Mr. Lux:
I am writing to introduce myself as the daughter of Norman Fifield, who was the Radio Operator of the crew that recovered the bodies from the Hot Stuff wreckage in Iceland in May 1943. I just returned from Iceland where I visited the Memorial.
My father died in December 2017 and was buried at Jefferson Barracks in May 2018. I did not know of this story until 2016 when my father described it to a 10 year old boy who visited him in memory care in Minnesota. Andrew wanted to meet someone who served in WWII and wrote about Dad in a school assignment. Dad was uncommunicative at that point in his life but was able to speak with Andrew for 1.5 hours, describing his service by using his Iceland scrapbook. I have attached an article about my dad after he returned to the U.S. that describes what the recovery was like. I knew that I wanted to visit Iceland and take some of his ashes.
The irony is that I didn't know about the memorial until four days into my trip when I was searching for information. My daughter and I immediately left Reykjavik and visited during the evening. We recognized my dad in the two pictures of the recovery on the memorial, and I have a uniform that looks like the one in the picture.
I have attached pictures and the article in my Dad's scrapbook that helped us put puzzle pieces together.
Thank you for this memorial -- it meant a great deal to my daughter and me to visit and learn more.
Barbara Fifield Brandt
