Dimensional Door - Freeople Thread 16

[westmex]

LeMay didn't hesitate to give his troops a bad time, but nobody else better bother with them....

I remember a SAC 2ND Lt. raising hell in an Air Transport facility saying if they couldn't get their damn planes off the ground, SAC would bring their own transports in and get the job done.

He'd fly into a SAC Field in an unmarked plane just to see how good security was...Lord help the base CO if he wasn't met by armed MPs.....

He was the one who pulled the guns off B-29s so they could haul more incendiaries into Tokyo and had them do it at low level.....

.....Westy.....

[Conservababe]

Well, he looks sassy enough. You made me curious of him, so I looked him up. Lordy, I had forgotten that the Air Force was not officially formed until after WWII.

[westmex]

Nope, we wore Army OD until after the Korean thing was going was going on...He looks pretty gentle in that pic...lol...He lead those first low level raids on Tokyo....

.....Westy......

[westmex]

was going was going...What in he!! does that mean????

[lodwick]

...going, going, gone?

I'd never have noticed, until you pointed it out. ;-)

Curtis was something else - where is he today?

[westmex]

Have no idea...Maybe Babe knows she looked him up a while ago.....

.....Westy.....

[Conservababe]

The 504th began combat operations while based on Tinian Island in January 1945. It practiced by bombing targets on Iwo Jima and the Truk Islands, then began operations against the Japanese homeland in February. Initial bombing missions were flown during the day at high altitude, concentrating on chemical plants, aircraft factories, harbors and arsenals.

Gen. Curtis LeMay studied the results and instructed the 504th to begin low-level incendiary raids at night. The raids targeted Tokyo and some of Japan's other major cities, Nagoya, Osaka, and Kobe. In May 1945, the group received a Distinguished Unit Citation for striking the industrial center at Yokohama.

"We put more bombs on target with just two squadrons in the 504th than the other three squadron groups did," said Schoolcraft.

That same year, the 504th began using its B-29s to drop mines in the Korean shipping lanes, called the Shimonoseki Strait, and in harbors of the Inland Sea.

During the war, the group also hit airfields used by kamikaze planes trying to disrupt the assault on Okinawa. After the war, the 504th dropped food and supplies to Allied prisoners.

"I was one of those Allied prisoners," said Hanley, "when my B-29 was shot down March 27, 1945, on my first mining mission. 427 B-29s went down during that time - over 5,000 B-29 crew members - yet less than 200 survived."

That is because the aircrew members were treated worse than normal POWs, he said. "We had special rules like no medical attention, half rations, handcuffs, blindfolds, continual beatings and no communications with the other prisoners."

On Aug. 6, 1945, the Enola Gay, a B-29 stationed at Tinian Island, dropped the world's first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Three days later, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.


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I see. So I take it that OD's were the working uniform equivalent of fatigues now? I think the military under dresses now. I mean, doesn't every soldier have a decent military uniform to wear in public? I mean, really, in an airport, all one sees is fatigues, the equivalent of sweat suits. LOL

[westmex]

Nope, the ODs were the dress uniform in winter...Suntans in summer...."Air Corpse" had green coveralls for fatigues or weird combinations of Class X clothes....Class X were second or third hand clothes that were still useable...

....Westy.....

[Conservababe]

The General died in October 1990. And I am not going to do any more research on him since I found out that he had become a California resident involved in environment concerns.

What on earth happens to old generals? Do all of them turn absolutely sappy?

[westmex]

Old soldiers of all ranks tend to live to damn long is all.....You've seen how "sappy" I am and I was only a S/Sgt....lol

.....Westy.....

[Canadian Outrage]

Good point Loddy. God never intended for man to be governed but what does HE know?? Westy: You talk the same about the Korean war as my American cousin that just died a few months ago. He suffered greatly in that war. In fact, he was a very young man but came home with grey hair!!

[sweetliberty]

I got the job!!!

[Conservababe]

Well, by gawd, you didn't turn liberal, at least. LOL

[westmex]

If your cousin was ground Forces he had a real rough time......At times we bombed when ever we could get even one plane in the air to give them support.....

.....Westy....

[Canadian Outrage]

whoops I meant to put my /sarcasm/ sign after that. Don't want God mad at me. NOW, I gotta get out of this office. BBL I hope.

[westmex]

I'm not dead yet either.....lol

.....Westy....

[Conservababe]

No, you are definitely alive and kicking. LOL When is your new scooter to arrive?

[westmex]

Maybe next week...It has to come all the way from the East Coast.....

.....Westy.....

[restornu]

Hi Westy

[westmex]

That is a mess o cats in a hurry to get somewhere...lol.

.....Westy.....