WWII veterans meet up

2 squadron members reunite after chance finding on the Web

Two World War II veterans reunited Friday for the first time since 1944, and used the weekend to share memories and revisit history.

James Littlefield, 87, of Denton, and Joseph Whalen, 84, of Tyringham, Mass., spent three days in North Texas catching up through museum trips, a meal and some long talks.

“It has really been a great awakening as to how small the world can be,” Whalen said. “It was just luck to come across him by e-mail, and make what we have today out of it. I’m very happy — and the trip from Massachusetts to Texas was well worth meeting a man that I trusted with my life.”

Littlefield and Whalen were members of the 487th Squadron of the 340th Group in the Army Air Corps 57th Bomb Wing, flying missions together over Italy, France and Yugoslavia. They spent roughly 10 months together in 1944, with Littlefield as pilot and Whalen as a radio operator/gunner.

They survived numerous missions, including a close scrape over northern Italy where anti-aircraft fire knocked out one of their engines.

Community spark drives Urbina

He likes to cook breakfast, collect marbles and sit in his office off Hickory Street. He especially likes his collection of deer antlers.

“This is one of two — the multicolor one was an art piece I bought at the Visual Arts Society,” said D. Jorge Urbina, pointing to one of his deer antlers with a many-colored cross in the middle.

A community volunteer and a lawyer with Urbina Law and Capital Title, Urbina has spent many days devoting time to helping people learn from one another. It is something he believes in and has known since childhood.

Urbina is president of the Denton Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, a position he has held for the past seven years. He has also served 12 years on the board of Interfaith Ministries of Denton.

He works with the Denton Chamber of Commerce and the Denton Black Chamber of Commerce and created events such as La Vida Denton and Fiesta on the Square. He helped found the Apple Tree Project, which with Interfaith Ministries and other community organizations has provided school supplies, clothes and shoes to grade-school students in need for the past seven years.

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