The Foreign Service Journal, January 2009

48 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 9 was sitting at my computer in early 2007 when an e- mail popped into my in-box with a familiar subject line: “The Black Swan.” It had been three years since I’d published an article about a Frenchman, Mr. Yves Carnot, who had devoted his life to pre- serving the memory of the crew of the B-17 that crashed near his grandfather’s farm during World War II (“The Last Flight of the Black Swan,” FSJ , April 2004). The e-mail was short, to the point, and filled with emotion: My name is Richard Theodore Hensley. My father was killed in action over France in December 1943. I was born June 25, 1943. I never met my father. I have searched many databases, to no avail. One hour ago, I received a series of e-mails that led me in your direction. I am tearfully over- whelmed. I can find no words to articulate what is in my heart today. There is a deep sorrow coupled with happiness in my soul I didn’t know existed. Since I was a boy, I wished I had a dad, my own dad, to share the things only a father and son can share. I have borne a specific loneliness for this since I can remember. Thank you for your foresight and ac- tions in discovering the letter, and writing the article in the Foreign Service Journal , which has led to Mr. Carnot and my father, Technical Sergeant Richard George Hensley. I thought back to that day in 2003, when in an Embassy Paris mailroom after the start of the Iraq War I had picked a letter of support out of a mountain of indignant protest notes. It was fromMr. Carnot, whose amazing story inspired me to write the article. His dedication to the memory of those who had made the ultimate sacrifice for his country during the war was a welcome and refreshing perspective during a dark time in French-American relations. And now the power of Inter- net search engines that helped me find the author of the let- ter and publish his story in the Foreign Service Journal would enable Richard Hensley to solve a 60-year-old mystery and connect to his father, a genuine war hero and a member of the crew of the Black Swan . The Carnot Connection One thing was clear: I needed to put Richard Hensley in touch with Mr. Carnot, who over the years had acquired an impressive list of contacts who either were in the Black Swan , had witnessed the crash or had served with the plane’s crew members. Within 48 hours, Mr. Hensley had the names and addresses of the crew members who were still alive. He also had the phone number of the pilot, Verne Woods, who had struggled in vain to get Hensley’s father out of the plane be- fore the crippled bomber crashed into the Brittany hedgerows. Mr. Hensley was able to talk to the first person beside his mother who had a living memory of his father — a man who had lived with his father, ate with him, heard all of his stories about his family and was an eyewitness to his ul- timate sacrifice. Meanwhile, Yves Carnot was busy making arrangements to have Richard, his wife and his sister DeEtta come to Brit- tany for the next annual ceremony honoring the Black Swan and its crew. Every year on Dec. 31, the day of the crash, the small town of Bannalec pays for flags and flowers and invites people to remember the sacrifice of Richard Hensley and T HE B LACK S WAN C OMES H OME A LETTER DISCOVERED IN THE E MBASSY P ARIS MAILROOM IN 2003 HELPED SOLVE A 60- YEAR - OLD MYSTERY . H ERE IS THE REST OF THE STORY . B Y D OUGLAS W. W ELLS Douglas W. Wells, a Foreign Service officer since 2000, is the information systems security officer for U.S. Mission Geneva. He has previously served in Hong Kong and Paris, and is the author of a book about his Peace Corps experience, In Search of the Elusive Peace Corps Moment (Xlibris Press, 2001). I