Veteran: crew honored by French town
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    The prisoners learned the war was over on a short-wave radio they had battered for cigarettes. Lesko, who had been imprisoned for 10 months, remained in the Air Force. He retired as a colonel at Whiteman Air Force Base in Knob Noster, Mo. In 1992, he moved to Lee's Summit where his son, Greg, owns RSVP video productions.
   He didn't talk much about his experiences in the years after the war, and he was haunted by questions of whether he could have done more to save his crew members.
   "Lots of things that happened were too unreal for people to understand, even my wife and son," he said.
    The citizens of Schoeneck also had to come to terms with the crash. Many who were children at the time came to realize that the crew was there to help liberate their country and had put the plane on a course to spare their town.
    One of those children, Raymond Engelbriet, grew up to be a historian. He organized effirts to erect a monument to the men on the mission and tracked down the surviving crewmen.
             
     Lesko was contacted in June 1997. He, Phillips and Lang attended the dedication Aug. 23, 1998. Media from all over Europe covered the event, and Greg Lesko documented it on videotape. The crewmen were escorted in a 1940 LaSalle that had belonged to the U.S. embassy in France. Lesko was overwhelmed by the hospitality.
    "French traditions are not too shabby," he said. " We would sit down for lunch at 1 and not get up until 4. And I've never been kissed by so many women."
    Lesko has been kept busy answering mail from all over the world since the event. It is almost enough to threaten his position as a board member of " Livewell, Dolittle, and Sitmore," as his retirement business card reads.
     Most important, the remembrance brought closure to Lesko and his family.
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