W45AUTH\AT28E-JD.DOC

Fig 1 Jesse Dillards Flight Crew #14 at "City of Trenton" Airplane 44-69680 M2 Crew Chief Dan Sidelko

Their first airplane was #42-94026 M-5, Crew Chief Carroll Morgan, which they lost at Iwo Jima when they had to bail out on May 14, 1945. The airplane was in perfect flying condition when in crashed, they had simply ran out of gas. They were assigned M-2 as replacement for the lost M-5. They re-named M-2 as "City of Trenton" painted on the right side, leaving "City of Bakersfield" on the left side.

Loc	Duty	Rank	Name	ASN	MOS	Home 1945 /1992
	AC	1st Lt	Jesse L. Dillard Jr.	0-80297	1093	/ unkown
	P	F/O	Billy R. Huffman	T6719	1091	/1795 S. Canton Tulsa OK 74112
	N	1st Lt	Bernard Van Arkel	0-2073273	1034	/ unkown
	B	2nd Lt	William E. McFain	0-928767	1035	/ unknown
	RO	1st Lt	Joseph C. Jamieson	0-2073135	0142	/ unknown
	FE	F/O	Thomas D. Adams Jr.	T-223279	737	/ 1509 E. 2nd St Pass Christen MS 39571
	R	S/Sgt	Lloyd B. Ford	37528329	2756	/unknown
	CFC	T/Sgt	Kenneth G. Aiken	32956360	580	/ unknown
	RG(1)	Sgt	Joseph H. Alves Jr.	32245390	611	/ unknown
	RG(2)	Sgt	William R. McNeill	36786086	611	/ 850 W. 155th Pl Boomfield CO 80020
	RG(3)	S/Sgt	Harry D. McCluskey	42091558	611	/ unknown
	LG	S/Sgt	Chester E. Williams	18064065	611	/ unknown
	TG	Sgt	Albert L. Lockwood	32758742	611	/ unknown

(1) Relieved, 3 missions. (2) Broke leg in bail-out 5-14-45. (3) Originally on Joe Simmons crew

Note: These photos are a copy of a copy, a quick fix for Sept ‘94 reunion. The original file was somehow contaminated requiring inovative recovery -- there was not time to try to find the original photo -- if a copy was ever made of the original? DL 09-17-94

Fig 2 F/O Thomas D. Adams Jr (FE), M-11 in background

Tom Adams retired from the USAF with 25 years as CWO-4 serving the last 15 years as maintenance officer for ADC and TAC fighter Squadrons. This was followed by almost 20 years with NASA Test Facilities now called John Stennis Space Facility on Missisipi coast. They test fired the engines for the Space Shuttle and prior moon-space vehicles.

M#174; 05-14-45; Wings 58-73-313-314; Day; Incendiary bombs; 16-20,000 ft altitude; North Nagoya Urban area "Microscope #4"

20th AF Airborne=524; Abort=0; Lost=11(1 to EA; 1 to AA; 4 to accid; 4 to other, 1 unk); Bomb load=11479 lb; Fuel Reserve=642 gal.; Iwo=14; EA Sighted=80; EA Attacks=275 (dest=23, prob=16, dam=31)

28th Airborne=(13) VChandler#15, CWells#17, FMaupin#15, JDillard#5, KClewett#_, HGammel, VParker#15,____

KClewett#? Lt Kenneth Clewett lost in M20 over target

JDillard#5 [M-5] [by W McFain]

Bail Out!

by William McFain, Bombardier, 28th Sqd, 19th BG

May 14th, 1945. Mission to Nagoya. Mission Number 5. Aircraft Number 42-94026. This was a Sunday and it was Mother's Day.

We took off from North field early on the morning of the 14th of May so as to hit the target in the early daylight hours. On this mission we were carrying 24 E46 Bombs. We formed up with the group/squadron off the coast of Japan and headed for the target. Bomb run was made with a lot of flak and fighters all around. This of course was nothing new to veteran combat crews, but to us we had not gotten used to the flak as yet. Our four previous missions had been southern Japan on the island of Kyushu where we had bombed air fields. On those missions we encountered some flak and some fighters, but nothing to what was encountered over Nagoya that day.

We made our bomb run and started home. As we coasted out we broke formation and started home in a single ship string as was the usual procedure.

Shortly after crossing the coast, the flight engineer [Tom Adams] informed the pilot [AC Jess Dillard] that we had used up so much fuel in formation during the approach to the target and on the bomb run he didn't think it wise to try to make Guam and suggested we stop at Iwo Jima and refuel. (Iwo Jima had been secured in March of 1945 and was being used by B-29s as a stopping place for those who couldn't make it back to home base for one reason or another.) The navigator gave a heading for Iwo Jima.

Everything went fine until we got close to Iwo and were informed that Iwo was socked in. We alerted Iwo as to our low fuel, but were told they had higher priorities for landing and we were to circle until they had gotten the planes with wounded on board and those in a worst condition than ourselves safely on the ground. After circling for about an hour our gas supply was becoming critical. The pilot [AC Jess Dillard] informed the tower and we were told we would be landing under Ground Control Approach (GCA) and were to follow their instructions.

We continued our letdown until Final Approach Control Radar (ACR) took us over for final positioning and heading for landing. We were vectored down to 500 feet and told to take over and land visually. At about this time we broke below the cast and found we were lined up on a direct course with Mount Suribachi.

Three attempts were made to land us but each time we had to pull up and go around as they could not line us up with the runway, only with Mount Suribachi. By this time the flight engineer [Tom Adams] notified the pilot [AC Jess Dillard] he didn't think we had sufficient gas for another go-around. The pilot [AC Jess Dillard] notified the tower, and after a short time the tower informed us we were to climb to 2,000 feet and to fly out on a given heading for ten miles and turn back and they would inform us when we were over the island so we could bail our

Everyone began to prepare for the exit. However, the CFC gunner [Ken Aiken] somehow popped his chute in the plane. The pilot [AC Jess Dillard] immediately informed the tower of this matter. The information we received was to have the gunner hold his chute in his arms when he jumped, and when he was clear of the plane to throw the chute up into the air. This didn't sound good, but what recourse was there? None. They would not allow the pilot to let everyone bail out except him and the CFC gunner, and attempt another approach. Since there was only one runway on Iwo, they could not afford to have it closed down because of a crash landing with so many other planes yet to land. By this time we were back over the island and told to start bailing out. Of course the CFC gunner [Ken Aiken] had to be given a little push by the radar operator [Joe Jamieson].

I [Bill McFain] had already cleared the nose wheel well door and had it open and was preparing to climb down when the copilot [Billy Huffman] said he needed help getting out of his seat. (He still had on his flak suit and flak helmet along with all his other equipment including his rubber life raft) I assisted him out and then climbed down the wheel well and dropped out. I watched the plane go over and then pulled my rip cord. The chute did not open. I looked down and saw I did not get the rip cord all the way out, so I hastily put both hands on the cord and gave it a big tug, out it came, much to my relief.

As I was floating down I looked around and saw the radar operator and the radio operator in their chutes, the radar operator weighing about 220 pounds and the radio operator only weighing 110 pounds soaking wet. It appeared the radio operator was going up as the radar operator floated down

I then looked down and saw I was coming down on the edge of a cliff, so I attempted to slip my chute to miss the cliff. About that time I hit the ground. I landed about 100 yards from the base hospital. I looked up and saw a group of engineers who were looking down on me from the top of the cliff and yelling something. Finally I understood they were interested in getting my parachute and not in helping me or to see if I was hurt. I later found out they wanted the nylon to make Japanese flags, which they sold to anyone willing to buy them as the real thing. They did not get my chute. I gathered it up in my arms and I immediately started looking for the CFC gunner. I spotted him about 25 yards away. We both started toward each other when something started to shoot fire in the air. Both of us jumped behind a rock close by, as we thought the Japs were shooting at us. Of course we found out shortly that it was a Trip Flare used at night to alert the security patrols that Japs were trying to infiltrate the area. (The rock we both got behind was no larger than two feet in diameter. That just goes to show how small two people can get when necessary.)

One of the blister gunners [ Bill McNeill] hit a tent upon landing and slid down the side of it and somehow got tangled up in the rope and broke his leg the only mishap of the jump. Our aircraft slid into the ocean about 500 yards off the coast of Iwo. We really hated this because it was a brand new airplane For some reason we had been allowed to keep the aircraft we had picked up at Kearney Army Air Field, Kearney NB and had flown it over. We, like the plane only had five missions to our credit.

We all gathered together and were picked up and taken to a fighter unit, where the CO handed us a bottle of whiskey and said that we all needed a drink. We did! His bottle was empty when he got it back.

That night we all decided to go to the hospital and visit the gunner who broke his leg. Upon leaving the hospital someone asked if we knew the password for that day. We were then informed that only a few days before, the Provist Marshal had been shot because he was not quick enough on giving the correct password. These marine guards weren’t kidding. This made us understand what the ground war really was. Needless to say we obtained the password for the day, which was the name of any well known baseball player. Our concern then was we hoped, if we were challenged, we could supply a name the Marine guard would know.

During our stay on Iwo we took a short tour of what was left of the jungle, looking for Japs. Luckily we did not see one. We were informed after we got back that it wasn’t a very good thing to do as many Japs were still around and most likely some of them had seen us. That in itself put the fear of God in us again. During our stay at Iwo a typhoon came through and we spent a few hours in slit trenches. All in all we stayed five days on Iwo and then flew a B-29 back to Guam. This was a plane that had been left on Iwo by another crew for repair. No parachutes this time.

Of course this jump made us all eligible to join the Caterpiller Club. This was an honor not everyone wanted, but since it was over we were all happy to be a member of this exclusive club. For those who didn’t know, to belong to this exclusive club you had to have bailed out of a disabled aircraft.