Jimmy Stewart

[Corky Scott]

For those who may not know, James (Jimmy) Stewart was the operations
officer for the 445th bomb group which flew B-24's. He arrived in
England via the South America to Africa to Scotland route in late
1943. Even though his position did not require he fly with the
squadron, he never the less did so, eventually flying 20 missions
including some of the toughest: Brunswick, Bremen, Frankfurt,
Schweinfurt and the 1000 plane raid to Berlin. Stewart actually had
300 or so hours prior to enlisting in the Air Force before Pearl
Harbor. He volunteered for combat.

The B-24 was considered to be a more difficult airplane to fly than
the B-17. The narrow Davis wing just did not perform as well at
25,000 feet as did the larger wing of the B-17. The B-17 was an older
design, but it was easier to fly. The B-24 was tough to fly in
formation because at high altitude it mushed and responded poorly to
the controls.

George McGovern was another unheralded B-24 pilot who flew out of
Foggia Italy.

Corky Scott

[G.R. Patterson III]

Corky Scott wrote:
>
> For those who may not know, James (Jimmy) Stewart was the operations
> officer for the 445th bomb group which flew B-24's.

My favorite Stewart story was the time a few of his people stole a keg of beer
from the officer's club. They had it stashed under one of the bunks. Stewart
walked into the hut and said he needed to talk with the men. As they gathered
around, he walked over to the bunk, lifted the hanging blankets, and drew himself
a cup of beer. Then he told them that the club was missing a keg of beer. "I
know you fellahs don't know anything about that, but, if you hear anything ...."

The keg made a miraculous reappearance at the club.

George Patterson
Battle, n; A method of untying with the teeth a political knot that would
not yield to the tongue.

[Geoffrey Barnes]

For what it's worth, the airport in Indiana, PA -- Jimmy Stewart's home
town -- is named after him. If you want to make a pilgrimage of sorts, you
could always fly there! While you are at it, you could also go to Arnold
Palmer airport about 30 miles south of Jimmy Stewart and visit yet another
Western Pennsylvania landmark.


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[Steven P. McNicoll]

"Corky Scott" > wrote in message
...
>
> George McGovern was another unheralded B-24 pilot who flew out of
> Foggia Italy.
>

I believe Tom Landry was another.

[Cub Driver]

On Mon, 15 Mar 2004 21:19:55 GMT,
(Corky Scott) wrote:

>For those who may not know, James (Jimmy) Stewart was the operations
>officer for the 445th bomb group which flew B-24's.

He was also the president of the court martial that tried a B-24 crew
that bombed Switzerland. Not a bad book: "The Day We Bombed
Switzerland".

all the best -- Dan Ford
email: (requires authentication)

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com

[Jay Honeck]

> For those who may not know, James (Jimmy) Stewart was the operations
> officer for the 445th bomb group which flew B-24's.

At a lodging banquet last week, I ran into an old gentleman who flew B-24s
in the war. He now owns and operates a very successful B&B.

Naturally, we gravitated to his table for dinner, where he regaled me of
tales of flying over occupied Europe. He is in remarkable physical
condition for his age, having spent the last 35 years leading whitewater
rafting tours throughout the desert southwest.

My favorite story was when he was assigned to fly a Liberator to a
maintenance facility for landing gear work. The plane had been "red-X'd"
(as he called it) due to a hard landing, and the nosegear was secured in the
down position with wire. (!)

He grabbed a flight engineer -- not his usual guy -- and proceeded to fly to
the maintenance field which was on a river in Italy. On the way, without
any real navigational beacons or decent maps, they became lost. After
floundering around for over an hour, flying up every river they could find,
they eventually found the field.

On final approach he realized he was too high. Probably something to do
with being so light, or maybe he just screwed up.

Over the years my new friend had discovered that, with the wheels down, the
B-24 simply would NOT fly faster than 180 (?), no matter what you did. So,
as he had done so many times before, he simply pointed the nose down at the
runway and waited. His flight crew was used to this radical approach, but
this particular flight engineer was holding on for dear life, and appeared
to be praying as the ground rushed up at him...

My friend pulled out at the last second, made a normal landing -- and the
flight engineer departed the plane in a dead run as soon as he slowed
down...

Boy, I'm really going to miss these guys when they're all gone. What lives
they have lived!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Bob Chilcoat]

http://users.erols.com/viewptmd/Dad10.html

--
Bob (Chief Pilot, White Knuckle Airways)


"G.R. Patterson III" > wrote in message
...
>
>
> Corky Scott wrote:
> >
> > For those who may not know, James (Jimmy) Stewart was the operations
> > officer for the 445th bomb group which flew B-24's.
>
> My favorite Stewart story was the time a few of his people stole a keg of
beer
> from the officer's club. They had it stashed under one of the bunks.
Stewart
> walked into the hut and said he needed to talk with the men. As they
gathered
> around, he walked over to the bunk, lifted the hanging blankets, and drew
himself
> a cup of beer. Then he told them that the club was missing a keg of beer.
"I
> know you fellahs don't know anything about that, but, if you hear anything
....."
>
> The keg made a miraculous reappearance at the club.
>
> George Patterson
> Battle, n; A method of untying with the teeth a political knot that
would
> not yield to the tongue.

[Mackfly]

>From: "G.R. Patterson III"
>Date: 3/15/2004 7:30 PM Central



>My favorite Stewart story was the time a few of his people stole a keg of
>beer
>from the officer's club.

J. Stewart got a mach + ride in a B-58 Hustler. His remark during the climb
out was so unlike the Jimmy Stewart we all came to know. "This is not an
airplane, it's a G. Damn rocket." They lost the AB on one engine yet the AC
managed to get him above mach one in a slight dive with three in max AB.
Mac-- ole B-58 maintenance guy. 43rd Bomb Wing, Carswell and Little Rock AFB.

[Tom Pappano]

Corky Scott wrote:
> For those who may not know, James (Jimmy) Stewart was the operations
> officer for the 445th bomb group which flew B-24's. He arrived in
> England via the South America to Africa to Scotland route in late
> 1943. Even though his position did not require he fly with the
> squadron, he never the less did so, eventually flying 20 missions
> including some of the toughest: Brunswick, Bremen, Frankfurt,
> Schweinfurt and the 1000 plane raid to Berlin. Stewart actually had
> 300 or so hours prior to enlisting in the Air Force before Pearl
> Harbor. He volunteered for combat.
>
> The B-24 was considered to be a more difficult airplane to fly than
> the B-17. The narrow Davis wing just did not perform as well at
> 25,000 feet as did the larger wing of the B-17. The B-17 was an older
> design, but it was easier to fly. The B-24 was tough to fly in
> formation because at high altitude it mushed and responded poorly to
> the controls.
>
> George McGovern was another unheralded B-24 pilot who flew out of
> Foggia Italy.
>
> Corky Scott


The Stephen Ambrose book, "The Wild Blue", has a lot about McGovern's
B-24 experiences, and others' too. Not a bad read.

Tom Pappano, PP-ASEL-IA

[bryan chaisone]

Great stories guys. I loved them all. Jimmy's one of my favorite
actors.
My dad's favorite too. My wife's too young to know him. I'm alittle
too young for his movies too, but I try to rent oldies but goodies. I
tried to push old/black & white movies on her, some she liked some she
didn't. Mostly she didn't. We are of different era I guess.

Let's hear some more flying stories or war stories, which ever you may
have.

I truely find them enjoying to read. Thanks again.

Bryan "the monk" Chaisone

[bryan chaisone]

Talk about the Devil, Strategic Air Command is playing tonight on
Adelphia cable Channel 53. I'm planning to watch it.

"11:55PM Wednesday, Mar 17 on Channel 53 Get All TV Listings
Strategic Air Command
Movie / Adventure (1955) 1 hr 54 min NR TVG
The Air Force recalls a baseball player (James Stewart) who has a
pregnant wife (June Allyson) to fly long-range bombers.


director Anthony Mann
cast June Allyson, Bruce Bennett, Rosemary DeCamp, Frank Lovejoy,
James Stewart, Barry Sullivan
details (CC) "

[Corky Scott]

On 17 Mar 2004 18:48:26 -0800, (bryan chaisone)
wrote:


>
>Let's hear some more flying stories or war stories, which ever you may
>have.
>
>I truely find them enjoying to read. Thanks again.
>
>Bryan "the monk" Chaisone

Here's one my father told me once. He flew for the Navy "somewhere in
the South Pacific". I've always loved that phrase. He'd write
letters to my mother from the South Pacific and of course was not
allowed to mention where he actually was, so he'd always sign them:
"Love Bob, somewhere in the south pacific".

He trained in big airplanes, flying the PBY and the PB4Y-1. He
deployed to the south pacific in a PB4Y-1 as a co-pilot. The PB4Y-1
was a Navy modification of the Consolidated B-24 Liberator. The
modifications had to do with removing the belly turret and using a
Bendix ball turret in the nose instead of the standard nose turret,
and having more fuel tanks for extended patroling.

His first tour was in 1944 and he flew llloooooonnnnnnggggggg patrols
out of Guadalcanal and Green Island, among other places. 12 to 14
hours in flight were routine. He told me that they would take off,
heavily overloaded with fuel, and wheeze up to around 5,300
feet, then throttle back and lean the engines out to their cruise
settings, and gently dive down to 5,000 feet to get it "on the step"
to maximize their crusing range. Now adays I know that "the step" is
an aeronautical myth, but it's interesting that that's the way they
were taught.

He told me about an incident during one patrol while flying around
some of the outer islands and inlets of the southern Phillipines, just
basically swinging wide of the land to stay over water. So they were
cruising back and forth at around 2,000 feet or so, checking out
inlets. They rounded one penninsula and spotted a Japanese patrol
boat in the middle of the inlet. There was no way for it to get away
and the bomber held the advantage of surprise so the pilot yelled that
they were attacking and ordered everyone to their battle stations.
They wheeled in and headed straight for the boat. The nose and top
turret opened up and the tail gunner blazed away as they roared
overhead and banked away.

Everyone in the airplane was REALLY excited at the action, which was
one of the few actual combat incidents they had experienced during
their entire deployment. It for sure was more fun that just sitting
in the droning fuselage watching endless blue water. The pilot,
overwhelmed with first time combat fever, yelled that they were going
back in to finish off the now dead in the water and smoking patrol
boat. He wanted a confirmed sinking.

So around they came and headed in again, thus violating two of
Murphey's Laws of combat: 1. Never make more than one pass at a
target. 2. Never approach a target from the same path as the previous
one, if you are going in anyway.

See, the problem was the boat, while dead in the water and smoking,
wasn't completely disabled. There were lots of guys still alive on
board and apparently all their weapons still functioned.

So in they came, low to the water and boring straight at the seemingly
helpless enemy, which now began returning fire, ACCURATELY.

Dad told me that he saw huge tracers zip over his head and he
involuntarily ducked his head down to peek over the instrument panel.

The tracers moved to the left and struck the left wing and engine no.
1. There was a loud explosion and the airplane jolted violently and
yawed.

The pilot shouted these now immortal words: "HOLY ****, THEY'RE
SHOOTING BACK AT US, LET'S GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE."

So they wheeled up in a bank and aborted the attack, avoiding any
further damage from the furiously firing patrol boat.

They feathered the smoking and belching no. one engine successfully
and watched anxiously at the left wing as it bent alarmingly in the
middle near the now silent engine where the enemy cannon fire had hit.

The pilot, now sweating profusely, made every conscious effort to be
easy on the controls as they suspected that the spar had been damaged.
They had a long way to go yet as they were at the outer ranges of
their patrol and now had many hours of flight to return to base.
Encountering one of the ubiquitous tropical thunderstorms would have
been disasterious. Luckily they saw none.

When they landed, which was very carefully handled by the pilot, they
taxiied to the hardstand and climbed out exhausted. Inspection by the
ground crew chief confirmed that the spar was indeed severed, and the
entire wing was replaced.

Such was the war of the long range patrol planes.

Corky Scott

[John T]

"bryan chaisone" > wrote in message
om
>
> Talk about the Devil, Strategic Air Command is playing tonight on
> Adelphia cable Channel 53. I'm planning to watch it.

It would help to post the name of the network. Even if we were all Adelphia
subscribers, not all Adelphia networks may have Ch.53 running the same
network.

--
John T
http://tknowlogy.com/TknoFlyer
http://www.pocketgear.com/products_search.asp?developerid=4415
____________________

[Dale]

In article >,
(Corky Scott) wrote:


> His first tour was in 1944 and he flew llloooooonnnnnnggggggg patrols
> out of Guadalcanal and Green Island, among other places. 12 to 14
> hours in flight were routine. He told me that they would take off,
> heavily overloaded with fuel, and wheeze up to around 5,300
> feet, then throttle back and lean the engines out to their cruise
> settings, and gently dive down to 5,000 feet to get it "on the step"
> to maximize their crusing range. Now adays I know that "the step" is
> an aeronautical myth, but it's interesting that that's the way they
> were taught.

The Navy did some amazing work with the PB4Y-1 and -2. I've read/been
told of patrols as long as 18+ hours. They worked as single-ships or
two-ships most of the time. Brave men.

Getting "on the step" is worth about 15 knots in cruise speed. I know,
no such thing as a step in airplanes. But grab a B-24, I'll grab one
and lets race. I'll be "on step" and I'll beat ya every time. <G>

--
Dale L. Falk

There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing
as simply messing around with airplanes.

http://home.gci.net/~sncdfalk/flying.html

[Corky Scott]

On Thu, 18 Mar 2004 07:27:28 -0900, Dale > wrote:

>In article >,
> (Corky Scott) wrote:

>The Navy did some amazing work with the PB4Y-1 and -2. I've read/been
>told of patrols as long as 18+ hours. They worked as single-ships or
>two-ships most of the time. Brave men.

>Dale L. Falk

He returned to the states after his first deployement, and worked up
in the PB4Y-2 as a plane captain. The -2, as you probably know, was a
B-24 with a single vertical stabilizer/rudder instead of the twin
rudders of the Air Force version. I saw a few photo's of him
practicing attacks on submarines, shot from another airplane. He said
he had to work hard to overcome "target fixation", which is the
tendency to concentrate on getting your aim correct on the approaching
target that you forget to pull out in time. I'm sure that happened to
more than one crew during WWII.

Anyway, he was headed back out for his second combat tour when the war
ended. He was "marooned" on Hawaii for several months, eventually
hitching a ride home on the aircraft carrier Saratoga, along with MANY
other returning Navy people.

Corky Scott

[Robert Moore]

(Corky Scott) wrote

> He returned to the states after his first deployement, and worked up
> in the PB4Y-2 as a plane captain.

Corky, if your father was a Naval Aviator, he probably was not a
"plane captain". In the Navy, a "plane captain" is an enlisted
man who is responsible for the preparation of the aircraft prior
to flight. He "owns" the aircraft while it is on the ground.
The terminology for the PIC of a patrol plane has changed a little
through the years. When I first qualified in P-2V Neptunes, the
PIC was called the "Patrol Plane Commander" (PPC), this being the
final step of the PP3P, PP2P, PPC qualificaion procedure. The Navy
allowed a nugget pilot 18 months to qualify as a PPC, however
there was no garantee that there would be enough aircraft in the
squadron for every PPC to have a plane and crew. It was common to
have a copilot who was a rated PPC in the aircraft but was not
senior enough to command a crew. Later, just as I left the Navy
after a tour in P-3 Orions, non-pilot tactical co-ordinators were
replacing the PP3Ps back in the "tube" running the tactical aspects
of the mission. As time went on, these "TACCO"s became senior to
the PPCs and the conduct of the mission was turned over to the
senior qualified man on board as the "Combat Aircrew Commander".
The Brits had used this system for many years.

Bob Moore
PPC P-2V VP-21
CAC P-3B VP-46

[Corky Scott]

On Thu, 18 Mar 2004 22:38:59 GMT, Robert Moore
> wrote:

(Corky Scott) wrote
>
>> He returned to the states after his first deployement, and worked up
>> in the PB4Y-2 as a plane captain.
>
>Corky, if your father was a Naval Aviator, he probably was not a
>"plane captain". In the Navy, a "plane captain" is an enlisted
>man who is responsible for the preparation of the aircraft prior
>to flight. He "owns" the aircraft while it is on the ground.
>The terminology for the PIC of a patrol plane has changed a little
>through the years. When I first qualified in P-2V Neptunes, the
>PIC was called the "Patrol Plane Commander" (PPC), this being the
>final step of the PP3P, PP2P, PPC qualificaion procedure. The Navy
>allowed a nugget pilot 18 months to qualify as a PPC, however
>there was no garantee that there would be enough aircraft in the
>squadron for every PPC to have a plane and crew. It was common to
>have a copilot who was a rated PPC in the aircraft but was not
>senior enough to command a crew. Later, just as I left the Navy
>after a tour in P-3 Orions, non-pilot tactical co-ordinators were
>replacing the PP3Ps back in the "tube" running the tactical aspects
>of the mission. As time went on, these "TACCO"s became senior to
>the PPCs and the conduct of the mission was turned over to the
>senior qualified man on board as the "Combat Aircrew Commander".
>The Brits had used this system for many years.
>
>Bob Moore
>PPC P-2V VP-21
>CAC P-3B VP-46

Thanks for the information Bob. He was a pilot then, not a plane
captain.

He learned in the CPT program and moved on to Stearmans, BT-13's,
SNJ's and then began training in PBY's. From there he moved on to
PB4Y-1's, then -2's and was qualified in R4D/DC-3's, R5D/DC-4's and
during the Korean war, flew P2V's. In civilian life he eventually
became a corporate pilot, first flying a DC-3, then transitioning to a
DH-125 jet.

He told me the only time he really thought he was in trouble with the
P2V was when he lost an engine right after taking off in a snow storm
out of Kodiak Alaska. They were full of fuel and had to circle around
in the zero visibility to land immediately.

Thanks for the correction.

Corky Scott