WW2 Fallen - B-24 ball turret gunner John Oprisko

Tech Sgt. John Oprisko served with the 451st Bombardment Group based in Italy.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/50881026/john-e_-oprisko
http://www.americanairmuseum.com/unit/419

Technical Sergeant John Edward Oprisko never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.

If you have enjoyed reading the stories of the WWII fallen, Can you help write some stories? It's a big project. The more help, the better.  Announcing "The Stories Behind the Stars", see https://www.storiesbehindthestars.org. This crowd-sourced national project has the goal of compiling stories of all 400,000+ of the US World War II fallen in one free-to-access central database. We are going to need a lot of volunteers. Anyone visiting a war memorial or gravesite will be able to scan the name of the fallen with a smartphone and his story will appear on the phone.

He was born on August 11, 1920 in Whiting, Lake County, Indiana. His parents, John Oprisko and Anna Maty, were both born in Austria-Hungary, later called Czechoslovakia. His father worked as a carpenter. John had 4 brothers, George, Nick, Albert and Peter and 4 sisters, Anna, Cathryn, Dorothy and Carolyn. Albert would later serve in the US Marine Corps during the war. By 1940, John graduated from Whiting High School and enlisted in the military.

He enlisted the Army Air Force in November of 1939, and earned the rank of technical sergeant. The details about his first years of service were not found without requesting his records from the military, but in 1943, he was assigned to the 451^st Bombardment Group, 727^th Bomb Squadron. The group trained in Arizona, Tennessee, Florida, Utah and Nebraska before transfer to Europe in January of 1944.

He was the ball turret gunner of the B-24H Liberator #42-52103 “Cravin Raven!” Part of the 15^th Air Force, the squadron was based in Gioia del Colle Airfield in Bari, Apulia, Italy, doing strategic bombing throughout Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean. 

On April 5, 1944, the crew of the Cravin Raven left on their thirteenth mission, assigned to bomb the oil fields in Ploesti, Romania. Near the target, they were attacked by fighter planes. The bomber took heavy bullet damage before exploding. The pilot, radio operator, and right waist gunner died aboard the plane. The copilot bailed from the aircraft, but for unknown reasons, his parachute didn’t open. The navigator, bombardier, top turret gunner, left waist gunner and tail gunner bailed out and were captured. 

Oprisko also bailed out, wounded from the bullet strafing. He was captured with the others, and died of his wounds on April 7, 1944. The prisoners of war were eventually liberated.

The crew of #42-52103:

1LT Wilfred B Allister, pilot, KIA

2LT William L Story, copilot, KIA

1LT Jack T Sergent, navigator, liberated POW

F/O Alfonse Szymanek, bombardier, liberated POW

T/SGT Joe Schermerhorn, radio operator, KIA

T/SGT Charles Ristline, top turret gunner, liberated POW

T/SGT John Oprisko, ball turret gunner, KIA

T/SGT John Massa, left waist gunner, liberated POW

T/SGT John T Woods, right waist gunner, KIA

T/SGT Milton Wexler, tail gunner, liberated POW

Oprisko’s grave is at St Marys Cemetery, Lake County, Indiana.

Thank you, Technical Sergeant John Edward Oprisko, for your sacrifice. Let's Earn It for John.

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This profile was written by Marilyn N. Clark. "I have a long-standing interest in World War 2. My grandfather and numerous great-uncles served in that conflict. I have a BA in history from the University of Utah and have a lot of experience with volunteer genealogical research. It’s an honor to find and share information about these heroes that made such great sacrifices. Many thanks to Don for organizing this effort to share their stories.”

This is one of the final 50 stories (23) to be written as part of this project which ends on September 2, 2020, the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. At that time more than 1,370 men and women will have been profiled. The project will live on in an expanded program to write the stories of all 400,000+ US World War II fallen. Visit www.storiesbehindthestars.org to learn more. We welcome your continued support and interest and encourage you to help write some of these stories.

Last year on this date I profiled Clarence Landry, 775th Tank Battalion. You can read about Clarence here.

On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!

I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.

 

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WW2 Fallen 100 is supported by

The Greatest GENERATIONS Foundation

“Where Every Day is Memorial Day”

http://www.tggf.org