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A Real Feel Good Story
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Earlier this month the
web master received a great E-mail
generated from our web site. A wonderful gentleman named Jerry
Harvey wrote to ask if we would preserve a bit of Weather
Reconnaissance history. His son had helped a friend
clean out a garage. They came across an old photo album.
The friend
looked at it, and said that there was no direct family left, and that
he
would just toss the album. The son took the album to Jerry,
who looked through it. In addition to personal pictures, there
were several pages of photos of Air Force maintenance folks working on
B-29s. Perfectly preserved in the album was a copy of a program
from the 1949 Christmas Dinner held by the 373rd Reconnaissance
Squadron (VLR) Weather at Kindley AFB, Bermuda. On page two is
the menu, while pages 3 through 6 list the entire squadron by grade, Lt
Col through Private. To view the entire program as a PDF file,
click on the cover above or follow this LINK.
Obviously, AWRA agreed to accept and preserve the album. AWRA appreciates Jerry Harvey for taking the time to track us down and sending us the album at his own expense. It would have been so easy to just let these items be lost forever. Thank You! |
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| Unfortunately,
the people in the photos are not identified. Several show
enlisted men sitting or standing in front of the 373rd Day Room sign
and the Orderly Room sign. At right is a group from the Engine
Shop - an indispensable part of any B-29 unit. |
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| One
series of pictures appear to be all taken the same day. They
depict three WB-29 aircraft on a ramp. One of the aircraft has
engine stands under and around both No. 1 and No. 2
Engines. The photographer shot close-ups of the artwork
displayed on all three aircraft. Tail number 44-86379 was named
BIG SCHMOO. If you look closely at the nose gear door, you can
just make out the number 379. |
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| At
left is WB-29 Tail Number 44-70134, named THE DESERT ROSE. At
right is Tail Number 44-61872 with the nickname SCREEM'N MEEMI.
If you look in Meemi's right hand you see what he's screaming at, a set
of TDY orders. The long view of the three aircraft shows
them lined up together, possibly at a deployed location supporting
atmospheric sampling missions. The air sampling foils are visible
under the aft fuselage of all three aircraft. By the way,
Screem'n Meemi was the aircraft with the bad motors that day. |
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