Originally Posted By: oldhp
Pop was a tail gunner in a B-24. The worst mission he said was bombing the oil fields at Ploesti, Romania.
God , Guts and the bravest crewmen ever flew those heavy bombers to help turn the tide of the war.
God Bless all of our Veterans.
My dad was tail gunner & waist gunner in B24's based in North Africa before parlaying his mechanical skills to become an aircraft armorer in a P38 outfit. I have numerous B&W pics of things like Mt. Etna smoking taken from the waist gunner door opening. Also have some jagged shards of large caliber flak.
I met a member of the Red Tails a few years back, Dr. Brown. He is the only WWII escort pilot I ever met. When I shook his hand and thanked him on behalf of all bomber crews to all escort pilots, he choked me up by putting his other hand on my shoulder and telling me "The men in those bombers were the bravest men I've ever known! When we got near the target we got to turn around, they flew straight ahead into clouds of flak so black the bombers disappeared in it!" This from a man who was shot down and made a POW of the Nazis.
I was invited to help with the tours the next day of local school children to the traveling Red Tails exhibit, helping emphasize this was about shared history, not only black history. It was quite rewarding.