{"id":34852,"date":"2023-11-08T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-09T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=34852"},"modified":"2023-11-09T19:14:15","modified_gmt":"2023-11-09T19:14:15","slug":"grandson-visits-to-honor-grandfathers-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=34852","title":{"rendered":"Grandson visits to honor grandfather\u2019s legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Aaron Kyasky and Megan Magee read the B-17 Flying Fortress memorial plaque on R.K. Begraafplaats Eygelshoven, Oct. 19, 2023. (U.S. Army photo by Char\u00e9ll de Koster, USAG Benelux Public Affairs)
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EYGELSHOVEN, Netherlands \u2013 Two monuments honoring British, Canadian and U.S. Airmen located a few minutes away from Army Prepositioned Stock-2 (APS) Eygelshoven, received an unusual visit on Oct. 19, 2023.<\/p>\n

Aaron Kyasky visited the site where his grandfather\u2019s bomber crashed 80 years ago. In honor of his grandfather’s sacrifices during World War II, the grandson of the surviving top turret gunner and flight engineer, Sgt. Arthur E. Linrud, recently visited the APS-2 site as well as the memorial dedicated to those lost in the crash.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Army Air Forces B-17 Flying Fortress was in route from England to Germany as part of the Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission, when they were shot down by a Luftwaffe aircraft. Various pieces of the plane fell in and around what was at the time a rowing pond, for leisure, nowadays it is where APS-2 site Eygelshoven is located. On board were ten U.S. airmen. Four of them died on impact, one is still recorded as missing in action (MIA) and the other five were taken prisoner.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know the morning of the bombing, I remember [him] telling me that there was pea soup fog, very cloudy,\u201d said Kyasky, Linrud\u2019s grandson. \u201cThey received orders the day before, knowing that they were going to have a mission, but they always kept on thinking that the order to stand down would come. Once they started rolling down the tarmac they knew – No, we are going.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the plane was shot down, Linrud became a Prisoner of War (POW). He was first transported to Frankfurt, Germany. Then put on a train to the POW camp in Krems, Austria.<\/p>\n

Linrud\u2019s parents received a telegram saying that he was missing in action shortly after the crash. A couple of weeks later they received another telegram from a person they assumed to be a Dutch citizen. The Dutchman had been listening to the radio and found out that [Linrud] had been captured.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy grandfather talked about seeing one of the engines on fire and watching the plane he was parachuting out of,\u201d said Kyasky. \u201cHe said he had some turbulence from the [German] fighter trying to get him. I know when he hit the ground there was a German Soldier basically with a gun in his face, who said – for you my friend, the war is over. You are a German prisoner of war,\u2019\u201d recalls Kyasky.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to see where my grandfather was shot down because he was very important to me.\u201d said Kyasky. \u201cHe was proud of his service. He would be proud that I was here to represent him and pay respect to his crewmembers that did not survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

The streets on the installation in Eygelshoven have been named after the crewmembers of the B-17 that were killed in action (KIA) or MIA. Erica Nowells, U.S. Army Garrison Benelux site manager Eygelshoven, took Kyasky and his partner, Megan Magee, on a tour of the installation to see the street signs for themselves. \u201cThere is a total of five street signs we have.\u201d said Nowells. \u201cThe memorial site is right up the street here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kyasky and Magee, by coincidence booked their trip a week after the 80th anniversary commemorating the crash. \u201cI did not realize that last week was the 80th anniversary,\u201d said Magee. \u201cThat was very symbolic, but we did not realize that until the trip was already booked. Glad to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally, they had planned to go see Magee\u2019s family in Spain. During preparations for the trip, Kyasky felt the urge to visit the place where his grandfather was shot down.<\/p>\n

Kyasky\u2019s aunt, JoAnn Linrud, was the reason Kyasky contacted Wim Slangen, a local historian who initiated establishing the monuments. \u201cMy aunt [did] a lot of research on my grandmother\u2019s side.\u201d explained Kyasky. \u201cShe is very involved in the memorial. She put me in contact with Wim.”<\/p>\n

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\n Wim Slangen and Aaron Kyasky pose at B-17 Flying Fortress memorial, on R.K. Begraafplaats Eygelshoven, that commemorates the B-17 crash, Oct. 19, 2023. (U.S. Army photo by Char\u00e9ll de Koster, USAG Benelux Public Affairs)
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As a local historian, Slangen researched the history of the crash. \u201cDuring May 4 commemorations (Remembrance Day in the Netherlands) I heard the names of people who died in Eygelshoven during the war, but the airmen never got mentioned,\u201d said Slangen.<\/p>\n

To get in contact with eyewitnesses of the crash, Slangen put an article in the German newspaper as Eygelshoven lies at the border of the Netherlands and Germany. \u201cI cannot remember why exactly I mentioned Arthur Linrud\u2019s name, but it worked.\u201d said Slangen. He got a response.<\/p>\n

The response turned out to be from Martina Offermanns, a member of the Offermanns-Gliege family, living in W\u00fcrselen. The family Gliege organized transatlantic family reunions as generations spread out in Germany, United States and Canada. Linrud was connected to the Gliege family through his wife, her maiden name was Gliege. \u201cIf the family never came to the reunion, Martina\u2019s husband would have never recognized the Linrud name in the newspaper.\u201d said Kyasky.<\/p>\n

Even though, Linrud barely spoke about the war or his time as a prisoner, Kyasky remembers his grandfather being proud of the medals he received for his service. He gave talks for different college groups and spoke at different memorials sites, especially around Memorial Day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know my mom is happy that I am visiting, since I was so close to my grandfather,\u201d said Kyasky. \u201cI really wanted to see what he experienced. At the end of the war, the German guards knew that the Russians were coming from the east. They did not want to be captured by the Russians because of how they were treated in World War I, so they marched the prisoners for a hundred plus miles to the west. One thing I thought about doing if I had more time; I would like to go visit the POW camp in Krems, Austria. I would love to follow the route to relive my grandfather\u2019s experience a little bit, to see what he saw on his way once he found out the war was over. To experience going through the same towns and villages, even 80 years later, that would be neat. Maybe one day I will do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kyasky is glad that he can contribute to keeping the history alive for generations to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aaron Kyasky and Megan Magee read the B-17 Flying Fortress memorial plaque on R.K. Begraafplaats Eygelshoven, Oct. 19, 2023. (U.S. Army photo by Char\u00e9ll de Koster, USAG Benelux Public Affairs) (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL EYGELSHOVEN, Netherlands \u2013 Two monuments honoring British, Canadian and U.S. Airmen located a few minutes away from Army Prepositioned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34854,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34852"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34857,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34852\/revisions\/34857"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}