1. Paraphrased from hometown newspaper clippings saved by my grandmother, Marjorie Ivey: “A Presidential Unit Citation was awarded to the members of the 36th fighter Group, 9th Air Force P-47 Thunderbolt Group (Curry’s Cougars) in which Corporal Fink was an administrative clerk. Denver Fink entered service in Feb 1942 at Peoria, Ill. and saw overseas service in Puerto Rico, the Panama Canal Zone, and was in the European theatre of operations from April 1944 until the end of the war. The Group also recieved two commendations from Brgadier General O. P. Weyland, XIX Tactical Air Command, for it’s outstanding air support given General Patton’s 3rd Army. On one day alone, between 400 & 500 enemy vehicles were destroyed by bombing and strafing, and early in September the fighter pilots destroyed 311 motor transports and 94 German tanks.”

2. In emails from Dennie Fink & his mother, Mary Fink, 5 Sep 2003, they list the occupations Denver had:
-Postal Clerk in Versailles, Ill.
-Entered the US AIr Force during WWII, then returned to the Post Office.
-Route Salesman for Wilson Meat Company.
-Worked as an apprentice meat cutter at meat company in La Harpe, Illinois about 1956.
-Ran his own grocery store (Fink & Sons) from about 1957 to 1968, then rented the store to someone else.
-Worked at Oscar Myer until passing away in 1977 on the night shift clean up crew.

3. In an email from Mary Fink, 5 Sep 2003: “Denver went to the Air Force from the Post Office, and back to the Post Office when he got out of the Air Force. Then, when we married and kids started coming, he was not making enough as a Postal Clerk. He had not gotten the rural mail carrier job he took an exam for. Passing with flying colors, but the other kid’s father was in politics so he got the job. That was when we left Versailles and took other jobs.”