Read The Pennsy Bell Story Omar H. Scheidt was the son of August H. Scheidt and Amalia Grass, Volga Germans, from Stahl am Tarlyk, Russia. He grew up in Biola and was drafted into the Army Air Corps after graduating high school in 1943. He was trained as a flight engineer on the B-17G, Flying Fortress. He soon found himself in England, flying with the Eighth Air Force against Germany over occupied Europe. The Eighth Air Force combat chronology includes the following entry for Saturday, 25 November 1944: Mission 723: 1,043 bombers and 965 fighters are dispatched to hit the synthetic oil plant at Merseburg, Germany, and a marshaling yard using H2X (radar); 8 bombers and six fighters are lost, 4 damaged beyond repair and 197 damaged; 7 airmen are KIA, 5 WIA, and 64 MIA. One of those B-17 Flying Fortresses lost was named the PENNSY-BELLE, serial number 43-37886. Delivered to the Army Air Corps in Cheyenne, Wyoming on September 6, 1944. In November 1944, it was assigned to the 490th Bomb Group based out of Eye, England, to support the European Theater combat operations. On board was a young sergeant from Biola, California, Omar H. Scheidt. Flying in a borrowed aircraft because his regularly assigned aircraft was unavailable, Omar served as the flight engineer and upper gun turret operator. He was on his second combat mission over Germany. The PENNSY-BELLE and its ten-man crew had a critical mission that day. They deployed chaff meant to blind the German radars that directed the deadly flak guns targeting the allied bombers. They were flying at 28,000 feet and leading the formation and in an extremely vulnerable position. During the mission, they were hit by flak and lost three of their four engines. Omar was wounded. The order to bail out was given, and everyone hit the silk. Everyone made it safely out of the stricken bomber, but sadly, the tail gunner, Sergeant Robert NEWSOME of Portsmouth, Virginia, landed in a lake and drowned. Omar was almost immediately captured by German soldiers near the village of Braunfels. Only his knowledge of German saved him from an angry mob of German farmers that day (who wanted to shoot him on the spot). He was taken to a distribution center, where he was interrogated. Eventually, he was loaded in a railroad cattle car with other POWs and shipped east toward Poland. While in the marshaling yards near Hamburg, Omar and his compatriots were caught in an air raid. Omar can attest that there is nothing friendly about friendly fire. Fortunately, he survived and soon found himself at Stalag Luft IV near Gross Tychow, Poland. Omar was assigned to compound D. Stalag Luft IV was Spartan, to put it kindly. The official Red Cross description of the camp reported twice as many men assigned to it than it was designed to accommodate. Compound D had no beds in the barracks, and the men were forced to sleep on the floor. Some had mattresses but many slept on a bed of straw. Food was always in short supply, and German guards routinely pilfered the Red Cross packages that were critical to the POW's survival. Omar spent several months at the camp and as bad as things were, they were about to get worse. It was near the end of the war and the Russians were pushing west across Poland in their drive for Berlin. The German High Command made the decision to evacuate the Polish prison camps to prevent the Russians from liberating the valuable prisoners. The Black March was about to begin. Between 6 and 8 February 1945, over 6,000 Allied prisoners were ordered to pack up and start marching with only a few hour's notice. The POWs were broken up into 250-300-man groups. They were forced to march daily long distances on starvation rations in the winter conditions of northern Europe. They slept in open fields or, if lucky, a farmer's barn. There was little to eat. Over the next 86 days, many groups covered over 600 miles in absolute misery. Approximately 1,300 American and British POWS died during the march because of starvation, disease, or at the hands of the guards. Omar was liberated by a tank unit of the British Eighth Army near Lu Chow, Germany, on 3 May 1945. He returned to the United States, where he received an honorable discharge. Omar returned to Biola and attended Fresno State, where he met his future wife, Lorraine Richardson, and