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Last Name: ` STEHLIK	First Name Middle Initial: IRVIN		Nick Name: SKI
Street: BOX 221	City & State: WILBER, NE		E-Mail: STEHLIK@KDSI>NET
Zip: 68465	Phone:		Spouse: EVELYN E
Conflict: WWII	Service Branch: Army Air Corp		Unit: 401 ST SQ. 91ST BOMB GROUP
Theater: ETO	Where Captured: HOLLAND		Date Captured: 02/04/44
Camps Held In: Stalag Luft 1			How Long Interned: 451 days
liberated / repatriated: liberated	Date Liberated: 04/30/45		Age at Capture: 24
Medals Received:
Military Job: COMBAT PILOT		Company: GENERAL MOTORS
Occupation after War: SHOP FORMAN

Military Bio:

Irvin F. Stehlik of Wilber, Nebraska was in the Army Air Corp. as an Air Mechanic and Crew Chief for about a year. He became qualified to enter Aviation Cadet Training and was later commissioned as Second Lt. and received his pilot’s wings. He served overseas with the 401st, Sq. 91 Bomb group as a Combat Pilot and on Feb. 4th he and his crew were shot down on a raid to Frankfort Germany. They were captured on site when they had to crash land near Eindhoven, Holland when their engine due to flak, lost its power, soon after their 2nd engine was hit. Since a B-17 could not carry it’s bomb load with only 2 engines, the crew decided to dump its payload and abort the mission.

When they were captured (due to the .50 caliber machine guns exploding from the plane catching fire) the Germans briefly interrogated them at gunpoint. From there Mr. Stehlik and his crew were taken to an interrogation center in the very same city they were to bomb the day before. After 11 tense days at the interrogation center Stehlik's crew was sent to Stalag Luft I. after 15 months behind barbed wire, Stehlik was liberated by the Russian troops on April 30, 1945 and on June 5th, 1947 he was married to Evelyn Sukovaty.