It
took a crew of eleven men to man the B-29, the plane
built especially to fly the long bombing missions from
Guam to the Japanese targets some 1500 miles away then
back to Guam. The B-29 carried a heavy load of bombs
and gas for each mission. Normal fuel consumption per
engine at take-off was 290 gallons per hour, 250 gallons
for climbing and 110 gallons to cruise.
In
January 1945 a pool of flight personnel were sent to
Lincoln AAF, Lincoln, NE. From this pool the crews of
the B-29s were formed. Twenty-four crews were assigned
at this time as well as extras crews to serve as replacements.
To
select the crews, pilot's names were displayed on a
bulletin board as "Airplane Commander". I was once such
pilot, having been checked out at in B-29's at SHAAF
in Salina, KS. Navigators, Bombardiers etc, chose the
pilot with which they wished to fly. William M. "Bill"
Graves was an instructor for bombardiers while I was
flying bombardiers in AT-11s, AT-18s and RB-18s in Big
Springs, TX. As Bill signed his name on my board he
was heard to remark, "Here's the pilot I'm flying with.
He can set it on the ground and get it back into the
air." Bill's remark encouraged others to follow his
choice and soon I had my crew.
Ben
Piteo was the first designated as radar operator but tech
orders changed that to reassign him as tail gunner with
Dan Meister as radar specialist.
