Waddy's Wagon (B-29 and crew)

[sl8]

https://worldwar2database.com/gallery/wwii1017

Caption:
The crew of B-29 Superfortress 42-24598 "Waddy's Wagon", 20th Air Force, 73rd Bomb Wing, 497th Bomb Group, 869th Bomb Squadron, the fifth B-29 to take off on the first Tokyo mission from Saipan on November 24, 1944, and first to land back at Isley Field after bombing the target. Crew members, posing here to duplicate their caricatures on the plane, are : Plane Commander, Captain Walter R. "Waddy" Young, Ponca City, Oklahoma, former All-American end; Lieutenant Jack H. Vetters, Corpus Christi, Texas, pilot; Lieutenant John F. Ellis, Moberly, Missouri, bombardier; Lieutenant Paul R. Garrison, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, navigator; Sergeant George E. Avon, Syracuse, New York, radio operator; Lieutenant Bernard S. Black, Woodhaven, New York, Flight Engineer; Sergeant Kenneth M. Mansie of Randolph, Maine, Flight Technician; and gunners - Sargeants Lawrence L. Lee of Max, North Dakota; Wilbur J. Chapman of Panhandle, Texas; Corbett L. Carnegie, Grindstone Island, New York; and Joseph J. Gatto, Falconer, New York. All were killed when "Waddy's Wagon" was shot down attempting to guide a crippled B-29 back to safety during a mission against the Nakajima aircraft factory in Musashino, Japan on January 9, 1945.

Caption Written By: Jason McDonald
Photographed By: unknown
Archive: National Archives
Date Photographed: Friday, November 24, 1944
City: Isley Field
State/Province/Oblast: Saipan
Country: Marianas
Copyright Notice: Caption ©2007 MFA Productions LLC Image in the Public Domain

[Chainfire]

1. War is such an incredible waste.

Who knows what these young men, or the people that the bombed may have accomplished during a long peaceful life.

Why do we love killing each other so much that we devote so many resources to that end? I have sent 60 years reading about war in a hunt for the answer and I am no closer now than I was when I first started. WTF is wrong with us?

[Bobstandard]

2. B29s over Japan made a major meteorological discovery

B29s were designed to fly at altitudes too high for Japanese fighters and flack to reach. The development of the B29 required a bigger investment than that of the Manhattan Project. Each bomber cost the equivalent of some hundreds of million dollars. It was thought that they could then bomb targets accurately with impunity.

Unfortunately, their bombing was wildly inaccurate and analysts and commanders thought that the crews were dropping their bombs well away from targets to reduce risk to themselves. It was finally discovered that there are air currents running at hundreds of miles an hour at those altitudes that made the bomb sight calculations wildly inaccurate. Those currents were named the jet stream. Because of the jet stream those B29s were forced to fly at much lower altitudes in order to deliver their bombs accurately bringing them into range of fighters and flack.

My Dad piloted a B29 in that campaign called Honorable TNT Wagon. I have pictures a flight engineer on his crew took from the cockpit and you can see flack all around. Dad made it back or I wouldn’t be writing this.

My Dad flew in WWII, Korea and Vietnam, ANTIFA all the way.

[sl8]

3. Very interesting, thank you.

Respect to your Dad.