BB Butler

Austin Butler portrays Major Gale 'Buck' Cleven in "Masters of the Air" and Callum Turner portrays Major John 'Bucky' Egan. The "two Buckys" as they were known met when they roomed together at flying school in the spring of 1940. They enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces before the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, and in 1942, they were both assigned to the 100th Bombardment Group, nicknamed the "Bloody 100th" due to the exceptionally high losses it suffered during the war. As an example of just how dangerous their job was, both men were forced to bail out of their B-17s over Germany just days apart in October 1943 after taking enemy fire. They both ended up at Stalag Luft III, a POW camp for airmen that was popularized in the movie "The Great Escape". When Egan arrived at the camp, Cleven famously greeted him with "What the hell took you so long?" Major Gale Cleven escaped his German captors during a march after the evacuation of Stalag Luft III, and Major John Egan was taken to camps further inland and survived until Allied forces liberated the camps in the spring of 1945. The two men remained close friends after serving together in WWII, with Egan acting as the best man at Cleven's wedding. Both men remained in the service. Cleven served throughout the Korean and Vietnam wars before retiring as a colonel, and Egan, who also attained the rank of colonel, served until he passed away of a heart attack in 1961. #MastersoftheAir #AustinButler #CallumTurner #ww2 #ww2history