UPDATE: Fred has now left us for the great pool hall in the sky. He was a friend to all, and will be remembered.

If you stop by the pool room at the Knowles Senior Center in Nashville, you may see Fred Nellums shooting pool. Even though he is in his eighties, a better shooter you will seldom see.

If you would go back in time almost 50 years, his steady eyes and hand coordination served him and his country as a gunner on B-24 Liberator bomber aircraft flying out of England in World War II. Fred still has in his possession newspaper clips, photos, and most important of all, his flight log (sample page).

This web site, displaying these documents, attempts to show how it was. Tom Brokaw in his book, "The Greatest Generation", had this to say about the people who served in WW II , "It is, I believe, the greatest generation any society has ever produced."

Fred was born on March 28, 1918 in Spring Hill, TN. He lived in Spring Hill until he went to Elon College in North Carolina on a football scholarship. But he broke his collarbone and left college in 1938 and returned to Spring Hill, where he drove a milk truck for some time for his father who was a forman on a farm. Fred then ran a service station.

He enlisted in the Army Air Corp on April 16, 1941. This is his flight log.

The following are some of Fred's pictures from this time period:

Crew picture
Given an award
Fred
Flak Alley