B-17 ball turret gunner encounter

Zef · Zef's Garage

I'm presently in Fort Worth, Texas for a training session at Bell Helicopter Training Academy...Yesterday was day off...and I went to Vintage Aviation Museum on the north side of the town...As guide of the tour, I got Russell Brainard, a B-17 turret gunner..I was the sole visitor on this tour. Russ's B-17 was badly hit by flak over Berlin in 1943 on his 10 th. mission. They completely lost an engine and the major area of the fin/rudder. Knowing they wouldn't make it back to England, the pilot gambled that they could make it across the Baltic to Sweden. They threw everything they could out of the plane and crash-landed the B-17 in Sweden just yards from the coastline. Russ walked away. We passed two hours in the B-17 togheter. As we evoluate in the B-17 from back to cockpit, he gave me all the info he can remember...He's over 80 now. I gave him a sincere thank you. Without that kind of man...the life would be quit different for us today.http://95thbg.org/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=176&Itemid=302

I just wanted to share that moment with you. This guy is a real gentleman and if you pass by the museum...try to get him for a tour.

syncroid · 12-09-2007, 03:58 PM

Thats awesome! What a treat that must have been.

legion · 12-09-2007, 04:05 PM

My wife's grandfather was a B17 ball turret gunner. We have a certificate that hangs on a wall for his membership in the "Caterpillar Club". Not sure what it means.

RoninLB · 12-09-2007, 04:13 PM

I hung with a WW2 Pacific dog fighter for a few days.

Texas is not far from the south west. The area has a group of WW2 vets flying these planes just to keep them in shape. Many collectors may have only 2 or 3 planes. They have to show them for tax reasons and sometimes you can hit 2 or 3 showings a weekend.

It is an extraordinary group.

red-beard · red-beard's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by legion

My wife's grandfather was a B17 ball turret gunner. We have a certificate that hangs on a wall for his membership in the "Caterpillar Club". Not sure what it means.

It means he has used his parachute. "Hitting the Silk"

john70t · 12-09-2007, 09:05 PM

My great-uncle was a B17 pilot who spent a bit of time in a german POW camp after being shot down. Nicest guy you'll ever meet, and had a successful career in insurance, but he will never, ever, fly in a plane again.

Saw a speaker at a conference who was a Tuskegee airman who spoke of missions where a flight of thirteen(?) B17's would go out and mabye one or two would come back.
This was fixed by the P51 w/droptanks, but before then...

Speedo959 · 12-10-2007, 12:20 AM

I've walked through a B-17 here in the last few months. There is no way I could fit as a gunner, very tight space. I didn't get to go up with her, but I did get to stand 50ft away when her engines fired up. Awesome feeling!

HardDrive · 12-10-2007, 01:58 AM

Great story Zef.

pavulon · 12-10-2007, 02:30 AM

The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner
by Randall Jarrell

From my mother's sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loosed from the dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.

jeffgrant · 12-10-2007, 04:33 AM

That is very, very cool. I experienced something similar quite a few years ago.

When I was attending Royal Roads (Canadian Military College in the mid-80's), one of our guest speakers was one of the original flight crew of the Dam Busters.

If you're not familiar with them, see here: http://www.dambusters.org.uk/

MGM distributed the movie in the States, and as a "thank you", provided each of the flight crew members with their own personal copy of the reel-to-reel movie.

http://imdb.com/title/tt0046889/

Well, this gentleman, (I can't remember his name now), spent the better part of a day with about a hundred of us watching his copy of the movie. We'd watch a few minutes, then he'd stop and give his personalized account of that particular scene, or some added trivia or information.

"Yep, that guy there is supposed to be me... ", etc., etc.

It was truly one of the most captivating moments of my life, and I'll never forget it.

Eric 951 · 12-10-2007, 04:33 AM

Wow. Sounds like an incredible experience. Getting info first-hand from guides like this whom have "been there" and "done that" makes for a more vibrant tour. When I visted the Missouri at Pearl Harbor the guide was a former sailor from the ship--their perspective is something to admire.

Tobra · Tobra's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by legion

My wife's grandfather was a B17 ball turret gunner. We have a certificate that hangs on a wall for his membership in the "Caterpillar Club". Not sure what it means.

bailed out of a plane, I think it iis something different if you bail out in the ocean. I have heard my Uncle Jack tell his tale of Pearl Harbor. Saturday, December 6th, he happened to have been tossed in the brig, and consequently was peeling potatoes, which they did on the deck, for reasons that are obvious to anyone who has been in closes spaces with large amounts of potatoes. They were close enough to throw potatoes at them. Lucky you got to speak to the ball gunner. How crazy is that, sitting in a fish bowl with people shooting at you!