W45AUTH\DA93G-TH.DOC

Talmage Heath’s crew by M-__, 42-93996 “City of College Park

Top row LtoR: Capt Talmage Heath, AC; Lt Charles Mienke, Pilot; Lt George Walker, Nav; Lt Paul Klenk, Bombardier; M/Sgt Donald Hutchinson, Flt Engr.

Bottom row LtoR: Sgt Andrew Doty, Tail Gunner; Sgt Abe Veroba, CFC; Sgt Kenneth Cox, Radio; Sgt Jim Dudley, Rt Gunner; Sgt Rea Schuessler Lt Gunner.

Lt George Walker, Nav; and M/Sgt Donald Hutchinson, Flt Engr; were lost June 7, 1945

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Dear Darrell: June 6, 1994

Jim Handwerker has written about your efforts to put together some stories from the 93rd Squadron of the 19th BG on Guam. Thanks so much for doing this. It must be a big job, and it is good of you to take it on.

I am attaching a piece that I wrote about my involvement in the war. I hope that it fits into what you have in mind. If not, please let me know.

Also attached is a copy of a photo I have of our crew. If and when you need the original, I will be glad to send it to you. As you can imagine, it is my one photo, and I'm being careful with it. I plan to use it in a book of memoirs I'm putting together.

You may remember that I wrote you sometime ago in my attempt to get a list of the missions that Captain Talmadge Heath's crew flew from March to September of 1945. You kindly sent back a list of all the missions of the group, which was helpful, but I still am hoping to get an exact record so that I can be precise. Now that I've found out the number of our bomber, 42-93996, I think I have a better chance of tracking that down.

Thanks again for all your help, and best of luck with your project.

Andy

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Andy Doty’s Story

As a boy growing up in Hudson Falls, N.Y. during the Great Depression, I was fascinated by model airplanes and aircraft in general. It therefore was logical for me to join the Air Corps when I turned eighteen in October of 1943, thinking, of course, that I would become a pilot.

That was not to be. After my induction at Ft.Dix, N.J. and basic training at Greensboro, N. C., I was sent to gunnery school at Harlingen, Tex. With the war in Europe winding down, very few men were being accepted for flight training.

After gunnery school, I was assigned to the B-29 program at Fairmont, Neb., where I was awestruck by my first sight of a Superfortress. Our bomber crew was headed by Captain Talmadge Heath, a big, red-headed Alabaman. I became the tail gunner, a job I preferred over the B-24 ball turret in which I had been trained. After stints at Clovis, N.M. and Pyote, Tex., our crew departed for Guam on March 15, 1945.

Our first mission was a high-altitude attack on the Mitsubishi Aircraft plant at Nagoya. That was followed by a low-level incendiary raid on the Arsenal area of Tokyo. I will never forget the flak and phosphorous bombs among our formation on the first mission, nor the searchlights that fastened on us over the Tokyo inferno. Nineteen other missions followed against Kamikaze bases on Kyushu, and other military targets in the homeland. Our B-29 was 'The City of College Park, " Number 42-93996.

Returning from our fifteenth mission on June 7, we were jumped one hundred miles off the coast by a Japanese Irving that popped up from the dense cloud cover. Fortunately, I had seen him, and was able to hit his right engine as closed in, sending fragments flying. He broke off his attack and banked down into the clouds, a long plume of black smoke trailing behind.

That attack was never reported, for we ran into strong headwinds on the way home and had to abandon our plane forty-five miles from Guam. Eight of us survived and were picked up the next morning after our parachute jumps, but Lt. George Walker, our navigator; M. Sgt. Donald Hutchison, our flight engineer; and a substitute radar man, Lt. Richard O'Brien, were lost.

We also took part in "show of force" flights over Tokyo Bay as Japan surrendered on September 2, and along the parallel separating North and South Korea. We left Guam on Thanksgiving Day, and I was discharged in December of 1945.

As a latecomer into the war and into the B-29 program, I realize how fortunate we were. Those who served earlier, in the Marianas, China and India -- not to mention those who took part in the horrendous early missions over Europe -- had far more difficult times. Even so, we lost three men, and could easily have been shot down or rammed, or could have crashed on take off or landing. We did our part, and I remain proud of that to this day.

After the war, I attended St. Lawrence University in upstate New York under the GI Bill. After graduating in 1950, I married my high school sweetheart, Eleanor Baker. I went to work as a newspaper reporter, then entered the college public relations field at Johns Hopkins University. I served as an engineering and science reporter at the University of Michigan for nine years before joining the Stanford University staff in 1963. I retired from Stanford in 1993 as Director Emeritus of Community Relations.

Eleanor and I have three fine daughters -- Susan, Ann and Nancy -- and two wonderful grandchildren as of this writing.

I have set down my memoirs for our children and grandchilden, and am still searching for a list of the missions we flew in 1945. Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka stand out today; if anyone reading this knows where I can find out exactly where we went, and when, I would be most grateful.

Andrew M. Doty

Andy completed his book, which is highly recommended. It’s titled:

Backwards into Battle -- A Tail Gunners Journey in WW II

For a copy of his book write:

Tall Tree Press of Palo Alto

4072 Scripps Ave.

Polo Alto, CA 94306, (415)494-3897