(Group photo: Bud on front left and Linz on front right.) Bud was born January 18, 1922, in Edmond, KS, to Ralph and Matilda (Rostocil) Nech. He spent most of his early years in the Woodston, Kansas area, where he graduated from high school in 1940. Bud enlisted in the Army at Ft. Leavenworth in December, 1941, and spent nine months training at engineering school at Shepherd Field, Wichita Falls, Texas. Bud was assigned to an aircrew out of McCook, Nebraska and ended up on a B-24 four-engine heavy bomber, the 'Bama Baby. The 'Bama Baby flew missions out of Tunis, North Africa, and Carinola, Italy, in early 1944. They also participated in the runs against the Ploesti Oil Fields in Romania. At the time, an aircrew member could be sent home after 50 missions, and crewmen often volunteered for extra missions to build up points. Bud and a buddy flew with another crew on a mission to bomb a ball-bearing plant in Hungary on April 21, 1944. Bud was severely wounded in the leg when the plane was shot down over Yugoslavia; it was his 21st mission. His buddy from the 'Bama Baby crew, Art Linz, was killed. Bud parachuted out over the mountains, landing in a herd of sheep. 'I landed in the German side of the mountains. On the other side were Yugoslavian freedom fighters and I would have been safe.' Bud was captured by the Germans and spent the rest of the war as a prisoner, first in a German hospital and then in a series of P.O.W. camps. In the spring of '45 he and fellow prisoners were transferred to Nuremberg and then to Munich, as the Germans were being squeezed between the advancing Russians from the east and the Americans from the west. They were liberated in by Patton's army in the spring of 1945. Bud got to talk to Patton, whom he describes as 'a tough old guy.' Bud was then moved by troop train to Camp Lucky Strike in LeHavre, France, where he was part of a group visited by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower. 'He came down the line and shook my hand; he said the war was over in Europe,' Bud remembers. After being shipped home, Bud had shrapnel removed, including a rivet from the B-24, which had been embedded in his leg the entire year and 12 days he was a P.O.W. Bud later received the Purple Heart. Bud returned home and married Rosalee Terrell in 1946. They are the parents of four children: Terry, Larry (deceased), Bruce, and Susan (Young). Bud worked in the lumber business, and he and Rosalee owned and operated a hardware store and lumber yard in Kensington for many years. They still own and operate the Nech Trash business in Kensington.