Ernest M. Trickett was from Grove City, Ohio.  He graduated from the Grove City High School in the class of 1935.  He was married to Pauline Trickett.  Ernest became the flight engineer/top turret gunner on a B-17F (serial number 42-30076) that belonged to the 545 Bombardment Squadron of the 385 Bombardment Group.  The pilot of the B-17 Lt. Robert Oblinski.  On 22 June 1943, the crew was flying on its first mission to bomb the (former General Motors) truck factory at Antwerp.  The B-17 successfully bombed its target, but it developed engine difficulties and fell out of formation.  Eight German FW 109 fighters attacked the isolated bomber. By the time it passed over the town of Goes in the Netherlands, three of the four engines were on fire and Oblinski gave the order to bail out. They jumped near the town of Wilhelminadorp. The German fighters turned their machine guns on the airmen as they were suspended in the air. Ernest and three of the other crew were died as they fell to the earth.  The remaining six were taken prisoner.  The bomber’s tail gunner, Harold Cooke, and one of its waist gunners, George Waterman, are also buried at the Ardennes American Cemetery.

Information provided by Menno Polderman, and found in This Week Community News, 13 June 2017 (http://www.thisweeknews.com/news/20170613/honoring-ernest-trickett-cerem...)