• A Thousand Words

The lineboy who helped push our C-45 into the hangar this morning commented that his boss's Dad had flown B-24s. I said there was good chance he'd flown a C-45 at some point in his training. Boss shows up with his Dad's log book including a 7.3 hour entry on 5/31/44 for the mission to Ploesti flying 'Sloppy Joe', which brough him home—unlike many, many of the other aircraft and their crews. The two pictures tucked in the loghbook, and the markings on the inside back cover, tell the rest of the sad story. (Click image to enlarge.)


While he climbed up into the cockpit I laid the logbook on the hangar floor and took this image. It shows he started out flying Stearmans in California, then BT-13s, then the Cessna AT-17 'Bamboo Bomber' (no C-45 time). With 261 hours he climbed into the right seat of a B-24 at Kirkland Air Force base in Albuquerque NM. After 12 hours of training, he helped fly B-24J 'Double Trouble' to England, and after another 22 hours (3 missions) was flying as aircraft commander (age 24, total time 295 hours). With 18 missions to go they were shot down on 8/22/44 over Hungary.

Anyone care to hazard a guess what the drawing at the bottom might be? I have no clue.