FORT THOMAS, Ky. — Twin sisters in northern Kentucky would’ve given anything to spend more time with their father, whose plane was shot down in World War II when they were babies.
For years, they’ve had to settle for photographs and letters he sent back home.
But, they recently received the greatest gift of their lives: pieces of their father’s plane they never thought they’d get their hands on.
Lt. Harry “Bud” Vaal is an American hero. His two biggest fans only met him once, but they don’t remember it.
“Our father was in World War II. He was a bombardier on a B17. And his plane crashed in 1945 in a field in England,” said Mary Lou Bosch, sitting next to her twin sister Linda Niewahner.
“Our dad and the two navigators fell out of the nose of the plane before it blew up. So our dad was buried in England for three years before they were able to bring his body back,” Niewahner said. “But the plane just blew up into a million pieces, and there was this huge eight-foot crater where all the pieces were.”
That plane was called Miss Ida. Vaal was just 24 years old when he died.
“We were nine months old when our dad was killed. And he was on probably his very last mission. He had flown 40 missions. Maybe 39. So it was really the end of the war. It was April of 1945. He would’ve been home a month later,” Niewahner said. “I can’t imagine what that day was like for my mom to get that telegram.”
Harry Vaal married Vivian Vaal in 1943. In 1944, his daughters were born. He did get to meet them briefly in July of that year. It was a short leave of absence back to Newport before he was back off to war, never to return.
“It’s been hard, because we have pictures. And we have pictures of him growing up and pictures of him dating my mother. And pictures of him in his uniform in boot camp, and all of those things. It’s just hard knowing that this is a person who is your father, and you never met him. And you just want to know what he would’ve been like as a father, as a person,” Bosch said.
Niewahner, with tears running down her face, said she thinks of her dad “all the time.”
“It’s something that you’ve always missed. Knowing the person that was your father. And it seems like the older I get, the more emotional I get. I just wish we had known him,” she said.
For nearly 80 years, the pictures were all they had. But in 2018, Niewahner’s daughter Beth Hodge was scrolling through Facebook. She saw a post from an amateur historian named Jerry Wright, who had recovered some pieces of a plane in a field in England.
The plane was called Miss Ida.
“My heart stopped. I knew immediately that that was my grandfather’s plane. And then had no idea there was somebody in a far off country who was still remembering and memorializing,” Hodge said.
She reached out immediately.
“His response was: I’ve been waiting for someone to ask me to send Miss Ida home,” Hodge said.
This past Christmas, both sisters each received a shadow box containing pieces of their dad’s plane.
“Is this a joke? What’s going on?” Bosch recalled. “And when I opened it, I knew immediately what it was, and I just burst into tears. And then, of course, I had to get on the phone and find out what she did. It makes me feel really proud that someone in England had enough thought to go out and save these things, but to send it to both of us, was really special.”
The two women both continue to live in northern Kentucky, where they grew up, each with families of their own. They said they’re proud to know those families care enough to remember where they came from.
“It was a long time ago, but for people who lost someone in World War II, you want them to remember not just our dad, but all of the people that came from around the world to fight the Nazis,” Niewahner said.
“We have what we have because these people are willing to go over and fight for our freedoms,” Bosch said.
Spectrum News 1 learned about this story from an article written by Jacob Dickman, who is the grandson of Bosch, and is studying journalism at Ball State University.