I was fortunate to hear a presentation this past Saturday morning by Lt. Col (ret) J.G. Hook. He was a Bombardier in WWII with the 2nd Bomb Group/15th Air Force based in Foggia, Italy. The unit flew B-17's which I hadn't realized flew out of Italy as well as England.
As Hook quipped, "8th Air Force (Based in England) had better PR than we did." He added it didn't hurt that the actor Clark Gable and the band leader Glenn Miller served with 8th Air Force.
At 85 years young, Hook is sharp as a tack and his stories were often humorous, and at the same time, sobering.
His unit didn't even have barracks. They slept in tents. With basic pay along with flight and hazard pay he made about 200 bucks a month. But it was his stories about the missions that told the story representative of the thousands who served, fought and often died.
The B-17's flew missions at about 30,000 feet. Temperatures were -30 to -40 degrees. Crews wore a flight suit, then electrically heated boots and outer gear over that. Then came the May West life preserver, a chest-mounted parachute followed by a flak jacket. A good 70 pounds (if not more) of flight gear.
On his first mission the aircraft was hit by flak, seriously wounding the navigator. Hook and another crew member knew only to put sulfa on the wound then a pressure bandage. The navigator survived, Hook won an the Air Medal for his efforts.
On his next mission, after completing their bomb run, one of the bombs was hung up in the bomb rack. The last thing you wanted to do was return to base with a bomb hanging in the bomb bay. So Hook made his way back to the bomb bay. There's a narrow cat walk between the bomb racks, maybe 6 inches wide on which he had to stand. Below him, looking through the open bomb bay doors, 30,000 feet of nothing. He was able to take a hammer and screw driver and work the bomb loose.
On another mission he got a few shots off at a German ME 262 jet. He missed but ended up burning out the gun barrel when the gun jammed. He was later billed 7 bucks for the barrel.
Another day at the office. Hook, at the time, was just 19 years old.
He made a key point about fighting the war. "It wasn't romantic," he said. It was scary and very dangerous. Over 46,000 B-17 aircrew were either killed or injured during the war. Hook made it through.
Being escorted to and from the target by the Tuskegee Airmen might have helped.
Hook later went on to teach school in the Denver area for 36 years before retiring. A life well-lived with much to come. His story is typical of all those of the Greatest Generation. A job needed to be done. They did it, then came home and helped build America.
Hook pointed out that WWII vets are passing away at a rate of over one-thousand a day. Let's never, ever forget what they did in the air, on the ground and at sea.
My father flew bombers in WWII. My father-in-law served aboard the USS Missouri. Both are gone, but not forgotten.
Brian Olson
Conversation Starters LLC
"We start the conversation about you"
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