Torretta Flyer
History of The Torretta Flyer
Bud Markel wrote the history of the 484th Bomb Group and preserved it in The Torretta Flyer.
He and his wife Bea organized the first reunion of the 484th and 461st Bomb Groups in May of 1981. In December of 1981 the 461st and 484th Bomb Groups Association was incorporated in the state of California as a non-profit corporation. Starting with a newsletter bulletin to keep early members up to date on the fledgling organization, the name Torretta Flyer was first applied to newsletter number 4.
In 1992 the 484th and 461st Bomb Groups formed their own separate associations. Bud was the president of the 484th BG Association and the editor of The Torretta Flyer until the association was disbanded in 2001. An excellent writer, photographer, aviation historian, and organizer, Bud published The Torretta Flyer twice yearly for 20 years. With the help of Bea he also organized and hosted fantastic annual reunions for the association.
The Torretta Flyer evolved from a mimeographed newsletter into a fine glossy magazine filled with photographs, data compiled from official sources, letters and stories written by members, and scholarly contributions from writers in the historical aviation field. When the 484th BG Association was disbanded, Bud and Bea donated 50 bound two-volume sets of The Torretta Flyer to various libraries and museums around the country. Comprising over 1200 pages, The Torretta Flyer has become a treasured possession of the men who served with the 484th BG and their descendents and is much sought after by aviation historians.
Bud Markel flew 35 combat missions as a B-24 engineer between January and May of 1945. He was employed as an A&P mechanic for United Airlines in Los Angeles from 1948 until retirement. He is especially proud of the 484th BG Association scholarship fund which was originally conceived as a living memorial to the 484th and 461st Bomb Groups. Through this fund, the association donated $53,000 to deserving high school students from the area around Cerignola, Italy.
The Torretta Flyer is copyright © 484th Bomb Group Association.
For now, the format chosen to present the issues of the "Torretta Flyer" is to have a separate page for each issue with PDF document for each page in that issue. To view an issue, click on an issue and then click the thumbnail for the page you want to view. Each page will open in a separate window. Closing that window will take you back to the index for that issue. The exception to this is "Torretta Flyer 1-9" which is a PDF document. It will open in a separate window directly. To get back here, simply close that window.
Dick Olson has created an index of everything in all issues of the "Torretta Flyer". Thanks to Dick I can recommend the following to help you navigate through all the issues and find what you're looking for.