After the successful transition of the pilots to be able to fly this huge B-29 Super Fortress, the entire crew came together to fly their first training mission. It was the first of September 1951 and eleven men met in the front of a B-29 for their first flight together as a crew. Captain Funk introduced all of the crew to each other for our first time together. When you bring eleven different personalities together it is interesting to see how they bond and evaluate each other--especially where five are officers and six are enlisted men.
Early in September 1951, the crew flew their first practice mission. The crew met at a designated aircraft and Air Force protocol had the crew line up in front of the left wing with all of the needed gear laid out in front of them. Captain Funk then came down the line to inspect each crew member and their readiness to fly.
Once we were airborne we climbed to 20,000 feet and flew a simulated bomb run on Houston, Texas. We then headed for Omaha, Nebraska, and on the way we were attacked by P-51 fighters. All of us gunners had gun cameras on our gun sights and we shot at the P-51s with our sights and camera, which could be and was graded when we got back to Randolph. This was good practice for us. We then went to a bombing range in Kansas that had 500-foot circles for the bombardier to aim at with the Norden Bomb Sight. He dropped a 100-pound black powder bomb on the 500-foot circle and came very close to the center of the circle. All members of the crew were challenged during the mission at their particular position. These are the kinds of missions we flew for some three and a half months. We flew simulated bomb runs over most of the major cities in the U.S. during this training period.
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