This afternoon one could imagine the recorded voice of B-29 Superfortress Commander Don Yates’ on the radio, “Hello room service, this is Dracula Two Five Over Margo. We are sending Joe home.”

Flight Engineer Joe Ranne glances through his peephole at an under-cast over Ruidoso, New Mexico, but there is blue sky over the Pacific Ocean for Joe’s 35th mission. Except this time Joe is the only one of the Yates crew on board, and his Supreme Commander is in charge.

Joe studies his panel intently, then says, “Marvin do you have an ETA for home ?”

But Marvin Martin is not there; a new navigator gives him the estimate. Joe quickly performs a few calculations, then with the first twinkle his eyes have known for five months, he says in a strong voice, “Don, everything’s in the green, and we have plenty of reserve fuel on board. I don’t want to swim in this damned ocean either!”

Joe Lucus Ranne

Joe Lucus Ranne Passed from this life, at 12:35 hours Mountain Standard time. He leaves Kathy, his loving wife of some 52 years, two sons Ronny and Roy, One daughter, Ronda Lothringer, four grandchildren and two great grandchildren. As a breadwinner Joe was a building contractor who, in a span of some fifty years, never built a shoddy house. His credo was, “If a Job is worth doing, it’s worth doing right.”

But after retirement, Joe spent considerable time in contacting his fellow B-29 Superfortress crew members, and in putting down on paper his experiences in the air battle of Japan. A very brief summary of that experience is as follows.

At the age of nineteen, Flight Engineer Joe L. Ranne (Wheel) joined Aircraft Commander Don Yates’ and his crew in Pratt Kansas, along with Larry Cole, pilot; Marvin Martin, navigator; Christian Luecke (Chris), bombardier; Carl Underwood (Sparky), radio operator; Emmett Evans, radar man; B.J. Van Zandt (B.J.), CFC gunner; Joseph Sampson (Sam), right blister gunner; Joseph Serpico (Serp), left blister gunner; and Paul Olivia, tail gunner. From Pratt they flew the island hop via Hawaii, opening their orders at the “point of no return” then per orders, proceeding to to North Guam. Joe turned 20, a month before his first combat mission.

With the 29th Bomb Group, 314th Bomb Wing, 20th Air force, the Yates crew flew 25 combat missions including the last mission of WW II, then they flew one POW relief drop, and, finally made the “show of strength” fly-over at the peace signing in Tokyo Bay. The 29th bomb group received a distinguished unit citation, and the Yates crew earned the air medal with two oak leaf clusters, plus the distinguished flying cross. Their first airplane was the City of Minneapolis, named for Don Yates’ home town, and their second was Little David, named for Don’s son, born while Don was on Guam.

Of the crew, Don Yates later said; “The boys I picked up at Pratt Kansas all returned as men, and no one pressed the panic button.”

Of Joe, personally, Don said, “As one of the youngest men to handle one of the toughest technical jobs in the Air Force during one of he toughest times, he set an example for everyone.”

As some of you know, Joe was in the process of writing a book of his memoirs before he became ill; and I, his younger brother by 18 months, had agreed to help him finish it. Now I, myself , will be asking for technical help. I have observed the men and women of Sallyann’s
B-29 Super-fortress group to be the most helpful and caring group to which I have had the privilege of belonging.

Gentlemen and gentle women - please be patient with me, a B-29 Novice.

- James D. Ranne (Ex. U.S. Air Force)

 

 

Many thanks to John Durst for the gorgeous photo rendering of the B-29's above.