RE Memorial Day: The Ball Turret Gunner

Self | May 29, 2020 | Self

[Blood of Tyrants]

[PGalt]

Incredible. Thanks for posting.

Thanks to all who have served, all who are serving and all who will serve in the future.
Some made it:
Uncle Bill - Omaha Beach 1st wave.
Uncle Frank - shot down in the Pacific, picked up by a carrier.
Uncle Al - Korea (army)
Uncle Cliff - Korea (army)
R.I.P. (all made it home) including...
Uncle Paul - Intel Turkey (still alive)
Mom’s brothers, the Warner Brothers
Uncle Loren - Merchant Marines (RIP) dad’s brother
Uncle John - Europe (army) (RIP) dad’s sister’s hubby

Some didn’t:
James Durham (Vietnam) highschool friend
John Foldvary (Vietnam) highschool friend
Rick Rushlow (Vietnam) neighborhood youth friend

Pat McNamara’s 2 older brothers (Vietnam). I coached youth baseball with him for 10 years. I never met his brothers.

Integrity beyond any person in government that I have ever met.

[Calvin Locke]

Smith?

I think the first USAAF Congressional Medal of Honor awardee was this ball-turret gunner: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maynard_Harrison_Smith

[SuperLuminal]

I had a good friend (from 1969 to 1985) who started as a ball gunner in the B17. On it's fifth mission it was shot down returning from Germany and he eventually escaped back to England...

Back into another B17 and promoted to tail gunner... On it's 3rd mission it was shot down over Germany although he had the good fortune for his parachute to land in occupied France... Again, with the help of the frog underground, he got back to England in 3-weeks...

Back into another B17 and still a tail gunner... Third time a charm... 10-missions staying airborne... However on 10th mission he took a bunch of flack shrapnel in his legs and chest that was to end his flying days and give him slight a limp the rest of his life... Three weeks hospital and back to work in the division office for the remainder of the war...

Back in the day when men were men... Patch them up and send them back into the line...

My Dad joined the Marine Corps in Feb 1942, three times wounded (counting the malaria from the Canal) over four amphibious landings... Patch them up and send them back into the line...

[Portcall24]

The late Andy Rooney stood on the side of the airfield in WWII as a crippled B-17 made an emergency gear-up landing. The ball turret gunner was unable to get out before landing. This sad event stayed with Rooney his entire life almost haunting him.

[NonValueAdded]

T S Garp

[Big Red Badger]

I’m going to copy
that and perhaps
Get in trouble,,,

[Pappy Smear]

My instructor in tech school(he never talked about it, his widow told me this at his funeral) was a tail gunner in a B-17. Apparently when he flew, he carried a Bible under his shirt--for reading while en route to the mission. Apparently he got hit once, and the shrapnel hit him right in the Bible which was tucked over his chest. Tore the Bible to shreds, didn't hurt him. But of course may have killed him if he didn't have the Bible.

I always liked the guy, but never knew that this common man had done a job like that.

[Big Red Badger]

To those that didn’t
Make it back,
Those that did,
I Salute You.

[Big Red Badger]

I’m guessing a code,
Post #13
Post #26
Next #39-——?

[Big Red Badger]

T.S.Garp,
The Movie.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The World According to Garp.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084917/

Garp was a lobotomized WWII ball turret gunner who was only able to say “Garp,” therefore the name.

[Oatka]

It said tail gunners had the highest death rate.

I understand that on the B-24, the tail gunner had to crawl all the way forward to the bomb bay doors in order to bail out. I always think of that when I see pics like this:

or this

[dsc]

I was named after my mother’s favorite cousin, who was in the bombing. One night his mother in Chicago awoke to see him standing at the foot of her bed, and that’s when she knew he was dead. They never found the body.

[JerseyDvl]

Great writing. Thank you and God bless.

[Big Red Badger]

Okay,
Saw it when it
First came out,
1982.
Memphis Belle is a
Great film ,
Old War Birds and
the Young Men who
Fought in them.

[mabarker1]

My Wife’s Father was a Ball Turret Gunner. Not sure if He was in a B-17 or a B-24 as He had Passed Away before She and I met. Nobody in the Family can remember what Plane either. He was injured and lost part of 1 Lung. RIP Robert and Thank You for Your Service.

Petunia the Masked Pig of Justice.
And Yes She can Fly !!!

[Chode]

Amen

[DaxtonBrown]

My Dad was a 19 year old tailgunner in B24s out of Spinazola Italy. Much braver than I would have been.

[Retain Mike]

Thank you.