Ground Crews



Ground Crews





The Ground Crew

At Dawn their silver wings had spread, In Chilling heights of blue, And now our hearts were so much lead, The flight was overdue.

The wind was still and the gathering night, Fell like a smothering cloak, As we sweated out the returning flight, And hardly a word was spoke.

We had clocked the time they would hit the shore, The enemy fighters and flak, Their radio flashed, "We did it once more, Now we're heading the long way back."

The grimy lines on the crew chief's face, Outlined by his cigarette glow, That only the sound of his ship could erase, For he knew its fuel was low.

The threatening clouds were towering high, And light was almost gone, We searched the gloom with aching eye, And strained to hear a drone.

Suddenly a sound-more like a sigh, Our ears strained all the more, Our throats were now so tight and dry, Could that be an engine's roar?

"It's them! They're back", went up the cry, "And look, there come the rest!" Tired, weary birds from out of the sky, Coming home to nest.

Wheels down and checked-flaps full down, They're on the final run, A screech of tires as wheels touch the ground, Another mission's done!.

Author Le Triplett Written while stationed on Tinian at the age of 19.




Author Unknow describes the debt we owe our ground people.

Our Ground Crew

Here's to the men with greasy hands
Who fuel our planes when we come in to land
Who fix the flak damage and stop the leaks
Tend to the controls and make them fly straight
Wait for the planes when the pilots are late
Who smooth the scratches, rivet the panels
Check "Loud and clear" on the radio channels
Who read off the write-ups and make the repairs
Check the lines and wires for chafing and tears
Who pull the chocks and check the wings
And do a million other things
That make an aircraft safe and ready to fly
So here's a salute to those hard-working guys
From a group of flyers who too seldom ponder
About the men who keep us up
In the wild blue yonder





Maintaining The Lucky Lady
Albert Brown Crew Chief/Lucky Lady

My assignment in the 398th Bomb Squadron was as crew chief on the great B-29 airplane, THE LUCKY LADY. The LADY wore a number 12 and a most beautiful young lady painted on her nose.

"THE LUCKY LADY was not as perfect as indicated in the book, Flight of the LUCKY LADY, written by Don Midlam of the 504th Bomb Group in 1954, but close coordination between the flight and ground crews had earned this airplane quite a success story. As crew chief, I am proud to have had a part of that story."

The LADY's first aborted flight occurred after take-off on the 24th mission. A mechanical failure caused by a sheared governor shaft in number one engine forced the flight crew to return to Tinian.

The next eighteen missions were flown without an abort. This success rate is phenomenal and was possibily the finest in the 504th Bomb Group and maybe in the entire 20th Air Force. I never heard of a better flight record for B-29 aircraft.

This performance was not obtained without a lot of hard work and loss of sleep by the ground crew. I'd like to share the credit with all the ground crew people who made it happen. Those names that I rememeber after all these years as mechanics on the ground crew were Paul Dill, Leland Lindholm, Jacob Strauss, and Earl Brown.

An example of our crew's performance was the rapid engine change performed immediately after a completed mission in late May 1945. We started removing the defective engine at 5 pm after the plane landed. At 8 am the next morning the new engine was in place and the plane was test flown and made ready for the night's mission to be flown as scheduled. This quick engine change set a record for removing and replacing the trouble prone R3350 Curtiss-Wright engine.

Another example of our ground crew's success happened when a main landing gear assembly had to be changed after a hard landing. This entailed a major amount of work. There was no previous expertise on this task available in our area. I asked for special team assistance from our other 504th Group people The defective landing gear was replaced in the next 48 hours and the LADY was ready. The test flight was successful and the next mission flown as scheduled.

Inspection and maintenance was a continuous effort when the airplane was on the ground. The five fire bomb "Blitz" missions during March 1945 didn't leave the LADY on the ground very much.

The combat crew first commanded by Capt David Cole and later by Lt. Robert Binney were the best. They were always ready to take THE LUCKY LADY on her missions as scheduled. I never heard the flyers complain about maintenance on their airplane. Lt Binney's question on arrival at the airplane was always the same. "Sgt. Brown, is it ready?" I always answered , "It is!"

Our war mission was to bomb Japan. We wanted our airplane to be in the finest condition to complete every mission scheduled with no aborts. Tinian was a fine island for a bomer base but not the best place to preform a long duty tour. This thought may have helped motivate our desire to do the best job possible.





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