So this past Saturday afternoon my grandpa passed away, 93 years old. So far they aren't sure what caused it but he was found in the garage where he hit his head pretty hard. Before then he was always really active, you never would of guess that he was in his 90s. He served in the Army Air Forces during WW2 for only a short time. He was on the B-29 A-21, sometimes called labeled as A-square 21, Superfortress; nicknamed Thumper. I never asked him about his service time so I don't know a whole lot about it but I know that at one point he was injured playing I think baseball and that basically ended his time in. I did a little digging and I managed to find out a little more. I knew he was the radar operator, later learned his MOS was 866. I managed to find his Army Serial Number and learned that he joined two days after Pearl Harbor. I'm not sure if he got injured before he went on any actual bombing operations but I think so, there is a big record list on the 497th bombing group website,
http://www.497thbombgroupb29.org/records.htm that has everybody who served in it and information like what orders they had and it has when he transferred bases but not any operation numbers like others have; they even have a document written by the guy who replaced my grandpa. I'm not even sure if he got transferred to Saipan.
His plane was apparently kind of famous. It was in the 20th Air Force, 73rd Bombardment Wing, 497th Bombardment Group, 870th Bombardment Squadron. The A-squared planes were part of the 497th. On October 19, 1944 it transferred to Saipan where they staged bombing runs. It was in the first group over there and the first plane to reach 40 missions at which point it was transferred back to the US in June 1945, where it went on a war bond tour. On it's first mission it led the second group. Apparently it would take a total of 7.5 hours to cross the ocean. It had two sets of pilots, or Airplane Commanders. The first was Lt. Col "Pappy" Haynes. Eventually Maj. Campbell and his crew took over, I think after 23 missions. Lt. Col Haynes is the one who flew it back for the war bond tour. The nose art is Thumper from the Bambi movie, riding a bomb. Beside that they painted smaller versions for each bombing run with the name of the city that was the target. There are little Rising Sun Flags, Kyokujitsu-ki, on some of the little Thumper emblems that represent enemy planes shot down, 26 total by the time it returned to the US. There are also little hearts that represent men wounded, apparently it was the tail gunner that was the painter. When It returned for the war bond tour they replaced the little Thumpers with 40 bombs.
There was also a model kit put out by Monogram with Thumper being the plane on the cover, apparently taking precedence over Enola Gay and also Bockscar which are the other two decals you can put on, once I learned about this I found it on ebay and bought it. Haven't put it together yet as I want to practice on some other models with gluing and painting to make sure I can do it right.
The only thing I know that he still has from his time in is a picture of the plane and crew, and I think a pair of his gloves. He use to have one of those leather flight jackets but apparently my grandma sold it a long time ago. Also had his service 1911 and I think that had got sold too
. I found a place that makes vintage style A-2 flight jackets, and a few other models, and they paint nose art on them. Thumper is one of them that they do so I am going to eventually buy one. Pricey though, about $1000 total for the jacket and the nose art.
https://www.flightjacket.com/thumper-nose-art.html Any idea on which model/models of jacket would have been the style that they actually used there?
In the pictures you can see some that were taken while it was on the war bond tour. The photo with them lined up in front is after grandpa left, the guy in the upper right is the one who replaced him. My grandpa has the actual picture in his house, I need to see if there is maybe anything on the back. Managed to find this silent film,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaxtzGJhOTo that was taken there and it actually shows the plane and crew, too pixilated to really make out the faces but I know it was during his time that his crew was there, and I know that one of the guys you can see is the pilot by what he is wearing. Found some other film of the squadron out on a bombing run but his plane isn't in it. I've been looking for any other pictures or film that might happen to show it in the background or something but so far no luck.
I'm taking leave to attend his funeral and over in Pratt, there use to be an airfield there where they practiced out of before shipping off to Japan, there is a museum and I'm going to check it out and see if they happen to have any other information.
I never asked him about his time in and he never really talked about it. Since I'm in the Navy I've been thinking maybe he might open up more about it with me, but asking about it always felt a little uncomfortable so I never did it. Earlier this year I broke my ACL and was going to use that as an opener to ask him about his time since he injured himself too while in. Was going to do that next time I took leave in November but now I am unable to do it. Damn.
