"ArtKramr" wrote in message
...
Subject: Why would an RAF pilot become a USAAC co-pilot?
From: "Ed Majden"
Date: 2/8/04 12:30 PM Pacific Standard Time
Message-id: k%wVb.441193$ts4.223591@pd7tw3no


"ArtKramr" ...
I haven't thought about John O'Brian in years. But a comment made on
this
NG
reminded me of him. He was a bit older than the rest of us. He had a
civilian
pilots license when the war started in Europe. He went to Canada and
ended up
flying Hurricanes in the MTO. When the US entered the war he was,
like
all
Americans, transferred to the USAAC. But he ended up as a copilot
with
the
344th Bomb Group flying B-26 Marauders..I always wondered why, with his
experience, he didn't become a left seater. Any ideas?

Art:
Did all USAAC bombers have a co-pilot? Didn't Lancs and other
RAF/RCAF
bombers only fly with one pilot? Seemed kind of risky to me, but I guess
it
worked risking one less aircrew member during a mission. My cousins
husband, now deceased, flew as a Nav. He said that nearly on each
mission
someone was shot up. He made it through the war without a scratch!
Ed


AFAIK all US bombers had co-pilots.

Not quite. The A-20 Havoc (or Boston to the UK types) family had only one
pilot (despite the "A" terminology, they did their US service in Bomb
Squadrons).

Brooks




Arthur Kramer