to know.
As you can see, we don't have a site per class but ours covers all the Belgian cadets and student officers who graduated from your Air Force. In fact, our total number equates about that of only my class "52-C".
We are all most thankful to your country and to the USAF for the marvelous opportunity which was given to us to go through the best pilot training in the world and to learn all the facets of the most fascinating profession on earth and ... aloft.
I knew very well your friend Desire, he was in my squadron at Florennes. He was quite a nice fellow, a little too hot sometimes.
He killed himself not in a biplane but a small Tipsy Nipper, a Belgian made very light airplane with a VW engine.
If you wish to contact any other class-mates, don't hesitate to write, we'll put you in contact with them.
Wishing you all the best and remaining,
Sincerely yours
Georges CASTERMANS (52-C)
President of SW