Hey Art....have you written a book yet?....if not you should....cc



"ArtKramr" wrote in message
...
Subject: ATTN: Art Kramer
From: (robert arndt)
Date: 7/3/03 8:33 PM Pacific Daylight Time
Message-id:

Hey Art,

If you really love that B-26 of yours why not make a custom model of
it? I'm going to have the Saab A36 custom made from Motion Models.
They are the best down to the smallest detail. Here's a link:

http://www.motionmodels.com/custom.html

This is the custom section. Check out the USAAC section with the
B-26s. It is definately worth it.

Rob

p.s. hostilities aside, I thought you might like the idea.


Thanks for the thought. But Willie The Wolf is gone. Let his memory lie
vbuurirf with him. Here are my thoughts about "WIllie". that I share with
my
crew, the few if us that still remain.

IN REMEMBRANCE OF WILLIE THE WOLF


Willie was war weary when we got him. His first crew completed their tour
of
duty and went home. Then we came, fresh from the US and yet to fly our
first
mission. Willie's scars brought home the reality of where Willie had been
and
where we had yet to go. He was dented, bruised and patched. Here and there
some
of the Plexi was crazed where flak struck home. When we climbed in, there
was a
strong smell of vomit mixed with urine and Cordite. Willie was the first
battle
scarred plane we had ever been in. And he was ours, all ours.

As I write this, memories of Willie come back. I can hear the roar and
feel the
vibration of the twin R-2800 engines. I can feel Willie surging forward as
we
start down the runway, and I can see the runway speeding away under us as
our
wheels slowly come up and lock in the wheel wells. As we climb to our
place in
the formation the air gets chilled. I plug in my electric suit and pull up
the
collar of my bomber jacket around me. We flew all our missions in Willie.
He
never let us down. He took us out. And he brought us back. Often the worse
for
wear with holes and dents, but he always brought us back.

Willie was always a lot more than just an airplane even though he was
officially a B-26G Martin Marauder of the 344th Bomb Group, 494th Bomb
Squadron
of the 9th Air Force. He carried the white triangle on his tail of the
344th,
and the markings K9J of the 494th.

But Willie was one of us. Over Germany we could feel Willie shudder under
the
punishing recoil of flak hits. But he had a heart of steel and just kept
flying
on. When we landed we would walk around Willie and run our fingers over
the
dents, into the holes and caress the peeling chipped paint. We really
loved
Willie as much as any man can love a machine.

When the war ended they took Willie away, placed demolition charges under
his
spars and blew him up. Then they bulldozed him into a ditch. And he lies
buried
over there to this day. I can't help but feel that with Willie a small
part of
each of us will always lie over there with him.


Arthur Kramer
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer