As a boy, my dad didn't talk a lot about his WWII experience, but enough for us to know that he flew in a B-29 in India and China, and that they had named their aircraft Ding How, which, he told us, means "good luck" in Chinese. He was the flight engineer, and I remember stories about jury-rigging tricks they used to keep the planes flying. We knew that Ding How's pilot was Nicolas VanWingerden, because my folks and the VanWingerdens had stayed in touch for awhile after they started their families after the war. My youngest brother is named after Nicolas VanWingerden.

We also knew that there had been a crash during takeoff at some point, and that only three men had survived: Nicolas, Uline and another crewman. Over the years, I became involved in my career and my family and did not see much of my dad, but I still kept an interest in WWII history and military aircraft. When my dad died suddenly in 1978, I realized that a lot of knowledge had passed away with him, but many years went by without any action on my part to pursue these interests.

Then a few years ago, I was killing time in Topeka and happened to visit the air museum at Forbes Field. After the tour, I was browsing the books in their shop and came across B-29 Superfortress in action by Larry Davis. I thumbed the pages, starting to remember my dad's stories, and then was amazed to see a picture of Ding How, with my dad in it, on page 14. The caption said that it was October of 1944 in Kwanghan, China and that Ding How was s/n 42-6225 of the 444th Bomb Group.

Of course I bought the book, and showed it to my mom and two brothers. My mom still had all the memorabilia saved by my dad from his military service, so this was a catalyst to get it out and look it over. We found, for example, three bomb tags from three different bombing missions, with dates and targets penciled in. The aircraft number was 42-6225. Early this year, we got a call from a WWII vet from my home town, Gib Dunning, who also was with B-29s in the Pacific. He told us about the Memorial being planned in Great Bend, and urged that we commemorate Uline and the rest of his crew, if we were able. He knew about the takeoff crash, and he felt that these serviceman deserved more than just a marker in a cemetery.

Front Row L to R: Cpl Marvin Cooper, 2/Lt Uline Miller, 2/Lt Norman Bersanti, Capt Stanley Polsk, S/Sgt Louis Daubenspeck, Sgt Roy Larkin
Second Row L to R: George Loraine, T/Sgt Robert Kastning, Capt Carl Olsen, Capt William O'Reagan, Edward Ducey, 1/Lt Douglas Orr, 1/Lt Jesse Washburn

From Gib's information, we knew that we needed names of all the crew members if we were to continue. I turned to my favorite research tool, the Internet. And here I am, thanks to the help of all the webmasters and group members who have provided so much information and guidance. My mom had a military "lost personal items" report my dad had saved, with an aircraft serial number on it. Knowing this and the date of dad's crash, we were able to obtain an accident report, so now we know all the crew members' names and will be able to properly salute these brave men, many of whom died in the service of their country. We also now know that dad's first assigned aircraft, 42-6225, was not the one that crashed on 12/24/44.

According to the AFHRA interpretation of Ding How's record card, she was returned to the US in January of 1945 and became a trainer, then scrapped in 1948. Sometime between October 25th and December 24th, VanWingerden's crew was reassigned, because they crashed in aircraft 42-63458, assigned to the 676th BS of the 444th BG. After the accident, the survivors returned to the US. My dad went through Officer Training School, and in 1946 was assigned to the 58th Wing Air Photo Unit (Task Unit 1.52) on Kwajalien. We have a booklet from this unit, saved by my dad, which contains crew photos, with names, along with other pictures. The following web pages are scans from this booklet.

Unanswered questions:

• Was serial #42-6225 also in the 676th BS?
• Why was the flight crew assigned a different plane?
• Did it have a name?

Anyone with answers to these questions please email, Mark R. Miller, son of Uline C. Miller.