Why 75 year old pilot got military escort

And none of them are members of the Stone family, as large and close-knit as it may be. Tags: archaeology , biotechnology , history , military , research.

University of Wisconsin—Madison. Digging for clues On Aug. Share via Facebook. Share via Twitter. Share via Linked In. Share via Email. You may also like…. To help kids battling a rare disease, scientists forge a genetic link between people and pigs. In my particular case, I was assigned to a heavy bomber group that was just on the brink of being sent overseas.

This was after the crews of the group, the Bloody th, had gone through all of the pre-combat training. At the time, what was being offered was about three to four months of training. However, the graduates of my flight school were sent to replace the copilots just prior to being sent overseas. It was only in this one group that this ever took place.

Luckadoo during training in the U. Courtesy of John Luckadoo. Of the 40 men from my flying class that went to the th Bomb Group, only four of us managed to complete a tour.

That gives you an idea of how inadequately trained we were and how unlikely it was that we were going to survive. In comparison, what was your perception of the German pilots? The Germans were professionals and we were rank amateurs. The minute that we crossed the French coast we were in their backyard. They dominated the skies.

Through a baptism of fire, we found out how professional and clever they were in discovering our vulnerabilities. The first of which was that we could not fire our guns straight forward. There was a gap in-between the top turret and ball turret guns so they would fly in that slot, straight through our formations. They played chicken with us, firing the whole way. But they devastated us with that technique for as long as they could. That air superiority was evident when the pilot of the Memphis Belle, Capt.

Robert Morgan, remarked that you might have breakfast with 10 crewmen, but dinner with only two. Only one of you will be coming back. That was the mindset that we were supposed to take into combat. That our chances of coming back were so minimal that we should accept our fate and just do the best that we could, for as long as we could.

Facing your mortality to that degree is a very sobering and maturing experience. It was so horrific that just one mission could turn our hair white. The sheer terror that we confronted was so devastating that it left a mark on us for life. How did expectations for survival impact the bonds developed within a crew?

You had respect for what they did and how they did it, particularly the gunners who were in the waist of the aircraft standing in an open window. And during a bomb run the actual flying of the airplane was done through the bombsight by the bombardier. For what felt like an interminably long period, the bombsight was connected to the flight controls.

That was the way the ship leveled up to make the most effective bomb drop. The pilot and copilot had to just sit there with their arms crossed waiting to take over if necessary.

Very few people realize that. The bombardier's position of the BG Flying Fortress. October 8, was my 22nd mission. The remains discovered were then sent to a military base in Hawaii where the dental records gave final confirmation, Herb had returned to American soil for the first time in 70 years. On Thursday, Herb was buried with full military honors, including an escort platoon, colors team, casket team, firing party and a band.

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