18 October 1943. 2nd Lt. Robert Wade Biesecker and his crew from the 569th Bomb Squadron, 390th Bomb Group, Eighth Air Force, pose with their B-17 Flying Fortress "Honey Chile" (serial 42-31027) at RAF Framlingham in Suffolk, England. Joining them are the crew's two mascots, a dog named Scrappy and a monkey named Joe. Scrappy was given to the crew during training in the States and flew the Atlantic with them to England. Joe was picked up at another station, and the two quickly became inseparable. Joe was often seen riding around the base on Scrappy's back. Bob Biesecker was a 24-year-old from North Carolina who enlisted on 31 March 1942. Before the war he worked as a sales agent, and he was already married to 21-year-old Dorothy Rankin of Vancouver. On 18 May 1944, seven months to the day after this photo was taken, Biesecker was flying another B-17, "Rick-O-Shay III" (serial 42-37925) of the 571st Bomb Squadron, on a mission to Augsburg when six Me 109s attacked his aircraft. The bomber exploded and went down just south of Lahr, near the Black Forest. Three crewmen managed to bail out. Biesecker was killed. He rests at Lorraine American Cemetery in St. Avold, France, Plot G, Row 5, Grave 19. Dorothy later remarried and passed away in May 2000. She was survived by a daughter, three grandchildren, a sister, a brother, and several nieces and nephews.