Reconnecting with family history at 2,500 feet
I was given the opportunity to take a brief flight on a B-17 Flying Fortress recently while it visited the Aurora Municipal Airport.
Being a guy who loves to fly, I jumped at the chance. Little did I know I would also be getting in touch with a little family history.
Immediately after receiving my invitation to fly on the B-17 Liberty Belle, I fired off an e-mail to my Uncle Jerry asking him if he was jealous. Uncle Jerry knows every spec about just about any flying object you quiz him on, so I knew he would be if he hadn't already been on one himself.
Within three minutes, I received this e-mailed response:
"Oh Man ... VERY! I expect you'll record this, yes??? That's GREAT ... what a ride! Be sure and tell them your grandfather flew in them in WWII in Okinawa (in the radio compartment and one of the waist gun positions). Be sure and remember EVERYTHING about it, so I can press you for details later ..."
Well, I never got to meet my grandfather, Gerald D. King, as he died at the age of 47, nine years before I was born. And I certainly had no idea that he'd logged missions in a B-17. In all the wonderful stories I've heard about him, his military service had hardly been mentioned until now.
In the Army Air Force as it was known then, my grandfather was stationed at Naha Air Force Base in Okinawa, Japan, as the Allies fought to take control of the island.
"It was terribly scary. I remember listening to the radio every night and praying," said my grandmother, Isabelle King, of Covington, La. "But he got home safe and told us some stories because he was proud of his service. But mostly I think we were all so happy that it was over, no one wanted to look back on it."
The 34,000-pound Flying Fortress was an impressive sight on the runway, but the power of the machine was evident once each of the four 1,200-horsepower engines fired up as we waited to board.
I boarded near the front of the group, making sure to grab a seat in the radio room for what I expected to be a rickety take off in the 70-year-old plane.
Once we reached our cruising altitude, the other reporters and I were able to walk around and experience several other positions on board the plane, including the bombardier station, cockpit and both waist-gunner positions.
Uncle Jerry was right. The view from the nose was awesome.
The flight was incredible and being able to walk freely around the plane was pretty cool, too. But we had to keep in perspective the dangers faced by crews like my grandfather's who logged countless hours in this beast in frigid temperatures while flying in a large aluminum target in the sky.
Thankfully Aurora's skies were much friendlier on this day.