View of North Field 314 Wing

Right Runway and Taxi Strip

19^th BG “M” fare end and 29^th BG “O” near end of North Field

The plan being implemented My friend Hank went to a new 39^th group being completed upper right

28^th Squadron Flight Line Area Looking down diagonal at 28^th Sqd

The 28^th Sqd site was the North East corner of this huge airfield. Black top covered coral taxi strips and hard stands surrounded by piles of bull-dozed trees shoved out of the way – behind us was the jungle. It was possible for Japanese, known to be holed up in cliff caves, to come to the edge and not be seen. The place became a bee hive of activity as soon as the planes landed and 200 plus mechanics hovered over them in preparation of the next flight. The taxi strips were busy carrying personnel with bomb trucks, fuel trucks, replacement engines, armament, radio, radar, photo personnel to and from the Service Center, mess hall or quarters.

Late afternoon till after dark flight crews joined the process readying to taxi out. Take off time was every other day if possible. At the beginning of WW II all AAC ground crew personnel were also rated as flight crew. This practice was quickly changed, mechanics could not fix planes when airborne. Combat created enormous demands for trained personnel to repair and service: aircraft, engines, radar, radio, photo, armament and ordnance. Dual flight and ground rating was a peace time luxury.

Gen Hap Arnold had this distributed

Many assume that a person who served in the AAC (later AF) was part of a flight crew, usually asking “were you a pilot?” Gen Arnold published the above to show what was required for one B-29.

Take Off time was often an intense period, one never knew what to expect, what would go wrong with aircraft or what idiosyncrasy would be encountered with a flight crew. Generally all problems were handled with dispatch, as comes with experience.

On rare occasions there were problems with a new and super sensitive crew, words would be exchanged. Not all equipment could be caused to work in the allotted time. Navigators had some 7 means to navigate, sometimes only 5 of these were operational. Resolution of these exchanges was usually very simple, an aircraft was not to be flown until the Engineering Officer signed off that it was OK. This status was reported to Operations who made the decision to use it for a mission or not. The Flight Crews signed off that they were aware of any deficiencies. If Operations scheduled a plane to fly and them to fly it, then it flew with them at the controls just as an infantry man responds to a direct command.

28^th Sqd Maintenance Ground Crew by M-10

28th Squadron Engineering Area – looking toward the south runway M10 on left and M9 + M12 on right

6x6 truck ran taxi service to mess hall & living quarters Tug and wash basin were in demand.

28^th sqd engineering M11 & M13 across the way

windmill laundry for fatigues was abandon for a pneumatically driven horizontal barrel with solvent out of sight at right

There are no hangers or deluxe quarters, Japanese were holed up in cliff caves beyond the trees

Only photo of Cletrack for moving aircraft. Liquor ration traded to sailors for cigars, chewed, not lit around planes. Coral glare made sun glasses essential. Bixby and Parks by 28^th Sqd Logo in front of engineering tent.

Bixby in Keough’s Jeep Cletrack aimed at Pati Point Parts supply Sgt served as barber.

Wind break behind plane was site of Jack system for weight and balance checks. Gen LeMay had 28^th Sqd paint bottoms black to not reflect search lights. V. Chandler (right) reported, “it seemed to help”, LeMay said, “paint em all”

M-13 was on an elevated hard stand Engine start bellowed smoke and noise.

It was once necessary to back loaded M-13’s 70,000 lb up the incline with Cletrack.

Welder made scooter, in constant use. Relative size Keough right pushing Prop through.

Jungle from end of runway to Pati Point

Looking down 600 ft Standing on Pati Point Looking to right

28th Sqd Ground Crews 1945

This table incomplete & still in work

Loc	Rank	Name	SSN	MOS	Duty	Remarks
FL	Capt	Charles R. Keough	0578167	4823	Eng Officer
FL				4823	Asst EO	Killed in test hop
FL	2nd Lt	Darrell W. Landau	0878039	4823	Asst EO
SC	1st Lt	Wilber E.Koltz	0432430	4823	Supply EO
FL	M/Sgt	Wilber O Hunt	5297842	750	Line Chief
FL	M/Sgt	John Supko	13027153	750	LC
FL	M/Sgt	Joseph E McDade	6999104	750	CC	flew over with Auer
FL	M/Sgt	Conrad Marvell	6258427		Inspector	In 19th BG since 41
FL	T/Sgt	John M Plavecski	6946451	750	Insp
FL		Richard H. Bixby	31191934	684	Blow by Crew	flew over with _____
FL	Cpl	Leo F Scott	32770578	685	Elec	Electrical Specialist
???	S/Sgt	Willard C Horvater	34264849
???	S/Sgt	Navey W Carpenter	14030632	555
M-1	T/Sgt	Harold J. Engel	17024133	750	Crew Chief
	Sgt	James L. Smith	16100958	747	AM
	Sgt	Kenneth M Allerton	33488238	502
	S/Sgt	Hugh B Simmons	35379792	747	AM
M-2	M/Sgt	Daniel Sidelko	6998072	750	CC
	S/Sgt	James J Natale	32491663	685
	Cpl	W G Albrecht	32708063
		H L Cutter	12162934
		____ McKinnes	36743958
		____ Mslanoski
M-3	T/Sgt	Loyd E Reed	39089642	750	CC
	S/Sgt	Samuel J Mazzarell	32569422	687
		Tom J Whorton		673
		Blouse		750
		Tomas U. Green		750
M-4	T/Sgt	Herbert K Newton	35132472	750	CC
	S/Sgt	John H. Simonson	16045081	685
	M/Sgt	Delmon E. Smith		750	CC
M-5	S/Sgt	Carrol D Morgan	17059077	684	CC
	Sgt	Alfred R Hupp	17064495	684
M-6	T/Sgt	Carroll R Johnson	11038821	750	CC
	Cpl	Vincent Hollister	33025138	686
	Cpl	Charles W Adams	15332239		M-6 Armorer	later M/Sgt
M-7	T/Sgt	Kenneth Pool	39090507	750	CC
	S/Sgt	Finan E Dickey	1405264	747
		John E Mazzochi		861		???????
		Michael J. Potocny		750	Crew Chief	???????
M-8	S/Sgt	William J Driscoll	31324388	750	CC
M-9	S/Sgt	Chester E Williams	18064065	750	Crew Chief
M-10	M/Sgt	Erwin H Voss	6286771	750	CC
	S/Sgt	Alden J Campbell	17127508	747	AM
	Sgt	Daniel F Kelly	33022448	685
M-11	M/Sgt	James McCall	14020737	750	CC
	Sgt	Evans A Thomson	39285949	747
	Sgt	M G Stewart	6375879	747
		Andress A Agee	3364871	747
M-12	T/Sgt	Randolph Corbitt	14034712	750	CC
M-13	T/Sgt	Richard A Barter	11016807	750	CC
	Cpl	Lloyd W Stroud Jr	34888728	747		post war M-13 CC
M-14	S/Sgt	George A Barnhart	20841302	684
M-15	S/Sgt	James Parks	33284825	750	CC	sn ??
M-16	Cpl	T J Grizziffie	16038409		CC
M-17						unknown
M-18						no known record of use
M-19						unknown
M-20	S/Sgt	Billy J Bates	15338276	750	CC

Available Ground Crew Photos

M2 Sidelco Crew Chief M-3 Reed Crew Chief

M-6 Johnson Crew Chief M-? Campbell Crew Chief

M-9 Pool Crew Chief M-10 Voss Crew Chief

M-10 Voss crew chief Baumgarten M-2 Parks crew chief

1965 19^th BG Reunion

M-13 Simmons Crew Chief School teacher Crabtree at right 1995

M/Sgt Sidelco logging a mission on M-2

Ordinance Bombs Armament Guns

Incendiary Bombs awaiting next flight Sidelco and ___ check flak damage to Chandler’s M-2

M-10 before hard stand had black top Sgt Cuttler check cowel flaps

Ack Ack Battery Sandbags Initially working conditions were very primitive. Ground crews had been flown over with the planes and the only maintenance equipment had been their hand tools plus essentials as engine and propeller hoists. However there were no fixtures for holding engines or maintenance stands to climb up on to be able to work on the engines. Sandbags from Ack Ack batteries, set up when Guam were being secured, were used as padded blocks on which to sit the engines. Boards from shipping crates were nailed together to create maintenance stands.

Manuel Labor

Engineering Tent, Weapons Carrier utility vehicle, Jeep near by

28^th Sqd Ground Crew Left set

28^th Sqd Ground Crew Middle set

28^th Sqd Ground Crew Right set

2/Lt D. Landau Maj C. Keough Maj G. Uhrich

M-10’s record: 48 Missions, 3 Jap Fighters 28^th Sqd Enlisted Mess Hall

Alert Crew

Six fellows lived in a tent near the Flight Line and were called the Alert Crew. They lived on the flight line in case planes came in late at night. M/Sgt Wilber O Hunt 5297842 was one of them. Hunt had found a Jap skull. He'd rigged a table in the center of the tent, covered it with a GI blanket, put a light bulb inside the skull and used it as a combination centerpiece and night light! Most of the fellows didn't care for his concept of living quarters decor, but it was out of sight to almost everyone, most didn't know it was there.

Home made Motor Scooter

The line chiefs had to do a lot of walking to traverse the spread out area. Transportation was solved by making scooters. The gas engine from fuel transfer pumps and rubber tired wheels from bomb dollies were ingeniously arranged to make two wheel scooters. The scooter shown below was in constant demand and considered one of the best of it’s kind. Our “welder” was not just a craftsman but also an innovator. The most ambitious was a 4 wheel job using a B-29 V-2 engine called the Put-Put that powered an electrical generator used to start the main engines. The term Put-Put was a carry over from earlier models that were one lungers that did "Put-Put". The V-2 ran with a high speed hum.

Welder and his home made scooter