About Mike

Mike W. Laney, P.E.: Board Member and Combat Historian: Is a scouter (Eagle Scout Class 1987), historian, marksman and model hobbyist. He is married to his wonderful bride Linda, and they have three children, Evelyn, Thomas and Samuel. He works as a geotechnical engineer, primarily focusing on the wind and solar energy markets nationally.

His grandfather was 1st Lt. William Phifer Laney, Sr. who flew 52 combat missions with the 486th BS, 340th BG, 57th BW from January 28 through August 15, 1944. He passed away in 1993, leaving Michael with a lot of questions about his war service. Michael has been on a journey since then to learn as much as he can, and to preserve his and the legacy of the others in the greatest generation who are connected with the B-25 Mitchell. In 1999 after his grandmother passed away Michael had access some of his grandfather's papers, log book and other memorabilia, got involved with the 57th BW Association and began meeting great people who knew him and others who served at different times and in different groups.

About this time, he also started to visit museums with surviving airframes, and started to document these planes, and learning all he could about the B-25. He has amassed a lot of data, books, photographs and a strong network of fellow researchers over the last 15 years. His current goals are:

• To produce a list of all the aircraft that served in the Mediterranean Theater of Operation (MTO)
• Produce a history of the 340th BG
• Produce an accurate guide for plastic modelers on modeling this plane.

He was excited to discover the B-25 History Project and is very excited to be teamed with us in our mission to preserve and honor the history of the B-25 bomber and the men and women who built, flew, and maintain them; past, present and future. We are equally as excited to bring his knowledge and resources to our project and look forward to bringing his information to you.