Forty-five years later, Bob Laird, a 39th Group gunner, wrote a remarkable account of the 39th covering the days of gunnery school at Tyndall Field, Florida, the interlude at Lincoln, Nebraska, and the training at Alamogordo, New Mexico and Salina, Kansas. It covers the over water flight training at Batista Field, Cuba and finally the combat missions of the 39th.

"Biff" was one of the first to receive a copy of Bob's book, "Maximum Effort." They had been crewmates on Crew 5 before "Biff" had been transferred to Crew 7. One of the pictures in that book was of a B-29 named "Censored." The ever-alert Badgley recognized something familiar about that aircraft. The top "Rising Sun" flag bore Ed Reilly's name! He figured correctly that this was old P-7!

P-7 had become P-11! Consider the luck of these numbers. There were 33 bombs painted on "Censored." That in itself is not unusual - I am sure there were B-29s with more missions. The interesting aspect is that the 39th participated in a total of 48 missions. P-7/P-11 (44-69810) had taken part in 33, or nearly 70 percent of them. Statistics are not available, but taking into account the many factors involved, such as the various targets, maintenance and repair needs, crew rest requirements, back-to-back missions, missions aborted, and delays due to weather, it would seem that the odds against one plane participating in 70 percent of a Group's total missions is incredible.

Old P-7 had survived. She had to take a short break to lick her wounds after the Otake mission, but then rejoined her group for another 26 missions with a new crew. This time as P-11 "Censored." She may have been the busiest - and - luckiest aircraft in the Group. She most certainly, had contributed more than her shares to defeat Japan's dream conquest.

Ed Reilly's Confirmed "Meatball" Upper Flag click on photo to enlarge The beginning of the name "Censored" (replacement P-11) can be seen as can its serial number "-69810" Movement orders dated: 16 March 1945 show that 44-69810 first was assigned to P-7 "Old P-7" Photo source: Courtesy of Ed Reilly, TG, P-7 Movement Orders source: Elmo Huston, FE, P-7 In a letter from Ed Reilly regarding this photo the names credited with the meatballs under his reads the name Lt. S. Pritt* probably a bombardier, the next one reads S/Sgt Paroli (guess). The 4th is unreadable. * According to Replacement P-11s roster there is a Soloman Pritt listed as Bombardier. However there are some unnamed members of this crew. Update: 12 April 2001 After receiving the last names of Replacement Crew P-11, and matching those names against General Orders # 25 - Battle Participation Award (Bronze Battle Star)- which lists over 500 names from veterans of the 60th Bomb Squadron, 39th Bomb Group, and enlarging the above image as large as possible, it has been determined that the names listed on the 4 meatballs are as follows: Sgt Ed Reilly, TG, P-7 - Top Meatball in Column of 3 2nd Lt. Soloman Pritt - Bombardier, P-11 - Middle Meatball S/Sgt Joseph Paruti, RG, P-11 - Bottom Meatball in Column Sgt. John Bowman, LG, P-11- to the left of Paruti's meatball Update Sources: Replacement P-11 - Last names list: Dan Rich, nephew of Vicenzo Ricci, Radar, P-11, General Orders # 25: Elmo Huston, FE, P-7

44-69810 Data Date Departed: 25 March 1945 Departed From: Salina, Kansas Destination: Guam Date return USA: 3 November 1945 Sent to: Robins AFB Update: According to records she crashed at takeoff while assigned to Mountain Home AFB ID and was completely destroyed. Salvaged: 4 December 1951 44-69810 Data provided by Sparky Corradina, 40th BG Assoc. and with updated information provided by Mr. Garcia Nemesio.

One further note on Crew 7
Dale Barton mentions that their crew had bombed Chi-Chi Jima. What is the significance? This is where a young naval flyer by the name of George Bush was shot down, later to become our 41st President of the United States.

60th Squadron Crew Index Page