Video

Video by Tech. Sgt. Jessica Avallone

First Over Germany: Don Snook’s WWII Story

501st Combat Support Wing

April 4, 2025 | 4:39

Don Snook, World War II veteran, speaks with U.S. Air Force Col. D. Landon Phillips, 501st Combat Support Wing commander, and U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Joseph J. Raisner, 99th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron commander, about his time as a B-17 Flying Fortress pilot in Islip, England, Apr. 4, 2025. Snook completed 21 combat and five non-combat leaflet missions from Feb. 27, 1945, to May 8, 1945, with the 306th Bomb Group at the first U.S. air base in the U.K., Thurleigh Air Force Base in Bedfordshire. The unit had 3,000 personnel who referred to themselves as the "First over Germany." (U.S. Air Force video by Tech. Sgt. Jessica Avallone)