B 17 tail gunner story

discusdad

a short read. a man with a sense of duty. http://trib.al/fj4Ye1z he was credited with a "probable" on Mount Rushmore hehehehe

pwillie

Good read...I remember the B17's flying in for repairs in my home town..P-38 Lightnings, B-25's also...

jerrywh818

My cousin Carl Gustafson of Corvallis, Oregon, Flew 27 missions over Germany as a B24 nose gunner. He was awarded the french medal of Honor not long ago. Look him up. He was a member of the baseball team at Oregon state before the war.

discusdad

http://www.gazettetimes.com/ your cousin's story

Oakie

quote:Originally posted by jerrywh818
My cousin Carl Gustafson of Corvallis, Oregon, Flew 27 missions over Germany as a B24 nose gunner. He was awarded the french medal of Honor not long ago. Look him up. He was a member of the baseball team at Oregon state before the war.


That name is locked in my brain for some odd reason. I remember reading about him or something. Damn, it is on the tip of my brain and won't come out. [:(!] Got to go research him, but i definitely remember that name. Oakie

Oakie

Jerry, was your cousin written about in any war books or anything??? Give us some more background if you can please. I love to here about him some more. Oak[:)]

Smitty500mag

My Uncle Ed to the left in the photo was a B 17 tail gunner during WWII. I didn't even know he was until long after his death when my Mom told me about it. I was around him for years when I was growing up but he never mentioned it. I guess it was something he didn't like to talk about.

wpageabc

God bless those servicemen. Must have take nerves of steel to be a gunner in those big old bombers...

john carr

While going to school and working part time at Sears I worked with a vet who was a B-17 tail gunner. He served in the European theater and loved to talk about the 17's. He would tell about, while flying in formation, the props of the planes below would start up toward him and he would sweat blood. And, while in winter at high altitudes they would have to drain the shock absorber fluid from the 50's to keep them operable.