Preface
When made Membership Chairman and Historian for the 19th Bomb Group in 1992 I became aware of the 19th BG Far Pacific activities in B-17s to Philippines in 1941. As the war progressed some were left behind becoming POW’s or AGOM while others fell back to Java and Australia before being returned to the US to train in B-29s for return as a rebuilt 19th BG to Guam. This includes available reunion information prior to my active participation.
1956 AGOM (American Guerillas Of Mindanao) About
1/3 of AGOM were ex 19th BG personnel, among them are: 93rd
Sqd Bill Williams 3rd row 4th right; 14th Sqd
Loyd Waters 3rd row far right and 30th Sqd Mitsos 1st
row far right
Williams 1942 Williams 1994
Wheless B-17 crew took off from Clark, bombed shipping, were shot up and made it to Mindanao and crash land. Two of crew were killed, Bill Williams Flt Eng was badly wounded & left in hospital on Mindanao. Bill joined AGOM and was taken out by Sub to hospital in Australia Wheless was sent to states to sell war bonds and make movies, became 2nd in Command 314th Wing over 19th BG North Field Guam.
1960 AGOM officers: Bill Johnson PT boat radio man top left; 14th Sqd Ben
Farens front center
1966 First known 19th BG reunion
Denver Leonard Merchant front left B/Gen E. Eubank front 7th right,
L/Col C. Caswell front far right.
1980 19th
Reunion Riverside CA Hdq Sqd Leonard
Merchant 5th right
Left
1981 AGOM: Sam Wilson was Manila business man, who provided money and
assistance, his camera was used to take photos on Mindanao. Samples and Merchant were from 19th
BG
Right
1981 AGOM: McGuire a Medic lived at
“Mac Michaols camp” supplied food for “Dishers Camp”, Tuggles, Johnson & Mitos were at Dishers camp; Elliott
escaped POW camp on Palewan, a year later made it to Mindanao, by sail
boat. Mitos, Merchant, Waters &
Samples were from 19th BG.
Tuggles & Johnson were from PT boat crews that brought MacArthur
from Corregidor. 14th Sqd
Waters was at lumber camp putting crated P-40 together when others
surrendered. Three AGOM are known to
have married Filipinos.
Ben & Juanita
Farrens Esparanza & John
Tuggles, Rose & William McGuire
in OK
Each a successful marriage,
raising & sending kids through college in US; Rose father was US WWI vet.
1981 March Field: Pete Shook & Durwood Fesmire John Turner W. Montgomery
1981 March Field: 180 attended the 19th
reunion organized by Leonard Merchant
William H. Montgomery, B-17 pilot at Clark Field was assigned to Bataan, expected “Aid” did not arrive and Montgomery became a POW. He was left partially deaf & blind and partly paralyzed from malnutrition suffered during 34 months of captivity in Japanese prison camps. 70,000 Americans and Filipinos POWs were forced to walk 63 miles to the camps, some 12,000 soldiers died from starvation and mistreatment on the march. A young, healthy man could have taken the grueling treatment, but they’d been fighting for four months on a daily diet of six ounces of rice, one-tenth of a can of milk and one-tenth of a can of salmon. At Camp O'Donnell 50 Americans a day died from starvation and mistreatment. Montgomery was held at Camp Cabanatuan, Mindanao, Davao Penal Colony and Bilibid Prison till liberated in February 1945.”
1991 Video clip: Vern Chandler Chairman Mrs & Mr Van Parker
1991 Col Chandler Chairman introducing Gen John Daugherty and Gen Eugene Eubank
1991 video clip: Mrs John Daugherty Mrs Van Parker
Jan 1942 Daugherty piloted an LB-30, British released version of B-24 without superchargers, via Pacific to Java, the day after arrival they flew a mission and did not return. Shot up they landed on Borneo, though rescued they flew a crew back to salvage engines – unsuccessfully as the Japanese were advancing on the field – the LB-30 used R-1830 engines and there were no spares.
1992 50th
Anniversary of B-29 sponsored by Boeing Seattle; Darrell Landau & Floyd
Maupin AC M-11, this conversation started this 19th BG History.
I have photos taken at the Seattle reunion but cannot
find them.
I have no photos of 1993 19BG reunion in Albuquerque NM
1994 AGOM reunion San Diego 13 of these were in 19th BG
This
was my first meeting with the AGOM.
Bruce Elliot arranged for the meeting and Leonard Merchant invited me to
attend. I took other photos but have
not yet found them.
Mr & Mrs Eubank, at the Generals 100th
BD in 1994 Photo by Vern Chandler
Carol and Marian Lawless
Darrell Landau at 1994 Reunion in Wichita KS
Left 1995
Dayton OH June Ley and Mary Landau at sign in desk handing out name tags
and tickets for pending events.
Right Monty Montgomery, ______,
and Eileen Kiracofe taking their turn at the desk.
Monty
Montgomery was with 5th Air Base unit of 7th BG sent to
build Del Monte Field Mindanao, spent the war as POW. When he died, about 3 yrs after this photo, I received a call
from his daughter, needing proof he was a veteran. I called Al Young 28th
Sqd Bombardier ex POW who made phone calls that cleared and set up arrangements.
Left Al and Maxine Young (not at the reunion)
Center Darrell Landau and Wendell Crabtree
refreshing memories as Wendell looks at photos of 28th Sqd Flight
Line where he was part of the M-5 ground crew. Their hardstand was near the
windbreak. Wendell became a teacher and school administrator.
Right Wendell
& Ruth Crabtree and Darrell. Ruth
said, “I really didn’t want to be called a Crabtree, now I have 5 little
Crabtrees.”
Dan
Sidelco, Wendell Crabtree, Conrad Marvel, and Darrell Landau were the only ones
present from the 1945 28th Sqd Ground Crew on Guam.
Fred and Mrs Bigelow.
Fred was
Bombardier on C Wells crew, and later 28th Sqd Bombardier. Fred is one of the few 19th BG members who
received the Soldiers Medal. This was for saving the lives of persons from the
19th BG who got caught in bad tides when swimming on Guam. Fred got his practice by swimming in Gulf of
Mexico after bailing out when a B-29 engine caught fire and fell off. His story
is included in the 19th BG Saga.
Richard
Marlowe Tail Gunner 28th Sqd also received the Soldiers Medal for
helping others survive, after their B-29 crashed about 60 miles off the coast
of Japan, until picked up by submarine.
Left 1995 Dayton OH, J. Cox, Katy & Vern
Chandler’s with B-52 AC between
Right Capt ______ of the B-52 flight crew;
1995 Vern Chandler speaks at Dayton dedication of
19th Marker
1995 Air Force Band at Dayton Ohio
1995 28th Sqd
1995 19th Assoc
board: J. Hall, R. Wolletz, B. Ley, H. Johnson, G. Savage V. Chandler, R.
Fagan, T. McQuilkin, D. Landau, E. Beck
Minuteman I on left and Minuteman III on
right brought back memories, still deployed
For Minuteman I I was lead engineer for the hydraulic
pumps and servo actuators used to tilt rocket nozzles to achieve attitude
control. For Minuteman II I was lead
engineer for the secondary injection system used to control missile attitude by
injecting Freon 113 into the side of the main fixed thrust nozzle. For Minuteman III I was supervisor of System
Requirements and Integration of the PBPS (Post Boost Propulsion System) -- the
back half of the upper white section. This contained 13 bipropellant rocket
engines plus propellant used to deploy three H-Bombs. The upper white section
is the Inertial Guidance system – both sections along with booster controls
were provided by Autonetics Division of Rockwell – formerly North American
Aviation. This was a secret program at the time -- this system was the basis
for the SALT agreements with Russia.
The PBPS included a large gimbaled engine was gimbaled
to provide axial acceleration, and smaller attitude control engines for
pitch-de-pitch to place each warhead in re-entry alignment – all under computer
control.
These designs started in 1956, 1961 and 1965, were
followed by MX about 1972. These programs were on the cutting edge of
technology. Minuteman I was the first to use a digital computer, made of
discrete semiconductor parts. By Minuteman III the electronics had transitioned
to integrated circuits – the foundation for what became the microprocessor.
Minuteman III was also the first to use the new storable liquid bi-propellant
engines for attitude control.
In anticipation of a pending MX I developed special
digital electronics capable of performing high speed arithmetic while withstanding
nuclear effects. The concept was later used on the MX, replacing traditional
analog electronics.
P-51
This
P-51 was the latest model; equipped with paddle blade props, a bubble canopy, a
laminar flow wing, and a Rolls Royce engine with built in supercharger. These
"Little Brothers" flew out of Iwo with a B-29 Mother Hen
Navigator. Lee Atwood, then Chief
Engineer for North American Aviation wrote of the British were wanting them to
build P-40's but Atwood, using British Research, convinced them to do what
became the P-51. The secret of its success is not generally known. Under the
cockpit is a scoop that picks up cooling air for the coolant radiators. The air
is heated, then expanded as if a rocket engine, to convert heat to thrust.
Meshershmit told a North American Engineer they had probably run more wind
tunnel tests than we did trying to figure how we achieved the extra speed and
range. When you consider the energy in the fuel splits three ways; 1/3 to the
crankshaft, 1/3 out the exhaust and 1/3 to the coolant – converting energy to
thrust becomes significant.
The B-29
“Bockscar” presumably the one flown by Sweeny carrying the second A-Bomb.
The Republic F-84F
The Korean War began abruptly and to save time going
through congress for a new airplane the AF created a new plane by changing the
last letter from E to F. The fuselage was increased by 11 inches in diameter to
accommodate the British Safire engine. A swept wing was added and the
horizontal stabilizer was converted to work as a control surface – using a then
new electronically controlled North American Servo Actuator. General Motors was
using the government owned old North
American B-25 plant in KC to build Buick-Olds-Pontiacs -- their contract read
the in the event of a national emergency they were to build airplanes. I left
my job as a civil engineer building highways in KS, to go to work for GM as a
Process Engineer on the F-84F. We were ordered to make the tooling capable of
producing up to 600 a month in the event the Russians came into the War. I went from Jr Engr to Sr Engr to supervisor
as I adapted to this new field. n
When that program ended I moved to CA where I work on
the Navaho missile series which provided the technologies used for the B-70’s
high temperature high pressure (4000 psi) electronically controlled flight
controls at North American Aviation at Downey CA. The only remaining B-70 is
now at the AF Museum at Dayton. It’s forerunner, the X-10 missile, used to
develop the Inertial Guidance system, used for the Navy’s missile submarines
and the AF Minuteman, is now on display at the Smithsonian.
B-36 Bomber.
George Savage, Bob Ley, Jim Hall
and perhaps others at the reunion were part of B-36 operations -- as was our
Guam ’45 19th BG CO, Col Roberts who became a "B-36" Brig General
before retiring. The B-70 was to have replaced the B-36, however ICBM missiles
such as the Minuteman and swept wing bombers such as the B-52 replaced them
both.
R Michaud from VT and D Landau from CA, 19th BG history buffs meet for the
first time, Robert provided excellent history information on the 19th
move from Great Bend KS to North Field Guam.
Boeing B-52 a
1960’s product
Tire reveals peace time austerity Douglas KC-10 Tanker, a 1990’s product
I was on loan to Douglas on the
C-17 when they were producing these tankers
Left You see a lot of George Savage – in the wide
group photo, George shows up at both ends!
After doing a history of his B-36 outfit he became a chief advisor for
my 19th BG effort.
Right The photos for this 1997 reunion were done
with this early model scanner shown. If
I could find the photos I could rescan them with a good scanner.
The AF Band playing Glenn Miller music Aug 12 1995
at Wright-Patterson Field Ohio
Nostalgia reined amid smiles and laughter