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HomeMy WebLinkAboutB-17 Flying Fortresses J'''''''<'fI<' ~.,;' 8B~~NewS/Sun.Sentlnel,' S~day, June 5, 1988 t./ ' j s .~'~~. " Stall photo/JOE RAEOLE Jiril:Sinith, left, Jeff Waguespack and Art Knipp trade jokes during their reunion Saturday. ......". Mimen reunite, swap' tales q1 war, F"lying Fortresses I' ' ~}~By ARDY FRIEDBERG " Stall Writer ..\::group of pilots, tail gunners, nav!gators and radiomen got to- geth~r at Pier 66 in Fort Lauder- dallf'over the weekend to renew frie~iQships and swap war stories. The occasion was the ninth annu- al reunion of 200. members of the 99tb:::Bomb Group Historical Soci- etyi:.an organization of World War II 'teterans who flew the B-17 Fly- ing~Fortress, a long-range bomber thatwas the mainstay of the Army AirtForce in Europe. SOme of the old soldiers, and theh:: stories: .;Louis Walker, of PIano, Texas, tai1::gunner: Ql the 371/2 missions he flew, the half:mission was the most eventful. '~.our plane was blown to r.ieces over: North Africa," said Walker, wh.i was 21 in July 1943 when his plaQe was shot down by German figl\ters and ground fire. Walker leafed through a scrap- book of pictures taken from anoth- er 'plane that showed the tail' sec- tion of his plane falling free of the restof his exploding bomber. '~A lot of things went through my mind, a lot of foolish things," Wal- ker said. "But I decided praying wouldn't do any good since I had never ~een very religious." "We had 36 planes and it was so bad we lost nine planes without ever reaching the target. When we landed I , could hear the sighs of relief all the way from the tail to the nose." - Warren Whitmore World War II pilot -:~. The flier freed himself and bailed out. He landed unhurt but spent the rest of the war in prison camps in Italy and Germany. The society had listed him as dead until two years ago when he showed up at the reunion very much alive. Il'.I Warren Whitmore, of Miami, pilot and squadron commander: "We went after Rommel in the summer of 1943 and ran into a ter- rible storm," said Whitmore, a re- tired airline pilot. "We had 36 planes and it w,as so bad we lost nine planes without ever reaching the target. When we landed I could hear the sighs of re- lief all the way from the tail to the ,nose. We didn't accomplish a thin~. but we sure tried iike helL" . Jules Horowitz, of Pompano Beach, a pilot who was local host for t.he four-day gathering: "On my engineer's 50th and,last mission we took a hit in a hydraulic line and I couldn't control one of the engines. When we finally land- ed the propeller fell off. He got out of the plane and kissed the ground." '\ After listening to several such stories, Bill Walker of Washington, Iowa, said, "I don't think I'd take this all as gospel." George Co en 'of Albuquerque, N.M., the group's historian, orga- nized the first reunion in 1980. Nine men showed up in Amarillo, Texas, for that gathering. The group now lists 818 members, he said. "It's highly therapeutic," Coen said. "We've all defeated the law of averages and it helps to talk to your peers about those experiences." There is no formal program, said Horowitz: "It's mostly a social oc- casion. The war was, the biggest event of most of our lives," Fay Upthegrove, 1\ 1927 West Point graduate and the original commander of the bomber group, summed up the proceedings. Looking around at "his boys," the 83-year-old retired general said, "We've still got a lot of heavy remi. niscing to do."