WB\45AUTH\BA93P-AB.DOC

“City of Fortwayne”; M-49; Flight Crew taken after mission debriefing

Crew 49, 93rd Sqd, 19th BG, 314th Wing, 20th AF, North Field, Guam, 1945

Loc	Duty	Rank	Name	ASN	MOS	Address 1994
K1	AC	1st Lt	Alvin C. Beck	0668387	1093	60 Steve Pl, Sequim, WA, 98382
S2	P	2nd Lt	Wayne D. Clark	0778412	1091
K2	N	2nd Lt	Alexander Alexion	02063321	1038
K3	B	2nd Lt	Audel H. Hicks	07115528	1035	1160 E. Elmwood Ave, Burbank, CA, 91501
S3	RO	2nd Lt	Gordon S. Skinner	02069140	0138	547 Abilene Trail, Cincinnati, OH,45215
S1	FE	T/Sgt	Homer J. Fiegel	19011023	737	RT 3 Box 62F-1, Spicewood, TX,78669
S5	R	Cpl	Warren F. Jones	13128080	2756
S7	CFC	Cpl	Tommy N. Daniels	38661740	580
S6	RG	Cpl	William E. Cutrer Jr	18212932	611
K4	LG	Cpl	Ira G. Cuttrell	33645127	611
S4	TG	Cpl	Carroll A. Rowe	31400878	611

Beck’s crew flew 13 missions before Beck was transferred to the 314th Wing and later to 20th AF HQ on Guam.

Lt Alvin Beck writes:

{Continued from subsequent pre 19th BG}

I was finally transferred to the 19th BG, 93rd Sqd at Great Bend, KS. My checkout in the B-29 consisted of B-17 flying, Celestal Navigation Trainer flying and a written test on the B-29. I was given a crew and told to fly a night mission Xcountry to Houston and drop practice bombs, (no instructor).

My first landing was at night, #1 engine out, left side runway lights out, a co-pilot who could not get the landing lights turned on and with a bad brake de-boost valve. Col Roberts had me change one tire because the brake locked up and the tire blew out.

After further training the squadron moved to Mather Field, Sacramento to pick up our combat airplanes. I received B-29 No. 44-69682 later named Kingbird M-49 and even later, The City of Fort Wayne, (Indiana).

Seven missions into the combat tour there were only three of the original ten B-29’s left. Our crew flew 34 missions, 210 combat hours, after which I was transferred to 20th AFHQ as Operations Controller.

Three of the missions stand out in my memory:

{---------------Mission to Tokyo--------------|

F012=M040;03-09-45;W73-313-314; Nite; Incind; 5-9KAlt; Tokyo Urban area "Meetinghouse #2"

Ab=325; Abt=12; Lost=14(1 to AA; 5 ditched; 7 unk; 1 to survey); BL=9673; FR=1044; Dam=?

EAS=?; EAA=40

28th Ab=(7): VChand#2, ESeitz#2, CWells#2, JHanc#2, JSim#2, RAuer#_, ?__

30th

93rd ABeck#1, BUnder#1......

RA Lt Robert Auer lost at target, the first 28th Sqd loss [perhaps in M11]

Beck Mission #1, 03-09-45 Tokyo, Fire Bomb Raid

No 50 cal ammunition for the weapons. CO & Ops Officer Lost.

{---------------Radar Maping Mission --------------|

Beck Mission #2, 03-17-45, Night Radar Mapping Mission. Four cities; Nagasaki, Sasebo, Omura and ___ (one other). Mission time aprox 18 hours. Three hours over Japan at 7,000 ft getting Radar Foto Approaches to the Cities. Being harassed by the US Navy task force off (Okinowa ??)

[The following night Nagoya was hit by 310 aircraft]

F018=M044;03-18-45;W73-313-314; Nite; Incind; 5-9KAlt; Nagoya Urban area "Microscope #3"

Ab=310; Abt=19; Lost=1 (1 ditched on return); BL=13144; FR=1085; Dam=?

EAS=?; EAA=44

28th Ab=(8): ESeitz#5, FMaup#2, VPark#4, __, __, __, __, __

{---------------Mission to Tokyo--------------|

F062=M181;05-23-45;W58-73-313-314; Nite; Incind; 13KAlt; Tokyo Urban area

Ab=558; Abt=0; Lost=17(2 to AA;1 to EA; 4 to accidents; 10 unk); BL=14138;FR=633; Iwo=49; Dam=?

EAS=60; EAA=83; dest=6, prob=1, dam=2

28th Ab=(?) JStevens#1, JHanc#13(93rd), Vparker#__

30th

93rd ABeck#12

Beck Mission #12, 05-24-45, Tokyo, Massive Fire Bomb Raid.

The 93rd was programmed late in the raid. The fires were really burning when we dropped our load. Bomb altitude was around 7000 ft. We hit the smoke cloud at 300 indicated and immediately slowed the B-29 because of extreme turbulance. Jap radar had us tracking at 300 indicated and the first shell (AA) exploded in front of #2 engine and left a flak piece in the front exhaust pipe 4”x12”. Another four shells burst farther and farther ahead. We gained almost 10,000 ft in the smoke cloud up draft. #2 Started heating up and we flew back home on reduced power. We had a piece of Tokyo news print in one of the Oil Coolers in #2. I watched a blue flame [through the hole left] from the flak hit all the way to Guam.

At least you can make out the Cletrack

I went home via Air Transport Command Nov 1945

19th BG Experiences of Audel Hicks

I silently slipped into the 19th’s program at Great Bend, KS, and was doing fairly well when it was again determined that I was not a Celestial Navigator. The program was stopped and I was taught “Celestial” at Great Bend and became a full fledged Navigator, MOS 1038.

I flew to Guam on 1 Feb 1945 as a Bombardier with Alvin C. Beck’s crew on the "City of Fort Wayne". I flew six mission with this crew, but flew my last mission with William Underwood as a substitute Bombardier on 13 April 1945. We were first hit on that mission over Tokyo with flak and caught fire. I suffered superficial wounds from the flak as the nose of the aircraft had been hit. Being a wounded aircraft, night fighter Irvings then attacked. Gas lines were severed, live ammunition rolled in the gas tanks, and the fighters had lobbed a shell between my legs and it had exploded. My recollections of the exploding 20mm shell was just one bright, orange flash!

We were finally able to crash on Iwo Jima with the live Japanese ammunition still rolling around in the gas tanks. I was put in a Marine Field Hospital (a tent) on the Iwo Beach, and was eventually evacuated to the General Hospital on Guam. I spent a short time on limited duty at Hickam Field, Hawaii, and was discharged at Camp Atterbury, Indiana, on V-J Day August 1945.

Pre 19th BG Path of Alvin Beck:

From letter to D Landau dated 06-02-94

I became 21 yrs old April 6, 1941 -- and Sunday December 7, 1941 decided to enlist in the Army Air Corps. I heard Pres Roosevelt announce the Pearl Harbor disaster. With a history of being in the National Guard, 152nd Infantry (Cyclone division) I decided the Army Air Corps might provide my type of environment. I had a Dept of Commerce permit to fly -- License # 356220. I enlisted Jan 1942 and requested airplane mechanics school. My first serial No. was 15085756 Pvt. I graduated as an aircraft and engine mechanic 06-15-1942 hoping to become a crew chief soon. I was kept at the school as an instructor in test cells. I volunteered for pilot training at the first opportunity and was accepted. One note about my National Guard Outfit. They were overrun on Corregidor and were part of the Bataan Death March.

I was ordered to Kelly Field preflight center in late June 1942 and assigned to the class of 43-C as a Cadet pilot. The Army was extremely short of pilots and recruited cadets with previous flying time for a special class at Randolph Field to train as Instructor pilots. We had a class of 400 students with 100 who had no flying experience. 238 students graduated in the class of 42-X in December. Two students perished in a mid-air collision. 160 were given a second chance in later regular classes. 42-X was 13 weeks long. New serial No. A0668387.

I spent 3 weeks of a 4 week Central Instructors course at Kelley Field. I transferred to Coffeyville KS and taught my old 43-C Class to fly BT-13s. I taught flying for 20 months during which time I went to Air Corps instrument training school at College Station, Bayon, TX.

I was sent to Fort Worth Texas, Farrant Field for B-24 transition and received my Class V rating.

I was sent to Grand Island, NB, for B-29 training, flew only B-17s and worked at Squadron odd jobs. {continued above as 19th BG story}

Pre 19th BG Path of Audel H. Hicks:

From letter to D Landau dated 07-12-94

I was born in Newport, Kentucky (a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio), on 12 July 1922. My ancestors came to this country in 1651 and to Kentucky along with Daniel Boone, a great uncle, in 1773. Through my Mother, I am a blood relative of George Washington since we have a forefather, Col Nathaniel Pope, in common. I spent most of my youth in northern Kentucky or further south in Louisville.

I passed the Flying Cadet examination and was accepted on 10 August 1942. Tired of the wait to be called to active duty as a cadet, I asked for immediate basic training. The Army countered and I was sent to Ft Harrison, Indiana, where I had garbage detail and shoveled coal for the next six months. In Feb 1943, I was finally sent to Cadet Classification at San Antonio.

At that time there was an urgent need for Bombardiers (12 week training and then a commission). My idea was to get commissioned and then take pilot training (52 weeks training) as a student officer since I qualified on my tests. This was not to be!

The first thing that happened was to stop the student officer training idea, then Dead Reckoning (DR) Navigation was added to the Bombardier curriculum, then two Texas hurricanes, plus glutted Advance Bombardiers schools, 52 weeks later I was commissioned as a DR Navigator-Bombardier!

A friend of mine who cut orders for us new Bombardiers confidentially told me that he “had taken care of me”. When the orders were read, I was assigned to the 1st Sea Search Attack Sqd, 1st Sea Search Attack Group, Langley Field, Virginia -- Submarine Patrol Duty! I’d spent the rest of the war flying up and down the East coast -- so I got married!

When I got to Langley, I was told that the 1st Sea Search Attack Group had long been disbanded -- that this was a Port of Embarkation and I would be overseas in 30 days as a B-24 Navigator. All I needed was some basic training in radar. While flying as a Navigator for a night flight, I proceeded to get the whole flight lost. I was grounded as a Navigator while they decided what to do with me; the answer came. Give me more radar training. I was sent to Advanced Radar training for six months at Boca Raton, FL. Upon completion of the course, it was decided that I had not been qualified to attend the course, since I did not have any Celestial Navigation -- only “DR”! After waiting a month, Congress approved a new MOS, 1031, for some 30 of us and we were shipped to Lincoln, NB, for classification.

I was then sent to 505th BG Harvard, NB, as a B-29 Bombardier, since I looked so good on paper -- a DR-Navigator, Radar Operator, and Bombardier. After a month into their ETO program, I was curtly told that I was not qualified as a B-29 Bombardier, because I didn’t have Celestial Navigation. Back to Lincoln I went. {continued above as 19th BG story}

Post 19th BG path of Alvin Beck:

Later assignments in the AF included:

1. 3 years with Pacific Division MATS

Operations Officer and Pilot on YC-97, A & B models; wrote the service test book.

2. 3 years at AF Plant Rep office at Boeing.

C-97 A & C Project Officer and Test Pilot

3. 1.5 years at Philippine Airlines in Manila, PI

Set up and operated an IRAN station for War Wary C-47 airplanes. The Test Pilot after overhaul.

March 1953 Requested a discharge form the AF.

Civilian Occupations:

1. Heavy Construction 1936-1940 on Imperial Dam, Yuma AZ, Shasta Dam, Redding CA, Army Camp Construction Barracks & Hospital.

2. Engineering and Marketing 1956-1971. Electronic Systems; ie, RC-135, ERC-135, AWACS, OTC.

3. Licensed General Contractor -- Homes and Apartments, 1973-1985

Married Evelyn M Manning 07-27-1943; have 2 boys and 1 girl; 5 grand children and 3 great grand children

{----------It’s been a Great Life, Alvin C Beck ------------|

Post WW II Path of Audel Hicks

Back to school I went and I graduated after a long hiatus from the School of Business, University of Louisville, in Jan 1950. In 1985 I retired from Lockheed Corp. after 35 years. During my last ten years with Lockheed I administered the Federal Income Tax audits.

I have been married to the same woman, Bettie Louise Seeley, since 9 Feb 1944. We have one son, Audel Jr, four grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

{-------Audel Harrison Hicks (818)843-1723 ---------|