While cooped up and iced in last week, I started rearranging books in my bookcases. In doing so I came across one of my father’s books, “Flying Fortress: The Illustrated Biography of the B-17s and the Men who Flew Them” by Edward Jablonski. The book was in bad shape and showed extensive water damage. Coming across it brought to mind an event of 51 years ago.
I was at Ole Miss and got a call to come home and help my father at his store after it had been inundated by a devastating Tombigbee flood. His Goodyear Tire store was on what was then Highway 82 across the old river bridge. In past Tombigbee floods, water had gotten around the building with a little getting inside but only where tires were stored in racks.
This time, though, it was the flood of 1973. It was a record flood like no other since 1892 and about five feet of water got into the store. Things that had always been safe in previous floods were lost to the muddy water. I recall that one of few things my father made a special effort to save was that book about B-17 bombers. Though soaking wet the book was saved and carefully dried out.
During World War II my father had been a tail gunner on a B-17 of the 337th Squadron of the 8th Air Force’s 96th Bomb Group stationed at Snetterton Heath, England. On May 12, 1944, he was shot down over Frankfurt, Germany, was captured and became a prisoner of war at Stalag Luft IV.
Friends and customers who had also served in the Army Air Force in Europe during World War II would often stop by the store to purchase something or just chew the fat over a cup of coffee. There they would sometimes swap stories and trade war time experiences of life and death 24,000 feet above Germany. My father rarely spoke of what had happened during the war except when he traded stories with other World War II Air Corps veterans. He would get them to write their name and Army Air Force bomb group or fighter group number in the front of the B-17 book.
This was the book he prized enough to pull it from the flood waters and save despite its bad condition.
While the full stories of personal experiences told years ago by those veterans of the air war in Europe are mostly lost, their names and units are preserved in the front of a battered water-stained book. It survives as a record of individuals of the Columbus area who flew or maintained the bombers and fighters without which Hitler could not have been defeated.
All the pilots and air crews were volunteers willing to give their lives, if necessary, in defense of their country. In late spring 1944, the life or shot-down-and-captured expectancy of an American bomber crewman was only three missions, but they flew anyway. The list in the front of the battered book is a list of heroes, real heroes who lived here but rarely spoke of the courageous things they had done or the pain they experienced.
They had been a part of deadly world changing events, but you would often not know it until after they had passed away.
These are the names as recorded in the book my father valued so much that though heavily damaged he saved it from the muddy flood waters of the Tombigbee.
“Rufus A. Ward 96 Bomb Group, 8th AF
Chubby Ellis 97 Bomb Group 15th AF
Glynn F, Shumake 303rd Bomb Group 8th
Levert McGahey 384th Bomb Group 546 Sqd 8th AF
Clayton Junkin 388th Bomb Group, 8th AF
Robert R Noland 8th AF
M.S. (Mickey) Brislin 447th Bomb Group, 3 Div 8th AF
Jake Pryor 79th Fighter Group 12th AF
H. B. Wells 351st BW Polebrook 8th
D.G. Gardner 8 Air Force
Shorty Smith 8th AF – 399th
A.D. Hatcher 8th AF
James M. Doolittle 15th AF Italy
William C. Hamilton 388th B G 561st Sqdn”
I remember most of those men from years ago but only knew of the World War II service of a few of them. I knew that Glen Shumake had served as operations officer for the 303rd Bomb group in England, had been shot down and become a prisoner of war but did not know that Chubby Ellis served with the 15th Air Force in Italy. I knew Micky Brislin had served in the 447th Bomb Group based in England but never realized Clayton Junkin had served in the 388th Bomb Group. Howard Nolan served in the 8th Air Force and died during the war in a plane crash at Hartfield Heath, England. l knew his brother Riley but did not know that Riley also served in the 8th Air Force. H.B. Wells, who is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, has a fascinating story I did not know.
All of those who signed my father’s book have a story that needs telling. I will continue this column next week with some of those stories. Stories that need to be preserved.
Thanks to Carolyn Kaye for helping with the research for these columns.
Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
