The Bomber Boys Read Online Free Page A

Meyers, Florida. It was fast paced. There was a little in-flight practice with .50 caliber machine guns, but mostly the cadets honed their shooting skills by firing at targets while riding in the back of a bouncing truck.
    The final piece of the training puzzle was in Lincoln, Nebraska. The men who had spent the past year learning their specific military skills—the pilots, navigators, bombardiers, flight engineers, radiomen and gunners—were brought together to form what was then the most educated, best trained and best prepared fighting unit ever assembled: the B-17 bomber flight crew.
    Tony’s crew, like most, was young and eager. They looked even younger. Lieutenant Jerome Chart from Wisconsin, at twenty-one, was the oldest and would be their pilot and crew commander. A solid chin and determined eyes gave Chart a look of confidence. Tony liked that in a pilot, although he realized Chart had no more real experience as a bomber pilot than he did as a navigator.

    During their first few days together, the officers and enlisted men on the crew addressed their new pilot as Lieutenant Chart. As they began to bond during the many hours of training flights, the men relaxed under Chart’s easygoing leadership, and soon he was simply “Skipper” or “Jerry,” except when there were higher-ranking brass around.
    In fact, it seemed as if, in no time at all, everyone was on a first-name basis and most had acquired nicknames. Their copilot, Flight Officer George Wisniewski, was “Ski.” The clean-cut bombardier, Flight Officer Glenn B. Kelly, liked to be called by his given name. Tony Teta, by then a second lieutenant and navigator, was “Short Round.” The radioman, Corporal Kenneth Hall, from West Virginia, answered to “Ken” or “Kenny.”
    Tony quickly became good friends with the flight engineer, a Texan named Carl Robinson. Sergeant Robinson had a dependable face and a receding hairline, and he did not take offense when the men nicknamed him “Baldy.” Corporal William Goetz hailed from Chicago. Because his descent into his ball turret reminded everyone of a crab disappearing into its shell, he became known as “Hermit.”
    Corporal Thomas Christenson of Michigan was of Swedish heritage and had the rugged look of a college quarterback. He was “Big Swede.” Corporal John Stiles, whom everyone called “Jack,” was the right waist gunner and would later become the crew’s toggler. (Once the Eighth Air Force started the system of “lead” bombers, the “lead bombardier” decided when the group or squadron should drop bombs. The bombardier position aboard most bombers was later eliminated—replaced by a toggler, who required much less training.)
    Wiry John Cuffman also became one of Tony’s closest pals. The little tail gunner from Tennessee somehow attained the handle of “Snuffy.” This was the crew (with the exception of
Glenn Kelly) that Tony would soon rely on for survival during air combat in the sky over Germany—the crew that would also rely on him.
    At Lincoln, Tony became acquainted with the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber for which he would soon develop a lasting respect and admiration. Designed in the mid-thirties, the B-17 had been continually improved since America’s entry into the war in Europe. The model that served as a training aircraft for Lieutenant Jerome Chart and his crew was the B-17G. The most technologically advanced bomber of its day, the Boeing B-17G heavy bomber was an awesome sight to both the men who flew her and the men who fought against her.
    Tony was indoctrinated in every detail of the B-17G. She weighed in at 44,560 pounds, was seventy-four feet and nine inches long, with a wingspan stretching just over 103 feet, tip to tip. She could fly high, fast and far—having been tested at an altitude of more than thirty-five thousand feet and at a top speed of 302 miles per hour, with a maximum range of eighteen hundred miles. There was little doubt how she had