About theProject.
Hardwick Skies is a young project with a big goal. Here is where we are, where we're headed, and how you can help.
Our mission
Our mission is simple. We want to build a free, open, non-commercial home for the story of the men of the 93rd Bomb Group.
These are their stories and their missions of sacrifice. They are not ours.
We are just the keepers of the records, and we take that job seriously.
Where we are today
We are just getting started. This is a multi-year project, and there is a lot of work ahead.
Some pages are rich and detailed. Many others are thin or still waiting on records. That is normal at this stage. Every week the site grows, and every week we find things that need fixing. Please check back often.
Where our data comes from
We pull from a lot of places. That includes books, newsletters, websites, and government agencies. It also includes you, the relatives of the people who served.
- Books
- Newsletters
- Websites
- Government agencies
- Families like yours
Some of our first data came from load lists found online. These are copies of copies of scans, and they are very hard to read with OCR (the software that turns a scanned page into text). Names get garbled, numbers get swapped, and letters get lost. Because of that, we keep cleaning this data as we go, and we expect to keep finding mistakes for a long time.
Scanning the National Archives ourselves
The best records for the 93rd Bomb Group are held by the National Archives and Records Administration in College Park, Maryland. Instead of relying on poor copies, we are scanning the originals ourselves.
Our first 4-day trip is done. We scanned about 9,000 documents. That sounds like a lot, but it is only about one fifth of the mission reports. We expect to need 4 to 5 more week-long trips to finish.
Here is the kind of detail these records make possible.
Open Mission 647 →We will have many more missions at this level soon, but each new batch depends on getting back to the archives.
Accuracy comes first
Our goal is to be careful and correct. That takes time, because we cross-check names, dates, and facts across several sources before we trust them.
It is easy to get excited about what our loved ones did. We feel that too. But telling their story accurately is our most important job, and a wrong detail does them no favors.
Help us build the record
We need your help. If you have facts or photos about someone in the 93rd Bomb Group, please use Add to the Record to send them to us. A few tips for a great submission:
- 01
Give us the details
As much as you can: names, dates, places, and aircraft.
- 02
Cite your sources
Like a good researcher. Tell us where the fact or photo came from: a book, letter, newsletter, website, or family collection.
- 03
Send your best photos
At the best quality you have, with notes on who is pictured and when.
Every contribution is reviewed and checked against our other sources before it is treated as confirmed.
The records are waiting in College Park.
This project is not about making money. But travel costs are real, and more funding could make the work go faster.
Fund an archive trip
Help pay for more week-long trips to scan the originals.
Cover hosting
Keep the site free and online for every family.
Hire researchers
Pay professional researchers to do the scanning for us.
We can start a fundraising page if there is interest. To share yours, just send us a message through Add to the Record.