Warbird Information Exchange

A friend of mine at work who's in his early sixties came across this picture the other day, one of the few that he has. His dad passed away a few years ago, and unfortunaely he didn't ever talk to him about his wartime service. He believes his father served between '42-46 stateside near La Junta Colorado and New Mexico.

His dad is the second from the top right: Raymond C. O'Connor
Name on the guy on the top left would appear to be J.H. Jones, ENG Officer. Any help would be appreciated. Looks like a B-29 to me?



PS. drawing near the paint differential scheme would appear to be two rows of hills with a horse-drawn Wagon of the 1850's vintage.

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Roger Cain
www.sfahistory.org
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Stearman/


We must limit politicians to two terms:
one in office and one in jail.

Yep, looks like a B-29 to me also.

Cheers!

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Dean Hemphill, K5DH
Port Charlotte, Florida

Looks like a B-29 to me too.

Cheers,

David

yup,a 29 Looks to be around the time of korea.The lower front turret is visable as well.Looks to be p-59 or 84s in background.

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Hang The Expense

That photo was likely taken in late '45 or early '46. The Second Air Force B-29 trainers at this time were a combination of NMF and black-bellies. The tail in the background is a P-63. These were used at 2AF crew training stations as "bad guys" for CFC gunnery instruction. There is a possibility that it is a Pinball, we'd have to confirm the serial number to determine if it was.

Thanks for sharing the photo, Roger!
Scott

Really? It was my understanding that the B-29s adopted the black underbellies during Korea due to their shiney under bellies standing out in nighttime bombing.

Please correct me if this not right.

Shay
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Semper Fortis

Definitely a B-29 Roger.

Shay, they had black belly B-29's in WWII. Here is a shot of a 498th aircraft on Guam although the 498th mosly flew out of Saipan. The photo was found on Airliners and belongs to Edward Gronenthal.

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What's the tail visible in the left background??

Thanks everyone for the replies, and Scott for some detailed info, the family will really be happy to get this.

As a side note to this, when we removed the picture from the frame, there was another picture of a gal hidden behind it. My friend says that the picture is NOT his mom, but was probably taken before they were together............Roger

_________________
Roger Cain
www.sfahistory.org
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Stearman/


We must limit politicians to two terms:
one in office and one in jail.

Roger,

The photo you posted could easily have been taken at Clovis AAF, New Mexico. The hangar behind the P-63 tail is of the correct type for Clovis, but is a common design at most bomber fields.

B-29flteng, it's a P-63.

Shay, I had a B-29 crewman tell me that when they painted the black belly on his airplane (315th Wing) on Guam they immediately lost some 6-8 knots calibrated air speed due to the paint. They flew some extremely long range missions and the flight engineer was really sweating out the fuel burn during the first mission after camouflage. A few new build airplanes were delivered to the AAF with black bellies, but I don't know if they had the paint done at the factory or modification stations.

Scott

Thank you again Scott, I spoke to my guy at work on Friday, and told him about the previous postings about this plane, and he was thrilled. A "possible" location makes it all that much better.....

_________________
Roger Cain
www.sfahistory.org
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Stearman/


We must limit politicians to two terms:
one in office and one in jail.

My dad was a B-29B pilot with the 315th (I believe) on Northwest Field, Guam flying his plane 'Noah Bortions'. We have a picture of the plane on Guam with the black underbelly in 1945. I remember many stories - he said with each mission they painted a baby as a mission marker on the plane.

Just 3 months ago, I was on Guam for biz and the Anderson AFB hospital commander arranged a tour for me of the overgrown Northwest Field. It was incredibly meaningful to see the rock wall and foundation where the 315th hq was, and walk the runways and hardstands where dad once flew.

snj5

I have several photos of Noah Bortions in my stack of stuff. As soon as we get power and internet service restored at home I'LL PM you with more information. If you haven't already done so, you can join Larry Miller's excellent 315th Wing Yahoo group. His website is 315bw.org.

Scott

Many, many thanks.
I'll look forward to the pm and go over to 315bw now.

Here is a picture of snj5's father's B-29B taken on Guam either just before or just after the end of WWII.

She was indeed 315th Bombardment Wing (VH), and was assigned to the 502nd Bombardment Group (VH). I think she was assigned to the 402nd Squadron, but I don't yet know her serial number.

Scott