Upcoming Schedule
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Follow the Team
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Note: Tentative. Specific dates and location information withheld until completion.
Abandoned underground Masonic Temple, NEW YORK
(Journey alongside the team as they uncover a secret 19th century Freemason site!)
St. Andrew's Church, Staten Island, NEW YORK
(Unravel the mystery of the drummer boy entity haunting the grounds of this church!)
Black Tom, Covert World War I Munitions Port, Jersey City, NEW JERSEY
(Recently declassified site of a WWI allied bomb transport facility,blown up by enemy spies!)
Underground St. George Walkway, Staten Island, NEW YORK
(Witness as the Team searches for the sealed-off ancient pedestrian walkway!)^
Old Newgate Revolutionary War Prison, CONNECTICUT
(Cut through overgrown flora and fauna as the team hunts down colonial trinkets!)
The Headless Horseman Bridge, NEW YORK
(Follow the Team's hunt for the true location of Sleepy Hollow's legendary bridge!)
Yorktown Battlefield, VIRGINIA
(Visit the exact location amid buried cannonalls, bullets, and bodily remains where Cornwallis surrendered to Washington!)
Desert of Maine, Freeport, MAINE
(Explore the only active desert in New England and its rare gemstones!)
Oak Island, Nova Scotia, CANADA
(Uncover new leads into the still lost Money Pit!)^
The Bimini Road, BAHAMAS
(Dive with the RLRH Team over the ancient underwater road linked to the lost city of Atlantis!)
Extinct volcanoes in the barren interior territory, ICELAND
(Rappel down volcanos as the team seeks out Nordic stone carvings!)*
The Skeleton Coast, NAMIBIA
(Explore the feared waterway region responsible for numerous shipwrecks!)*
Machu Picchu, PERU
(Take on the seldom explored upper Western region of the ruined Inca city!)*
Castle Csejthe, ROMANIA
(Dare to join the team at midnight, where Elizabeth Bathory drank the blood of 650 victims!)*
Abandoned Temple of the Goddess Siva, INDIA
(Trek through India's cultural tapestry to discover an ancient Temple!)*
Mt. Ararat, TURKEY
(Hunt down one of the most elusive prizes in all archaeology, Noah's Ark!)*
The Sinai Desert, EGYPT
(Deep cave exploring for the elusive Ark of the Covenant!)*
Catacombs of St. Callixtus, Rome, ITALY
(Journey with the team as they explore the caved-in and unexplored section of the underground early Christian burial grounds!)*^
* pending sponsorship
^ pending legal permission
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Real Live Relic Hunter Team
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your gift would be most appreciated.
Please contact us.
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(In United States): 1.347.322.0071
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The Notebook
“It was 4 o’clock in the morning when the C.Q. (Charge of Quarters) stomped in, switched on the lights, and politely said, 'Welton’s crew, you boys are flying this morning' ", so stated Staff Sergeant Stanley Francis Ostrowski on Christmas Eve, 1944 while serving as a ball turret gunner in the belly of a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber with the notorious 8th Army Air Force and the illustrious 390th Bombardment Group, Crew 94.
This is the story of a tiny 3" x 5" notebook, Stan's daily account diary of each of the thirty missions he flew. Each page of the notebook can be viewed in the photo gallery below, as well as accompanying documentation including a letter he wrote to his parents. Sit back and absorb what it takes to be a true American hero...
Christmas Eve, December 24th, 1944. Staff Sergeant Stanley Francis Ostrowski, a 23-year old New Brighton resident pens his first entry into a tiny notebook reflecting his service as a B-17 Flying Fortress ball turret gunner during World War II. “Biggest mission in history. Started off with a pretty rough one, a little too close for comfort.
Seventy years later, his nephew Andrew Ostrowski, a West Brighton resident, unraveled the aged cord binding the pages of this notebook to reveal his uncle’s words. “Turning each page was an incredible journey” says Andrew, “you felt right there beside him at 28,000 feet as he fought off Messerschmitts enroute to bombing enemy munitions factories, railroad yards, and oil plants.”
Stanley was a 1939 graduate of Curtis High School, and afterwards took a job as a carpenter in the McWilliams Shipyard in West Brighton. One of nine children born to Polish immigrants, like his other brothers, Benjamin, Edward, John, and Daniel, he joined the war effort as a proud first-generation son.
Arriving at Fort Jay Induction Station on Governor’s Island on August 24th, 1942, the young draftee was quickly sent to Upton, NY for five days of administrative maneuvering, followed by stays in Miami Beach, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas, and finally Arizona where he was fully trained as a gunner. Stan then left for England to be assigned to the infamous 8th Army Air Force, and the renowned 390th Bombardment Group. This group had been cited by President Roosevelt for skill and daring in battle, and holds the war record for destruction of enemy aircraft by a lone group in a single engagement, having shot down 63 German fighters.
As Stan recounted, also published in a 1944 Staten Island Advance article, about a daylight bombing mission over Berlin, “It was 4 o’clock in the morning when the C.Q. (Charge of Quarters) stomped in, switched on the lights, and politely said, “Welton’s crew, you boys are flying this morning.”
The article continues with the crew’s nervous anticipation in the briefing room. “The tensions gradually mounted” said Stan. “The silence was broken in a chorus of groans as the briefing officer swept back the black curtain and revealed the target, Berlin.”
Says Andrew, “As I absorbed my uncle’s words, what struck me as particularly astonishing was the selfless giving of these flyers knowing full-well that they could die in a matter of hours. I would be a nervous wreck.”
After greasing up his .50 caliber guns, Stan climbed into the ball turret, which is a clear, round capsule on the plane’s underbelly about the size of a modern day washing machine tub. Lying flat on his back with legs up, his finger clutched the trigger as he rotated.
Once over enemy ground, Stan remarks, “Flak at 10 o’clock!” as heavy barrages of gunfire came up. Luftwaffe fighters took down a fellow B-17 in the distance as Stan recalls, “It was spinning down out of control with a wing fire.”
As a side note, the 1949 film Twelve O’Clock High starring Gregory Peck, portrays with precision the typical routine of WWII bomber crew members such as Stan Ostrowski.
Despite some losses, that mission was a success, as were the other 29 missions that Stan flew. He was awarded the prestigious Air Medal with Four Oak Leaf Clusters, but perhaps an even greater award came from the mouth of German Field Marshall Gerd von Rundstedt in admitting that the crew’s air assaults “did more to stop my counter-offensive into Belgium than any other factor.”
Unlike countless others, Stanley Ostrowski survived the war. He returned to his family in New Brighton, taking a job as a NYC civil servant. His passions included 8mm filming, spending time with his nieces and nephews especially at the annual Christmas gathering, cats and gardening. He died in 1992.
"I thought about how my uncle would react to this feature about him, and I'm certain he would want to play it down because of course, inevitably so many lives are lost in war, it's really a sad thing. If there is a bright, almost exciting moment here for us in reading through this notebook, it should be because of the heroism and sacrifice of a soldier" says Andrew.
Reflecting on the final pages of the little notebook, which is available to read below, Andrew sums up, “Upon reading these accounts, it became impossible not to shed a tear. What it must have been like for these men surrounded by explosions and bullets racing through the sky. If you met my uncle Stanley in the years that followed, you would never think that such a meek, humble, and sincere man could ever have been involved to that degree in war. And I thought to myself, how much more honorable does it get?”
“It was 4 o’clock in the morning when the C.Q. (Charge of Quarters) stomped in, switched on the lights, and politely said, 'Welton’s crew, you boys are flying this morning' ", so stated Staff Sergeant Stanley Francis Ostrowski on Christmas Eve, 1944 while serving as a ball turret gunner in the belly of a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber with the notorious 8th Army Air Force and the illustrious 390th Bombardment Group, Crew 94.
This is the story of a tiny 3" x 5" notebook, Stan's daily account diary of each of the thirty missions he flew. Each page of the notebook can be viewed in the photo gallery below, as well as accompanying documentation including a letter he wrote to his parents. Sit back and absorb what it takes to be a true American hero...
Christmas Eve, December 24th, 1944. Staff Sergeant Stanley Francis Ostrowski, a 23-year old New Brighton resident pens his first entry into a tiny notebook reflecting his service as a B-17 Flying Fortress ball turret gunner during World War II. “Biggest mission in history. Started off with a pretty rough one, a little too close for comfort.
Seventy years later, his nephew Andrew Ostrowski, a West Brighton resident, unraveled the aged cord binding the pages of this notebook to reveal his uncle’s words. “Turning each page was an incredible journey” says Andrew, “you felt right there beside him at 28,000 feet as he fought off Messerschmitts enroute to bombing enemy munitions factories, railroad yards, and oil plants.”
Stanley was a 1939 graduate of Curtis High School, and afterwards took a job as a carpenter in the McWilliams Shipyard in West Brighton. One of nine children born to Polish immigrants, like his other brothers, Benjamin, Edward, John, and Daniel, he joined the war effort as a proud first-generation son.
Arriving at Fort Jay Induction Station on Governor’s Island on August 24th, 1942, the young draftee was quickly sent to Upton, NY for five days of administrative maneuvering, followed by stays in Miami Beach, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas, and finally Arizona where he was fully trained as a gunner. Stan then left for England to be assigned to the infamous 8th Army Air Force, and the renowned 390th Bombardment Group. This group had been cited by President Roosevelt for skill and daring in battle, and holds the war record for destruction of enemy aircraft by a lone group in a single engagement, having shot down 63 German fighters.
As Stan recounted, also published in a 1944 Staten Island Advance article, about a daylight bombing mission over Berlin, “It was 4 o’clock in the morning when the C.Q. (Charge of Quarters) stomped in, switched on the lights, and politely said, “Welton’s crew, you boys are flying this morning.”
The article continues with the crew’s nervous anticipation in the briefing room. “The tensions gradually mounted” said Stan. “The silence was broken in a chorus of groans as the briefing officer swept back the black curtain and revealed the target, Berlin.”
Says Andrew, “As I absorbed my uncle’s words, what struck me as particularly astonishing was the selfless giving of these flyers knowing full-well that they could die in a matter of hours. I would be a nervous wreck.”
After greasing up his .50 caliber guns, Stan climbed into the ball turret, which is a clear, round capsule on the plane’s underbelly about the size of a modern day washing machine tub. Lying flat on his back with legs up, his finger clutched the trigger as he rotated.
Once over enemy ground, Stan remarks, “Flak at 10 o’clock!” as heavy barrages of gunfire came up. Luftwaffe fighters took down a fellow B-17 in the distance as Stan recalls, “It was spinning down out of control with a wing fire.”
As a side note, the 1949 film Twelve O’Clock High starring Gregory Peck, portrays with precision the typical routine of WWII bomber crew members such as Stan Ostrowski.
Despite some losses, that mission was a success, as were the other 29 missions that Stan flew. He was awarded the prestigious Air Medal with Four Oak Leaf Clusters, but perhaps an even greater award came from the mouth of German Field Marshall Gerd von Rundstedt in admitting that the crew’s air assaults “did more to stop my counter-offensive into Belgium than any other factor.”
Unlike countless others, Stanley Ostrowski survived the war. He returned to his family in New Brighton, taking a job as a NYC civil servant. His passions included 8mm filming, spending time with his nieces and nephews especially at the annual Christmas gathering, cats and gardening. He died in 1992.
"I thought about how my uncle would react to this feature about him, and I'm certain he would want to play it down because of course, inevitably so many lives are lost in war, it's really a sad thing. If there is a bright, almost exciting moment here for us in reading through this notebook, it should be because of the heroism and sacrifice of a soldier" says Andrew.
Reflecting on the final pages of the little notebook, which is available to read below, Andrew sums up, “Upon reading these accounts, it became impossible not to shed a tear. What it must have been like for these men surrounded by explosions and bullets racing through the sky. If you met my uncle Stanley in the years that followed, you would never think that such a meek, humble, and sincere man could ever have been involved to that degree in war. And I thought to myself, how much more honorable does it get?”
The Notebook - Page by Page
(click on image left to right) |
Various Documents
(click on image left to right) |
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Stan's letter to his parents, May 8th, 1945 (at right)
Dear Folks,
I'm writing this on "V.E. Day" and boy what a day to celebrate and be thankful for. The long hard struggle is over and the blood, sweat, and tears have not been shed in vain. The people of Europe have been freed and we know their joy, for we dropped food to the Dutch the morning they were liberated and they had flags all over the streets & waved like mad. I hope & pray that Ed & Ben are ok wherever they may be now. I wish there were someway of getting in touch with them now. We completed thirty missions and it should count as our full share over here although a tour consisted of thirty five missions. Our crew sure has a lot to be thankful for. We had some narrow escapes - we weren't the only ones. Sometimes it seemed like someone was protecting us up there when it (got) pretty rough. That flak was wicked at times. I guess the average mission lasted about seven hours - some were longer & some shorter.
How was everything in good old N.Y. on V.E. Day.(?) Boy what Kelly & I would give to be back there now. I heard the paper & confetti is knee-deep. I'll write a long letter later folks.
What you say Lil, how was the (illegible word) all my love,
Stan