As a farm boy from Ozark Arkansas I never expected to be so far from home and before I joined the Army Air Corp, most people had been farther under the bed looking for a pot than I had been away from home.

I joined the air corp in 1943 and went through Primary at Ryan field in Tuscon, Arizona; Basic at Cal-Aero in Ontario, California and Advanced at Pecos Texas. I was assigned to B-17 training at Hobbs New Mexico. It did not take me long to determine that the vee shaped obstacle course from the front of the plane to the bomb bay was a real hinderance to a fellow as short as I, so I volunteered for B-29 pilot training and was sent (Shanghied was a better word) to Pyote, Texas for training

I wound up over Tokyo on our first mission on May, 25th 1945 on a fire bombing raid. That was a booger -- first mission, at nite, scared witless. Things went downhill from there, flying June 1, 5, 7, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29. The days sort of blended into take off, fly up, 7 1/2 hours, drop bombs, fly home 7 1/2 hours, sleep, eat and repeat the process. I was dog tired but never too tired to write a letter to my wife of 3 years. (We marry them young in Arknasas and keep them for life, 57 of them so far).

The assignment that still stands out in my mind was flying Super Dumbo on a mission where we were to look for a crew in the water near Tokyo. We dropped down through the overcast about a hundred miles out and as we came out of the clouds, there was a crew in lifeboats waving at us.

We circled and dropped radio buoys and called up a submarine who instructed us to come over to his location to fly cover for him on the surface. It was heartbreaking to leave the crewmen in the water but off we went to the sub. Rain soon covered the submarine and we had to climb out and leave him but he assured us that he was ok in the rain. (The rescued crew visited us later).

We continued on to our assigned area and met with another sub as we looked for the downed pilot. We discovered a wheel floating in Tokyo bay and the sub insisted he go in for a closer look. We persuaded him that we had searched the area thoroughly and there was no one in the water. He had the guts of a government mule to go into Tokyo bay on the surface with us flying cover for him.

Aug 6 and 9th found us on dumbo duty again about a hundred miles from the target and were fortunate to see both atomic bombs go off and that is the "rest of the story"

Home, and 54 years later with two children and many memories of the war years (fading fast) I still thank the fellow who yelled at our president "give em hell Harry!!"

Note, Larry Russert a member of "Heavy Bombers" flew every foot of the miles I have just described to you and he has finally wised up and is on his way down the Alcan highway from Palmer, Alaska to his new home in Sacramento, "even as we speak"

You can reach Ford at: f.tolbert@att.net

April 1999 - How the Revisionist Grinches Stole the 50th Anniversary of the End of World War II
by Andy Doty.

May 1999 - The tale of our 16th mission . . .
by Joseph Majeski

We did not have a guest columnist in June 1999.

July 1999 - Col. Patrick J. Ryan - The REAL Bombardier by Fred Byars

We did not have a columnist in August.

September 1999 - The Take Off in a Loaded B-29 by Earl L. Johnson, Maj. Gen. (Retired)

October 1999 - The first B29 to Bomb Japan - by Terrence Lindell