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...or war the alert phone would send them on a real-life mission to satisfy a vital need. They lived the Air Rescue Service's motto: "These things we do, that others may live."
My most memorable experience began on Sunday morning, June 25, 1950, as our nine-man crew, of Flight A, 3d Air Rescue Squadron, Military Air Transport Service, routinely relieved the previous alert crew on the flight line of Johnson Air Base, near Tokyo. Our plane, an SB-17G (for Search Bomber, serial number 44-83885), wore distinctive yellow paint markings in wide bands around the fuselage, wings, and tail. It was the last B-17 produced at Long Beach, California. A Higgins, droppable A-1 lifeboat, painted yellow and called the "Flying Dutchman," was bound by cables to her belly, which were secured to the bomb rack shackles in the bomb bay.
The flight engineer, MSgt. William J. Brewster, had inspected the plane, checked the engineering forms, performed the pre-flight, and run up the engines. Other crew members had assured me that the communication, navigation, and rescue and survival equipments were in good order. Brewster, 1st Lt. Ronald G. Carver, the co-pilot, and I reviewed the records and declared that -885 was "fit for duty." The odds...
NOTE: All illustrations and photos
have been removed from this article.
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