| Ralph
Weston in his "My Life of Flying" made this all so easy
to write. At Alamogordo AAF, New Mexico he met up with his
future Airplane Commander in July of 1944. Captain Jerome
"Jerry" Zee was a veteran already. He had joined the Royal
Canadian Air Force and had been to England. He had flown
Blenheins on patrol over the North Sea for a year. He had
moved on to Sterling and Lancaster Bombers over Germany
and France. After five months he transferred to 7TH Pathfinder
Squadron making 37 trips as a pathfinder. He then transferred
to the USAF as Captain, instructing for a year and then
volunteering to B-29's.
The
rest of the crew was assigned at Smokey Hill. T/Sgt Carroll
Hart was our Radar Operator. Lt Ed Davenport was later
assigned so Sgt Hart was out of a job. Hart was a veteran
of North Africa in B-24's and had been wounded by a 20MM
in the leg. Hart really wanted to stay so it was worked
out by Zee to replace Southern CFC gunner, James Hughes.
He had an accent that Jerry could not understand. The
crew was assigned three bombardiers, one at a time but
Lt Gabriel got the assignment.
The
crew was off to Batista Field, Cuba for a short stay and
back to cold Salina in February 1945. At Salina they picked
up their new plane and decided what to name it. Jerry's
ship in England had been named "Lil Abner." The crew decided
if Jerry could came back in a plane of that name 43 times,
the name "Kickapoo Joy" should be good for their plane.
They just added the "II" to the Al Capp cartoon creation.
In
March they were off to Herrington and on to Mather Field
on the 30th. They were over the Pacific to John Rogers
then Kwajalein and landed at North Field on Guam April
7th. They were alerted for their first mission April 11,
just four days later. Koriyama was the target. After four
hours of formation flying out of Iwo Jima, they finally
arrived at the place they had all trained for. It was
over the target area, unload the bombs and head for home.
They landed after 18 hours of airtime. This was the longest
bombing raid in aviation history up to that time and the
longest of WWII.
Missions
were flying by slowly and very boring. They made their
first visit to Iwo, doing the usual sightseeing of the
island that would save so many lives after costing so
many in February. They agreed the entire place smelled
like death.
Colonel
Mundy joined Crew 47 on their mission to Tokuyama
but they had to abort just north of Iwo due to a No. 3
engine oil leak. Mundy was not happy about the abort as
they dumped the bombs in the ocean and were back on Iwo
again. They would ferry a beat up old dog from the 29th
Bomb Group to take them back to Guam. They learned the
Germans had given in and the war in Europe was over. The
crew had also confirmation of two fighters to their credit.
Gabe and Jack had one each!
The
mission to Nagoya on May 16/17 was scheduled in the plane
of Captain Paquette (P-52). 1st
Lt Robert C. Morton of that crew had been seriously wounded
when hit by a 20MM phorphorous shell on a prior mission.
The medics tried to clean the blood from under the seat
during repairs to the nose cone were made but the plane
retained the hospital smell of ether or formaldehyde. |
