I got acquainted with Dan this past Thursday.
I had taken our son and grandson to the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum at McMinnville a week ago yesterday and that day I purchased a membership so that I could go again and again and again during the year. Thursday was my first again.
Dan is a national treasure and a new friend. As we wrapped up our thirty minute conversation he offered me a home phone number for himself and his wife of sixty-seven years (V) in case I had further questions about the P-38.
Dan was only twenty-two in the winter of 1944 when he was working as a ground mechanic on the P-38s based in England, stripping them of their armaments so they could be effectively used for photo reconnaissance flights deep into territory controlled by German forces, five months before D-Day.
As I understood the nature of the mission he was describing I asked with some astonishment, How on earth did they carry out such missions?? His answer – very carefully.
He described how they removed the armaments and replaced them with photography equipment capable of film exposure at lowest survivable altitudes which would be flown back to England for quick development and analysis, after which it would passed along to the military to choose more B-17 targets or returned to the Squadron with a request to send the pilot back out for a better focus or improved angle.
I asked him what the loss rate was on those missions – considering that they were flying over enemy territory with no protection.
He said the loss rate was never clearly defined because, in contrast with the extensive records regarding the downings, imprisonments, and ultimate returns of B-17 pilots, there was never documentation of a single photo-reconnaissance pilot who was downed, taken prisoner, and returned. He had some thoughts about possible reasons for that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In Bombs Away, published in 1941, John Steinbeck described the flight crew of a bomber with a focus on the bombardier whose job it was to make the mission worthwhile by dropping the bombs where they needed to be dropped:

…great responsibilities are put in the hands of these young men: the simple responsibility for the expense and intricate machine that is the bombing plane, responsibility for the secrecy of the bomb sight, and beyond these the greatest responsibility of all, for to the large extent the bomber team will be responsible for the safety and survival of the nation.

Donald Casey was nineteen years old when he became a B-17 navigator. He was shot down in Nazi Germany and imprisoned in the Great Escape prison camp. His description of the B-17 is recorded in his memoir – To Fight For My Country, Sir – and provides some understanding of the bombardier’s duties.

Then we saw our training plane.
It was a wreck of a B-17, but it was still flying – when it flew.
The navigator’s compartment, which was also shared with the bombardier, was a conicle space about 7-8 feet wide at the base which came to a point at the front end. There was room for a desk on the left side and a chair for me to sit in and navigate. On each side of the nose there was a slot for a fifty-caliber machine gun. The bombardier had a semi-circular platform which fit right into the nose of Plexiglas and on which he sat facing front-ward. On his left was panel for the bomb switches and up against the glass in front was a mount on the deck at his knees for the top-secret Norden bombsight.
….In the later model B-170 there was a machine gun turret under the nose [the chin gun] with two 50’s and electrical controls inside with which the bombardier could aim and operate the guns. 

The first sustained bombing runs against Germany were in 1943. Early on, the Germans figured out that the B-17 was pretty defenseless against a head-on approach and they took devastating advantage of the discovery.
The bombardier provided sightings and drop points from his perch in the nose of the plane, just forward and below the pilot and co-pilot’s position and only had side-angled guns for his own (and the plane’s) protection from a frontal attack.
The problem was that the bombardier had no capability for straight-forward defense so a chin gun was added, giving him two more barrels and bringing the total number of machine guns on board to thirteen. The chin gun was called that simply because it looked like a metal chin underneath the existing skin of the nose of the plane.

Partly because of the addition of the chin gun, by February of 1944 B-17 crews were on the offensive and no longer primarily concerned about evading the Luftwaffe but were actively trying to draw them out. The Luftwaffe was all but swept from the sky. (from the video planeside)
New danger came from the ground in the presence flak guns in their thousands surrounding the targets- munitions and ball bearing plants but the B-17s flew on.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The docents staffing the exhibits at Evergreen are retired military, most of the WW II men doing jobs that allow them a chair and probably a flexible schedule. The Korean War and Vietnam Veterans are out in full force, presenting and preserving and protecting not only the hardware of military history but the Mailboxes and Old Barns of these United States.
The planes themselves have their own MBOBs which are easily discerned just by reading the signs, nosing around a little bit and watching the videos that are part of many displays. Staring at the size of the belly turret, thinking about the gunner who rode there, and what farm or girl he left behind is instructive.

The Flying Fortresses could get their crews home – and did, again and again – with two or three of the four engines knocked out, hydraulics destroyed and controls shot away.
The bombardiers were personal security for the bomb sight as well as gunners. The oath they took before they were even allowed to look at it during training underscores the significance of their duties and their relationship to the bomb sight itself.
http://www.merkki.com/chapmancurtis.htm

THE BOMBARDIER’S OATH

Mindful of the secret trust about to be
placed in me by my Commander in Chief,
the President of the United States, by whose
direction I have been chosen for bombardier
training…and mindful of the fact that I am
to become guardian of one of my country’s
most priceless military assets, the American
bomb sight…I do here, in the presence of
Almighty God, swear by the Bombardier’s
Code of Honor to keep inviolate the secrecy
of any and all confidential information
revealed to me, and further to uphold
the honor and integrity of the Army
Air Forces, if need be, with my life itself.

http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/world-war-ii-history/videos/boeing-b-17-flying-fortress-bomber.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Donald Casey’s plane was shot down and he tries to describe what his captors were looking at and wondering about as they began their interrogation.

I was a fuzzy-cheeked kid of nineteen who had not even begun to shave yet. Not an impressive sight, to be sure. (Their officers had life and death power of them so how could the American Army give that kind of authority to a mere boy?)

Ken Blessing was twenty-two when he sat in a train in Cheyenne, Wyoming waiting to ship out for Air Force duty in England and France. He wrote this about what he saw there:

A Wish

Our train stands ready in Cheyenne’s yards,
The bustling and jostling have ceased.
Everyone is settled and waiting
And I have been watching.

It is bleak and cold outside,
The soot-laden snow adds to the dreary aspect,
But it is not the scenery that chills me
Rather, my companions to my left.

Both wear the Order of the Purple Heart,
The P.F.C.’s hands are missing,
Instead, there is a round metal cap
Protruding from each olive drab sleeve.

The Sergeant’s sleeve turns up at the elbow,
The forearm creases remain,
Both are quiet, lost in their reveries
And here is what remains.

Two youths younger than myself,
Having bled for their country.
Returning to weave a life anew
With hope and courage and faith.

They joke as they assist each other
Eating from their box lunches,
And if it comes to pass, Then God
May I respond as they.

Copyright (c) November 30, 1944 by Ken Blessing, Cheyenne, Wyoming

http://www.spondee.net/poets/BlessingKen.htm

God bless Dan, who was twenty-two.

And Donald, who was nineteen.

And Ken, who was twenty-two.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The history of nations can be told through the stories of military conquests and defeats, or the history of military personnel and armaments can be told using the history of nations – either way works. I’ve always been interested in history and have extensive family involvement in the military for more than a century. Now that I discover the resource in Evergreen Aviation Museum nearby,  I can get a little more insight and connect some more dots.

If I have stated something incorrectly, please do me the honor of providing corrections or clarifications in the comments thread.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It’s real nice to be back.

Keep loving on one another – there are all manner of wounded in our midst all the time, and I will remind you from time to time that your willingness to love and care, pray and share, makes a difference.