SANTA FE, N.M. — Thousands of feet above the Pacific Ocean, the bullets were coming fast and the flak was flying. Japanese fighter planes whizzed around like bees as the American forces in their lumbering B-24 bombers tried everything to reach their targets, save fuel and stay airborne for the long trip home.

Tom Pelle, a 20-year-old tech sergeant, was pulling double duty as a machine gunner that October day. That was 70 years ago, but he remembers the battle like it was yesterday.

“They hit every one of us. They shot down seven, and we were almost number eight,” said Pelle, who lost his right leg in the battle.

Now Pelle and the few other remaining members of the 13th Air Force’s famous 307th Bombardment Group, their family members and Ancestry.com’s military records site Fold3 are working to keep alive the group’s memory.

by collecting and digitizing thousands of photographs, military orders and other memorabilia. The records are being posted online as part of a searchable database.

The effort is taking on particular urgency because only a handful of the veterans — known as the “Long Rangers” — are still alive today. Most of them, like Pelle, are around 90 years old.