I have coffee each morning with some other old guys. Most are vets. This morning we had a special visitor. One of the guys brought in his neighbor, Bill.  Bill is 93 and was a B 29 pilot. He flew bombing missions for 18 months both arenas of warfare. He flew over Heroshima after the blast and described what he saw. He said his missions could sometimes take 9 hours to arrive at the target and then 9 hours back. He describe how he put his feet up on the instrument cluster and stretched.  I hope he comes back, I could listen to him for hours.

15 minutes ago, Ron Altier said:

I hope he comes back, I could listen to him for hours.

Embrace the moment Ron...I too hope he returns to share his experiences...see if he would allow you to record some of the conversation. Can't recall exactly, but there are a couple of projects going on to record WWII vets experiences, document, catalog and preserve in archived museums. Wish I could be part of your coffee group when he's there. THANK-YOU for sharing this!

Ron,

I do hope he comes back. That would be a great time listening to his stories and the of your coffee buddies stories.

My cousin John, deceased, was the navigator on a B29 and was on that mission to drop the A bomb and he saw the mushroom cloud

Like everybody else, I'd love to have coffee with you guys and hear the stories. It would be an honor to be at the same table with Bill.

 

Ron, was your cousin in the Enola Gay or the Boxcar?

What a wonderful experience! Hope you get to spend many more mornings like that!

Its possible he was in the Enola Gay, His wife is still alive and told me about him. I'll ask her.

I googled it and here is the crew, he wasn't on it, but was part of the formation. I told Bill that my oldest brother's outfit flew gliders behind the German lines, he said," I rather fly a B 29 any day than one of those dam things"

 

 

Crewman	Position
Colonel Paul Tibbets	Commander
Captain Robert Lewis	Co-Pilot
Captain Theodore Van Kirk	Navigator
Major Thomas Ferebee	Bombardier

Edited March 25, 20179 yr by Ron Altier
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