Tail End Charlie: An Evening with Paul “Bud” Haedike

American Veterans Center Conference and Gala, Washington D.C., 2022

Paul "Bud" Haedike flew 26 missions as a bombardier in a B-17 Flying Fortress with the 730th Bomb Squadron, 452nd Bomb Group, 8th Air Force. On his first mission, to the marshalling yards at Hamm, Germany, on February 16, 1945, his crew flew in the position known as Tail End Charlie: the last in formation and the lowest.

The flak that day was intense, and two engines took direct hits. The B-17 came down in Belgium.

Bud and his crew were lucky it was Belgium and not Germany. They made their way back to England and kept flying.

If you have watched Masters of the Air, the recent series following the 8th Air Force's 100th Bomb Group, you have a window into what these missions cost the men who flew them. The cold, the flak, the odds - and the surviving against all odds. Bud flew through all of it more than two dozen times.

I met Bud at the American Veterans Center conference and gala in 2022, and spent some time with him over the course of the evening. He is warm, precise in his memory, and entirely himself.

At some point during the evening he sang to me. You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby. One verse, delivered with complete commitment.

Bud passed not long after this evening. I am glad I have the video. I am glad I have the memory of him exactly as he was that night, present and generous and singing.

This is what I mean when I say the work is a privilege. The archive is full of records, and those records are full of men. And some of them, given half a chance, will serenade you.

Rest easy, Bud.