After long e-mail contacts:
Co & Mel Litke, regular gunner of B-17 42-3439 meeting eachother at 8thUSAF HS Annual.
Litke missed the last and fatal mission of the B-17 on Oct. 20-1943, being grounded by flew.
His substitute, Bob Randel got KIA in the crash of the ship in De Bilt, Holland