Penn Senior High School but dropped out during World War II in 1943 to join the Army Air Force. He met and fell in love with Grace Myers, valedictorian of York Catholic Class of 1941, and married her before he enlisted because “I didn’t want to lose her.” Pressel did basic training in Miami and initially repaired trucks, then went to radio school and eventually became a gunner on a B-24 bomber. He was stationed in Torretta, a small town in southern Italy.
bombs on a refinery, just across the Danube River from Vienna, Austria. The mission did not go as planned when the Germans set off smoke bombs to obscure the refinery. The bomber looped around for a second pass, and flak struck the plane. It was losing fuel and dropped from 26,000 feet to 14,000 feet in a matter of seconds. The crew knew they couldn’t get over the Alps back to Italy, so they attempted to get to Russian lines so they could land in Allied territory.
s. The Nazi officer asked him multiple questions about his mission and where his squadron was located. Each time Pressel answered: Name, rank & serial number. All in all, Bud was in three different German Prisoner of War camps: Wetzler, Nuremburg, and Moosburg. Finally, on April 29, 1945, General George Patton liberated the camp.
To this day, the carnival is a labor of love given by MANY parishioners who have donated their time over the years to set up, man, tear down and take final inventory of the supplies.