Jack Cook

Jack Cook
Radar Operator/Capt.Hale Crew




THE BIG KILL

Bob Casseday/Hale Crew/RH Blister Gunner

A short time after we moved into our Quonset hut, we discovered that we had nightly unwanted visitors. These intruders stole our goodies such as candy bars and edibles sent from home. We found that the culprits were "KING SIZE RATS".

One evening, about nine o'clock, while we were lying in our cots reading, talking or maybe writing letters home, a loud blast of a shot rang out. Everyone, awake or asleep, hit the floor as one man! There was complete silence. No one moved. We finally got our nerve up to look around to see what had happened. There was Cook lying in his cot with a smoking 45 caliber gun in his hand, then we saw his big kill, a dead rat, lying on the floor. He'd hit it dead center.

His sudden shot scared the hell out of us flak happy airmen. After this incident, we were issued rat traps which proved to be very successful. the rats were eradicated in short order.

I don't think that Cook had his trophy mounted.



THE JACK COOK STORY

Bob Casseday/Hale Crew/RH Blister Gunner

I met Jack Cook while in gunnery school at Harlingen, Texas in March 1944. After finishing school, we were posted to Clovis, New Mexico for advanced gunnery training. From Clovis, we went to Fairmont, Nebraska for combat crew training. We were assigned to Capt. Sid Hales's crew. Jack became the crew's radar operator.

While at Fairmont, we did what all crews did. We studied aircraft recognitin, practiced gunnery while flying B-17's because there was a shortage of B-29's, and went to the big city of Omaha for R and R.

We arrived on Tinian on December 31, 1944 and did what all new arrivals did. We flew missions, guarded our airplane, explored the island, and experienced Japanese air raids.

During our early training missions, Jack sharpened his skill as a radar operator. His expertise was needed on overcast and night missions. He coordinated with the navigator, who also had a radar scope, in identifying the target and placing our bombs and mines exactly as directed.

Jack, as a crewman, was no different than any other good crewman. On one rather bad mission, when the going was rough, we heard the krump, krump, krump of enemy flak going off near our plane. We thought to ourselves that one of these bursts would hit us. This is it! I could tell that Jack was apprehensive of not living a long and fruitful life. He had used flak curtains to build a protective tepee around his radar station. I would have gotten in there with him, but I couldn't leave my gunsight station.

Jack was a polite person. Flying at 5,000 feet altitude during a incendiary bombing mission, the fire storm was so fierce that our plane was out of control and was almost upside down. We made our way to the escape exit,opened the door, and prepared to jump. Looking at all the fire below, Jack said to me, "After you, Cass". That shows how polite he was. Major Hale regained control of the airplane and we didn't have to bail out. I'm not sure we would have survived if we had jumped.

Jack was a laid back, easy going sort of fellow. He never became excited or easily angered. During our Tinian tenure, we flew missions, rested, flew missions, played cards, flew missions, wrote letters, flew missions, explored the island, flew missions, and went swimming. We performed a lot of sack time. Jack was good at that. He could sleep until 10 or 11 o'clock every day.

Jack flew thirty five missions with our crew for a total of 493 hours of combat air time in our B-29. He won the following awards:

DISTINGUISHED FLYING CROSS
AIR MEDAL WITH THREE OAK LEAF CLUSTERS
TWO PRESIDENTIAL UNIT CITATIONS
ASIATIC-PACIFIC RIBBON WITH FIVE STARS
IWO JIMA
WESTERN PACIFIC
AIR OFFENSIVE-JAPAN
EASTERN MANDATED ISLANDS
CHINA OFFENSIVE

After the war, Jack graduated from the University of Wyoming with a law degree. He became a successful lawyer. He married his college sweetheart and raised five fine sons.

The Rest of his story:

HE NEVER GRADUATED FROM HIGH SCHOOL
HE SERVED TWO YEARS AND THREE MONTHS IN THE ARMY AIR FORCE
HE WAS EIGHTEEN YEARS OF AGE WHEN HE WAS HONORABLY DISCHARGED
HE PASSED AWAY ON THANKSGIVING DAY 1994 AT AGE 68





Wife
Miss SuSu
Nose Art
Home Page
Demise of Miss SuSu
Ground Crew
Casseday
Taps
Stories
POW





Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

1