The
month turned into six weeks when I asked for and got an extension. These were
good times and it was good to be part of a family again. Although there seemed
to be an attempt to put thirty hours into twenty-four hour day, there always
came a time when it was necessary to get some sleep. Regardless of how hard you
tried to ignore it, there was, prior to going to sleep, the growing apprehension
of what it was going to be like flying combat in the Pacific.
New
Assignment
At
the end of R&R, it was time to go to our new assignment. Ironically, this
turned out to be Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where I
had gone to radio school and transferred to Cadets a little over two years
before. As I entered the train station in Indianapolis to catch a train to Sioux
Falls, the news came out that the bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima. Maybe we
wouldn't go to the Pacific after all. A few days after arriving in Sioux Falls
the second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. It now became apparent that the war
with Japan was nearing an end, so...no B29 training for Pacific duty. (A
historical note: Over the years, the revisionists have said how inhuman the Air
Corps was to drop those bombs.) I doubt very much if you could find one flyer,
who would otherwise have flown over Japan, or one member of the ground forces
that were planning to invade Japan, that would agree with the revisionists and
their second guessing.
Post-War
Now
that the war was really over it meant moving around until your number came up
for release. The number was computed from time in the service, overseas time,
and any medals awarded. Time was spent in Fairfield, Nebraska and
Pyote, Texas prior to finally going to St. Louis, Missouri
for separation. To collect flight pay, you had to fly a minimum of four hours
per month, and were given three months to make up for any month missed. In
September, a group of us boarded a B17 and flew from Pyote to Great Falls,
Montana and back, to get the necessary flying time. This is the only time I
spent in the "Hollywood Bomber".
Airplanes we flew in WWII are as follows: Sugar Baby, Queenie, Lady Luck, Classey Chassy, Shoo Shoo Baby, Dragon Lady.
Combat Missions Germany.1945, click on this line.
So
ends what turned out to be only the first tour of duty. It was now time to
settle down and recapture something from civilian life...until 1950.
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