Mara Truslow Storey Publications

Viewpoints Radio Segment on 44th BG

Over Memorial Day Weekend, Viewpoints Radio aired a feature story about the 44th Bomb Group featuring my grandfather’s war and my journey of uncovering it.

“Memorial Day is on Monday, May 25 this year. It is a day that we remember those who have served and lost their lives protecting this country. To honor our veterans, we highlight a unique story from World War II about the heroic men of the U.S. Air Force 44th Bomb Group.”

Screen Shot 2020-07-04 at 7.31.33 AMThe radio program explores the story behind data dashboard I built to tell the singular stories and collective impact of the 5,000 airmen who served in the 44th Bomb Group during the war.

Behind the dashboard is my own family’s WWII history. My paternal grandfather Wally flew 42 missions with the 44th Bomb Group. He had severe PTSD and never spoke of the war after it ended. Piecing together the fragments of Wally’s war was the impetus for using big data to tell a new story of WWII.

Hope you’ll give the 10-minute story featured on Viewpoints Radio a listen. It’s available here. 

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Mara Truslow Storey big data, Uncategorized

A History of the 44th Bomb Group Fit for the 21st Century.

A year in the making using technology the bomber boys couldn’t have imagined 75 years ago, this is a new history of the 44th Bomb Group in WWII drawing from 1.5 million data points.

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The quick links above make it possible search for a veteran’s mission and personnel records or explore the 44th’s missions. The best news — you can explore the journey of one man or the whole group looking at the data by missions, men, bombers, and targets – all with a few clicks.

Explore and learn more about the dashboard here: www.44thbombgroup.org 

At the intersection of data science and history – you get me (Mara Truslow, in case we haven’t met) – the granddaughter of a 44th vet, a management consultant who deals in data by data, a student of the 44th by night.

I spent the last year scraping the world for the 1.5 million data points in the dashboard, which builds on the inimitable 44th BG Dashboard Will Lundy spearheaded. This summer, I took a 4 month sabbatical from Deloitte – the final sprint to finish the dashboard.

Here you have it! A history of the 44th fit for the 21st century.