The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had an organized branch in Louisville, Kentucky and we became active as a family for the first time. Wanda convinced herself that she should be a member and I had the great honor of performing the ordinance of baptism. LDS babies are normally blessed. Sandi was now five years old but we blessed her anyway. There was much to do and few members to do it. I remember being a member of the branch presidency, acting as Sunday school superintendent and teaching a class at the same time. I look back now and am truly sorry that I was so ineffective.
By far the most important happening was our trip as a family to Salt Lake City to become an Eternal Family through the proper ordinance in the Temple. This was 1948 and some said the trip would bankrupt us but with the Lord’s blessings we survived in great shape.
January 1, 1951, the Korean Conflict was in progress. Letters came monthly stating the need of the US Air Force for navigators with trans-oceanic experience. Wanda and I sat down that New Year's Day to discuss if I should request recall to active duty. We decided we could be ready for the change by the 1st of March. I requested recall and on the 3rd of March I was on my way to Norfolk, Virginia for active duty processing.
We now had three children, Sandra, Kay and Cheryl. We were living at Fern Creek, Kentucky near Louisville. Lloyd also was living near Louisville. I owned an electrical shop doing repair and installation. I told Lloyd he could have the business, customers, materials and all.
I returned from Virginia and we prepared as a family to leave in a short time for Houston Texas. Ellington AFB was a refresher training and shortly we moved to Randolph AFB near San Antonio, Texas for crew formation. I met a pilot and a navigator who were members of the LDS Church. We decided to try for a complete Mormon crew. We were all assigned to B-29's. The B-29 dropped the atom bombs on Japan. There are eleven members to a crew. We promptly went to the chaplain's office and were able to find 8 crew positions who were Mormons. The commanding officer approved the formation of this crew so we started training. Later in the year we were transferred to Forbes AFB, Topeka, Kansas to finalize our training.
Salt Lake Temple
B-29
Mormon B-29 Crew - Randolph AFB, December 1951
Left to Right: Don Funk, Robert Sorensen, Lee Reasor, Horace Crandall, Donald Robb, Arthur Grimm, Gerald Gerber, Joe English, Dean Allan, Kenneth Russell, "J" Lindroth Lundell.
Topeka, Kansas
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