B -29

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

I could hardly keep dry eyes watching. I was stationed at Panama City, Florida from 1949 until the Korean War started. Then in Korea from October, 1950 until I was wounded the last week of December, 1952. When I got out of Madigan Army Hospital in 1953 I was stationed on Fairchild AFB, Spokane WA.

During the Cold War, Fairchild was one of Gen Lemay's SAC bases. I was assigned to the 92nd Heavy Bomb Wing, 814th Air Police, OSI. Fairchild also included the 98th and 111th Wings, with 17 B-29's in each Wing. The 111th had been the Pennsylvania National Guard, the 92nd and 98th regular Air Force.

Those years as many flyable B-29's of each wing from every SAC Base was in the air every day of every week, so that we always, 24-7, week after week, had one squadron in the air armed with one "Fat Boy" bomb on each B-29. I was on one of those B-29's nearly once each month from Sept, 1953 until October, 1954 as assigned for my duty with 814th Air Police, OSI.

Before every mission, in the War Room before we went to the Flight line, Each plane crew received specific Flight Plan orders that also identified our primary target and secondary target over the Soviet Union along with the dual code. Our codes for war were divided so that two of the crew on each plane each had half the code. If Gen Lemay, from Omaha, had ever given the code signal that matched the divided code on each plane, our orders were to proceed to our target and drop the "Fat Boy". Every plane in SAC, around the world in the air, had a specific code and specific target.

I don't know how many B-29's were in the air every hour of every day during the Cold War, there had to have been over 100 or more, or even how many SAC bases had B-29 squadrons, but I do know that if Gen Lemay had sent the Code, the Soviet Union would have been wiped from the earth. To this day, I am sure that we kept America safe from the Soviet threat during the Cold War.

Very few of my friends from Fairchild are still living. I did keep in contact with our Squadron CO, Col Saglie and Sgt/Major Carmen Muribito, our First Sgt, until they passed away.
 
The B-29 Doc is an unbelievable restoration. Do a little search and see what it looked like when it came out of China Lake. The Base CO wanted it destroyed.
My Dad was called up when Korea, he was still in the reserves from WWII, started since there we not enough Gunners in the USAF. He flew day missions until they started getting the Crap shot of them so they flew at night. He was the Central Fire Control gunner. The problem with the turrets was that they couldn't track as fast as the jets could fly a gun pass. Therefore they had no defensive firepower. That is why later bombers only had a tail gun.
I spent a lot of time crawling through the 29s as an 8 year old.
 
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Rancher Will Thanks for your service during the Korean War; I was stationed on Osan AFB (newest base in Korea at the time) which is south of Suwon. There was a former Japanese fighter base just north of it, but I forget the name.
I was with the 38th Arty Bde(AD) in the HQ Btry ( I've heard it has been deactivated now). Great to be in the Army stationed on an Air Force base.
 
Back when I was still gainfully employed with the national Weather service, I had th district pleasure of showing up at work for a graveyard shift. When it came time to step outside onto the flight line to take my first observation of he shift, there it stood, the B-29 used in filming the movie Enola Gay. Right there just outside the back door of my office. I'm thinking, WOW! Would I love to see her fly. Round about 3AM there was this God awful rumbling roar. I went outside the they were warming up the engines. Even at idle that rumble was loud. Finally about 7AM they taxied out, run the engines then took off. What a sight! Me, being a WW2 airplane/warbird freak, that made my graveyard shift for me. Did I say that thing was loud?
Paul B.
 
Paul B said:
Back when I was still gainfully employed with the national Weather service, I had th district pleasure of showing up at work for a graveyard shift. When it came time to step outside onto the flight line to take my first observation of he shift, there it stood, the B-29 used in filming the movie Enola Gay. Right there just outside the back door of my office. I'm thinking, WOW! Would I love to see her fly. Round about 3AM there was this God awful rumbling roar. I went outside the they were warming up the engines. Even at idle that rumble was loud. Finally about 7AM they taxied out, run the engines then took off. What a sight! Me, being a WW2 airplane/warbird freak, that made my graveyard shift for me. Did I say that thing was loud?
Paul B.


How loud was it? Now imagine several hundred of them warming up at once! :D
 
I watched Doc's maiden voyage via live streaming... Seeing this video is no less thrilling.

Thanks for posting!

The only other airworthy B-29, Fifi, was due to be here in Az this month, but for whatever reasons it was cancelled. I think they ran into some maintenance issues. One day I hope to get to see Doc or Fifi fly in person.

If not, then these experiences are close enough.
 
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ncUdqT8AxY0
B-29s Doc and FIFI
EAA
Published on Jul 30, 2017
 
Those are outstanding - thanks for sharing! Funny thing, my screen got blurry as well.

Jim
 

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