Two B-29 Bomber Crewman Meet in Idaho Falls

Marshall Dullum's crew in Korea. Marshall is front row, second from left.

Dean's crew, India. 1944-45.

Marshall and Dean and a model of the B-29. Marshall commented that if he and Dean could find two more old B-29 crewmen, they could form a new crew.

On August 13, 2010, two bomber boys who flew in the B-29 Superfortress met each other for the first time in Idaho Falls. I have known Marshall Dullum for three or four years, but only recently found out about Dean . Marshall trained in bombers in WWII, but did not fly combat. He did, however, fly in the Berlin Airlift and in the United Nations peacekeeping action in the Middle East. He flew combat missions in a B-29 during the Korean War, near the end of the period when the 29 was used as a combat bomber. Dean flew in B-29s during WWII. He first trained crews in 1942 and 1943 in B-17s and B-24s, and was one of the first to train in the new B-29, which he says is the best of the three by far. Dean flew with the 20th Air Force in Asia. A flight engineer who had mechanical aptitude, he was responsible for keeping the mechanical components of the 29 working in flight. His crew "flew the Hump" over the Himalayas 25 times. The crew took off from a secret base in India, flew over the Himalayas--or, if the weather was good---through the Himalayas, threading its way between the jagged peaks. They landed at another secret base in China, and then took off to bomb Japanese-occupied areas in East Asia. Dean remembers that on a clear day you could navigate your way across the Himalayas by following the carcasses of crashed aircraft on the mountains below.

Military Writer Eric Hammel Opens New Website

This book is due out this fall. Wish I had it now to use while working on my own 95th BG book!

Eric Hammel is one of my favorite military authors. I've been enjoying his books for years before I 'met' Eric via the internet. Eric has opened a new website that is visually stunning and is packed with interesting and useful information about military history books and military history in general. Drop by and take a look. You'll be glad you did.

Here's the link: www.erichammelbooks.com

Frank Irgang's Etched in Purple Available for Pre-Order

The new Potomac edition of Frank Irgang's 'Etched in Purple'--in my opinion the best WWII memoir ever written---is now available in the Potomac Books catalog.


A rediscovered classic memoir of World War II

Etched in Purple
One Soldier's War in Europe
Frank Irgang

248 pages; 5 1/4" x 8 3/4"
Paperback
$17.95 $14.36
Available: April 2008
978-1-59797-204-8

Order or view here: http://www.potomacbooksinc.com/Books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=180789



“Pulls no punches in painting the life of a combat infantryman.” —Detroit Free Press





“One of the most brutal war books published. . . . Frank J. Irgang . . . has succeeded in doing what at least one million others who served with the infantry during the war wished they could have accomplished. He has told the story of the war simply and plainly as it is seen through the eyes of a combat infantryman. . . . Never once does the author let reader attention slip.” —Los Angeles Times





“A taste of the brutal truth.” —Cincinnati Enquirer








First published in 1949, Frank J. Irgang’s personal record of his unforgettable experiences as a combat infantryman during World War II has its beginning on the dawn of that famous “longest day” when Allied troops set foot on Normandy beaches. We know the surface facts of that invasion—what was planned, how it was executed, and what happened—but what most of us don’t know are the thoughts of those brave men who fought their way across France and into Germany.

What were they thinking? How did they meet the terror of each new day?In this revealing look at a young American soldier’s European tour of duty, the inner facts we have wanted to discover are found.

And they are revealed truthfully and with a freshness of reality that would be impossible to recapture unless the observations had been jotted down, as they were, soon after the events took place. Irgang’s keen eye, his unliterary terseness, his sometimes blunt way of stating brutal truths—all these contribute toward making this book more than one man’s record of the war. In its unpretentiousness, Etched in Purple says vividly and powerfully what hundreds of other soldiers would have said had they found a means of expression: that World War II would always be etched in purple in their memories.


About The Author:
Dr. Frank J. Irgang is a retired professor of industrial studies who taught at San Diego State University for twenty-six years and served as department chairman. He resides in San Diego.

Pioneer Lady Pilot Passes away at 85

Women's aviation pioneer Caro Bayley Bosca died at 8:30 p.m. Thursday at Community Hospital of pancreatic cancer. Here is a story her surviving brother said he tells everyone about her.



By the early 1950s, Robert Bayley had seen his sister fly, of course.


Both had learned before World War II, and while he had served as a flying instructor with the Army Air Force during the war, she had ferried military planes around the country with the Women Airforce Service Pilots.


After the war, when Bayley came home to Springfield, Caro took up with other "WASPs," living in a Miami, Fla., apartment they called the Wasp's Nest.


Soon, she was into aerobatic flying, and when her touring troupe flew into Richmond, Ind., for a show Bayley decided to go see her perform.


"Richmond didn't have much of an airport then, it was really a field," said Bayley, who is 89.
At the show, "they strung a rope ... maybe up about 20 or 30 feet" in the air at a spot near the runway - a spot where wheat or hay was growing.


Roaring in her stunt plane, "she came down in front of the crowd upside down, went under that rope, and dangled her hand out as if she was grabbing at the grass," Bayley said.


On a return pass near the crowd, "she was waving grass in her hand," he said.


"She had that crowd convinced" she'd plucked it from the ground. Bayley said.


"Actually she'd gone out and put it in the plane before the act," he added. But that didn't lessen her brother's respect for her daring even by a width of a blade of grass.


"I always tell people I can fly upside down fine," said the retired attorney, "as long as I have a good 5,000 feet under me.


"Caro had less than 5 feet when she did that," he said. "It scared the hell out of me."
Added Bayley, "I think she was terrific."

Friday's Mystery Flier

Congratulations to Richard and Les for identifying Clark Gable as the first mystery flier.

After I dropped the hint that yesterday's mystery flier (seated in the cockpit of his aircraft in a previous post) became famous 'in another FIELD' (That field being Boston's Green Monster), Les figured out it was Red Sox great Ted Williams.

So today's question---Who is the man pictured in this post at center with his crew? He went on to become very famous in another field, and is still alive.