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Posted By:
Hal Brown
Date Posted:
Feb 4, 2010
Description:
The Collings Foundation flew two of its bombers into Leesburg this week. They offered rides in their B-17, “Nine o Nines”, and I was the first to sign up.
Date Taken:
Feb 4, 2010
Place Taken:
Leesburg, FL
Owner:
Dan Nickens
File Name:
Ready_to_Ride.jpg - Photo HTML
Full size - <img src="/show.php?splash=SZQXY0000h">
Medium - <img src="/show.php?splash=SZQXY0000m">
Thumbnail - <img src="/show.php?splash=SZQXY0000s">
Category:
42, Just Nice Pictures
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Read what others had to say:
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Dan Nickens - Feb 04,2010
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When I told me neighbor from Iowa, he signed up too.<br /><br />Accommodations were not luxurious, but they were first class.<br /><br />
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Easy Riding
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Dan Nickens - Feb 04,2010
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Once the bomber was flying, we had the run of the ship.<br /><br />
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9 burning 3 turning
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Dan Nickens - Feb 04,2010
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The scenery was fine….especially because there were no fighters shooting at us!<br /><br />
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Gunners Point of View
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Dan Nickens - Feb 04,2010
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The bomber was lumbering along at 140 mph. That’s a pretty good wind when you stick your head out of the top port!<br /><br />
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Double Barrel Fun
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Dan Nickens - Feb 04,2010
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The reality of what the ride was like sixty five years ago was told by a guy who was there. Dan is 90 years old now, but back then he was a young man. He flew in a B-17 as a tail gunner in Europe and a toggler in the Pacific.<br /><br />He showed up at the airport barely moving with a walker. We helped him into the cramped airplane thinking he wouldn’t be able to move. When we took off, he was like a teenager scampering around the ship.<br /><br />Dan said he flew 25 missions at the end of the war. Initially he was a tail gunner flying out of Italy. On one of those flights the bomber made a crash landing in Yugoslavia. He and his crew were picked up by the Partisans and hidden behind a fake wall before getting back to Allied lines.<br /><br />He flew as a toggler in the Pacific. He had no bomb sight. He just followed the lead bombardier, dropping his load when the leader did.<br /><br />After the flight, he said something really surprising: “I shouldn’t say it, but I liked the war. I liked flying bombing missions.”<br /><br />I suspect that was because he missed the really bad stuff.<br /><br />The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner<br />By Randall Jarrell<br /><br />“From my mother's sleep I fell into the State,<br />And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.<br />Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,<br />I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.<br />When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.”<br /><br /><br />
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The Way It Was
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Dan Nickens - Feb 04,2010
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Flying with the old vet was great. Finding this surprise in the bomb bay of the B-24 wasn’t bad either.
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Bombs Away
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Robert Lee - Feb 05,2010
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Wow, you can drop her on my house any day, but please give her a parachute!<br />According to my local paper WEB site, it appears the squadron is in Ocala this weekend.<br />
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Eric Batterman - Feb 04,2010
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Nice pics Dan. We missed you there! Actually we happened upon the Collier foundation on a flight to Cape May NJ (KWWD) in 2007.<br /><br />Hangar # 1 (big white one on left in 2nd photo) was listed onto the National Register of Historic Places, and is now home of Naval Air Station Wildwood Foundation Museum <a href="http://usnasw.org/">http://usnasw.org/</a><br /><br />Naval Air station (NAS) Wildwood was commissioned on April 1, 1943. The site served as an active dive-bomber squadron training facility from 1943 to 1945. Aircraft stationed at NAS Wildwood included TBM Avengers, Douglas Dauntlesses, Vought Corsairs and Curtiss Helldivers.
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Tail gunner Tommy
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WWII on the ramp
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