V1945G14PLM.DOC
Origin of the 19th BG PLM
Post
War 28th Sqd Staff
Only
Pultz, Pulos, Ivers Heines and Landau remained of the war time 28th
About
1 ½ months after the Japanese surrender, the maintaining a blanket of B-29s
over head till occupation personnel arrived, the dropping of POW supplies and
flying supplies to storm stricken
Okinawa; “essential flying” tapered off and the point system selection began
the return of people to the states. In
short order the “old timers” were gone and 28th Sqd had a new set of
faces shown above. Only five of the
“war time” 28th Sqd remained for this photo. Perhaps 1/3 of the original flight line
ground crew remained when this photo was taken. Operations almost shut down when they left, we had some 10
airplanes, twice as many flight crews with only the Sqd Clerk and I left to
change a prop. When I appealed for help
someone sent fellows who had just finished basic Infantry training in the
Philippines – I sent them back, you can’t do six months training in 6 hours.
I
was in the flight line engineering tent and took a call on the field phone
mounted on the right side of the desk, it was Capt Lomax our new CO whom I knew
by sight only. Lomax said meet me at
314 Wing Headquarters for a meeting pertaining to aircraft maintenance. He added drive your own jeep, I don’t know
how long this will take.
Lomax
and I arrived at about the same time, I parked next to him and we walked in
together. We entered a conference room
with a long table with chairs and three rows of sloped bleacher chairs
overlooking the conference table. There
were some six officers sitting in the front bleacher chairs overlooking the
table. A Col in charge motioned us to take
a seat at the near end of the conference table, we were the only ones at the
table. I took a quick glance at the
officers on our left in the bleacher seats. All wore Col or L/Col rank I saw
none I recognized, most were wearing command pilot wings, these were
experienced flight crew, not ground maintenance people. I wondered what the hell this was about, why
was I there.
The lead Colonel
explained they intended to establish a PLM, Production Line Maintenance system,
for B-29's rather than continue the prior practice of Squadron maintenance.
Personnel were to be drawn from the squadrons and most of the maintenance was
to be performed at the PLM level. Only minor servicing was to be done at the
squadron level. He asked for our
questions or comments. Lomax turned to
me and asked what do you think?
I
said the PLM method had been used quite successfully in the states for routine
inspections on planes that could be fed through a hanger with incremental stops
at specialized fixed stations, but I think it’s a lousy idea for B-29’s. I knew
this is not what they wanted to hear or expected to hear, but they asked, so I
told them what I thought. I said I had
worked at PLM facilities in the states, was in charge of one for twin engine
trainer planes in Pecos TX and was briefly assigned to a B-26 PLM in Dodge City
KS. I said production line method for
engine repair were excellent, that was like a manufacturing process. I said PLM’s worked well for flight training
aircraft in the states, for periodic inspection and servicing, planes could be
fed through a hanger at a somewhat fixed rate. I continued, B-29s are much more
complicated with more systems to check, they would not be ready to advance in
unison down a production line, the line would have special equipment at each
station and the line would have to wait for the slowest or have work finished
later. In a combat theater you could be
dealing mission inflicted unknown damage.
It takes time to check out a fluxgate compass system, to know it the
probem is the transmitter, which receivers or the ships wiring, it’s not just a
remove and replace operation. Engines
wear out, there is no simple test to knowing if a give engine needs changing,
plane engines are the biggest unknown and most time consuming, maintenance time
per plane is a huge variable.
I
knew as I spoke this was not what they wanted to hear, I sensed they had been
given orders to implement a PLM system – they were being polite and letting me
vent. After a brief pause I
continued. .
If
someone is going to insist, there is a way it might work, You don’t move airplanes you move
people. Specialist with their equipment
can move from plane to plane and a given plane remain in place until needed
maintenance is completed. Periodic
inspection and maintenance work fine for mature non combat aircraft. The B-29 was rushed into service and is
being constantly upgraded with modification kits. There have been more modifications to the engines than to the
airplane. There are four engines and
one two or none could require changing.
A B-26 engine is rated for some 2000 hours, these B-29 engines are rated
for 450 and we’ve never had one last that long, they do well to last 100. A PLM ground crew would work “office
hours”. A combat ground crews work
through the night to get “their” plane ready, it’s a personal attachment, they
work till the jobs done. You need open
space, the only place presently available is the 19th BG service
apron across from the Service Center. Right now there is a more basic problem,
you can’t do maintenance of any kind without qualified mechanics, at present 28th
Sqd is down to the clerk and I, the last trained mechanics shipped home last
week.
I
had rapidly and rather brashly expounded these thoughts and realizing I'd
probably said too much considering my age and rank, I abruptly stopped.
The Colonel leaned
forward, looking at the others and said with a trace of a smile, "Did everyone get all that?" I
felt like two cents and said nothing more.
I’d been talking a subject I knew, I was tired and frustrated from
causing tired mechanics to fix planes so a flight crew could joy ride and
collect flight pay, none of them knew of my inner frustrations. After a pause Lomax turned to me and said I
could go on back and he'd get in touch with me.
As
I left I figured that's the last I'd hear of it, they wanted someone who would
say yes sir rather than some kid telling them to do something different. I felt
relieved they would find someone else.
About
an hour Lomax called me at the flight line, "They talked it over after you
left and decided to put you in charge of setting it up. They want it set up on
the 19th Bomb Group service apron. You'll be assigned some 170 mechanics as PLM
personnel. Let me know if you need
anything." That's when I said "Yes Sir" and hung up. I felt mixed emotions, it would be an
interesting challenge, but the war was over and I wanted to go home and finish
school.
Unknown to me, it had been decided
to close Saipan and Tinian and North West Field, that the 19th and 29th Bomb
Groups area on our half of the field would continue in operation, but only the
19th BG would remain operational.
Those at wing headquarters were far more aware than I thought, they knew
only a limited number of trained ground crew were left. The choice of going to
PLM operations was a text book answer to their problem.
I
looked the 19 BG apron and facilities over then prepared a plan and concept on
how to set it up. I figured I'd need two Quonset huts in addition to what was
there, one for office and one for parts and equipment.. I called Base
Engineering telling I needed the two Quonset huts right away, that if they
needed further authorization to call Capt Lomax. The Quonsets were up and ready
within a weeks.
Within
a few days the 170 experienced mechanics reported for duty as if materialized
out of nowhere, I didn't know any of them, they were among the last experienced
B-29 mechanics in the Marianas.
After a quick briefing to explain what this was all about, then asked if any had grown up on a farm and had experience building anything like a maintenance shed? Others pointed to one of their friends, with reservations he said he had. I said OK we will start by you building us three sheds that look something like this, handing him a crude sketch I’d made – Base Engineering had left lumber I’d requested. I assigned others to find and paint bomb barrels and painted words like "Clean Rags", "Waste", etc. and cut one in half and mount it as a place to clean parts.
Production Line Maintenance (PLM) 19th Bomb Group
While
the sheds were built and barrels painted, others uncrated and erected
maintenance stands, 12 for three airplanes. We also painted signs on the new
Quonset huts indicating this was the location of Production Line Maintenance.
From
experience as an enlisted man I knew it was important to people in charge to
have something they can drive by that shows progress, to know their orders were
being implemented. It was important to
make it look like an on going operation even if we didn’t do any work on the
airplanes right away. The military
taught me how to play that game and we were ready.
I
never saw the inspection party, Lomax told me they'd come by and were favorably
impressed. The PLM crew and I knew what we had was quite superficial. But with
aircraft in place, each engine housed in a maintenance stand and people about –
it did look organized and a bit impressive. After things looked operational
they left us alone. The administrative hierarchy was predominantly of flight
crew with negligible interest in aircraft maintenance as long as the airplanes
were available and safe.
Looking down on PLM Eng Office Rear view at ground
level
Full set of maintenance stands on one airplane for the first time
The special wing design, for long range, had an extra high wing loading, made possible by use of large heavy duty flaps, as told about Eddie Allen and the design of the B-29.
Thankfully,
the new fellows were good experienced mechanics and things proceeded well.
While we were busy preparing for the long haul others were readying to close
down their operations. At the time I didn't know this was to be for all B-29
operations in the Marianas, that the 19th Bomb Group would be the
only one left. Other persons were at
work continuing the return of the most war weary B-29's to the states, what was
called Operations Sunset.
Note ladder for entry to Radar-Scanner area
After
the initial inspection we got down to the business of repairing aircraft rather
than providing the appearances of same. The set up was new to the men and for the
most part they were new to each other. I was busy determining who knew what and
achieving a level of confidence that competent people were in charge. The
planes were a complex integration of many kinds of parts and subsystems which
required a broad variety of skills to make them function as a reliable
aircraft. One could not rely on rank or classification, you had to talk with
them, work with them and know them as individuals and listen to the judgment of
their peers to advance the most competent.
I made a number or reassignments and rearrangements. In a few weeks we
had the system and individuals performing in a professional manner. I felt a
return in confidence that we were providing the air crews with safe planes to
fly. Even so we couldn't keep up with
the rate they were wearing them out with training flights.
As
our PLM system became effective, activity at the squadron level was reduced to
servicing operations before and after a flight. We handled the maintenance
records for the planes at the PLM, in fact operated as if it was a single
squadron sharing one big hard stand.
However things never seemed to settle down, everything was in such a
state of flux
I Want That Man Court Martialed!
Getting
the PLM in operation was not without it's moments. One morning an aircraft was
moved out and another moved in. The blacktop was wet from a shower and the
rubber had been worn off the tracks on the Cletracks. When trying to move
airplanes, the bare steel tracks slipped on the wet pavement and the aircraft didn't
rotate as intended. When it did start it's turn it's wing tip swung into the
tip of another plane mashing the outer wing tip on both planes. The T/Sgt on
the Cletrack was a new man to the outfit but I knew him to be a competent
conscientious man. He informed me of the accident immediately. Several of us
were gathered under the aircraft to determine how to separate them when some
high ranking officers from Wing Headquarters came by in jeeps and pulled up to
have a look. A bird colonel I'd never
seen before was in charge and became very upset. He informed me, in no uncertain terms, in front of the others
that he wanted those responsible for such negligence and destruction of
property given disciplinary action, reduced in rank, and reassigned. I responded the incident would be fully
investigated and duly reported through proper channels with recommendations for
appropriate action, and followed this with a salute. He looked me up and down,
returned my salute, got in his jeep and waved the driver instructions to drive
on. I thought damn if the war was still
on he’d have more important things to worry about, I still thought a bit like
an enlisted man..
T/Sgt
Cliff Stedge, the driver of the Cletrack, was from Texarkana, Oklahoma. He and
the other ground crew heard all this and were quite shook up. Stedge, a very
conscientious fellow, was certain he was going to be court martialed. I began a
detailed review of the circumstances then went to my new office and wrote a
formal report. It read as an appeal for support in obtaining replacement tracks
for the Cletracks. It praised the ground crews for having averted such
accidents for as long as they had. There was no return comment and I don't know
if any of the inspection party followed up on the action taken. I have a feeling that the incident simply
died as part of the close down of operations, I never knew for sure.
Abrutly the remaining ground crew
shipped home
I had just received
word the remaining ground crews were to ship home when I was told to report to
L/Col H. Mailey, the new 19th BG CO, I’d never met him before but
recognized him from a photo taken when the 19th was awarded it’s 7th
Predidnetial Citation.
L/Col Harry Mailey L/Col George Chadwell
I
found his name on a door, knocked, he said come in and as I walked in he got up
shook hands and said have a seat, which I did facing him at his desk. He had my personel folder in front of hime
and said I understand you set up and are in charge of the groups PLM setup. He was not one of those at wing hdqs
instructing that one be set up. I said
yes, and added I just learned the last of the experienced ground crew are being
shipped to the states. He smiled and
said that’s what I’d like to speak with you about, have you considered signing
up to stay in service, glancing at my file, he said you have an excellent
record and the kind of MOS we need. I
said I like military service and have been treated very well, however I left
college with only 1 ½ years of mechanical engineering and want to finish. He said I appreciate and respect that, but
we are badly in need of persons you’re your experience to stay in service, you
are not easy to replace and few of you have been signing up to stay in. He paused saying we have and abundance of
flight crew members wishing to stay in, but what we desperately need is
qualified enigineering officers. I said
I fully appreciate your concern, I fully understand, in fact I feel the same
concerns you’ve expressed. Some seem to
think a flight engineer qualifies as a ground engineering officer, my recent
assistant, now shipped back, was a flight engineer. He was assigned by those who thought a flight engineers training
was all the qualification needed.
Mailey leaned forward saying you are expressing my concern, we need
persons with your training to stay in service.
Perhaps because I experessed and interest in the well being of the
service and his need to speak with someone who understood his dilemma, we spoke
at some length with him taking the lead and me responding. He did his very best to convince me I should
stay in the service, telling me of it’s advantages and benefits. He’d given it his best shot, we were
speaking as one friend to another. I finally
said, Col I very much appreciate your concern and the courtesy you have extended
me in this discussion, but I must get back and finish engineering school, I’d
always regret it if I didn’t. You’re a
very competent concerned officer and I’m confident that in the hands of people
like you, qualified people will be attracted and things will work out. It’s not an easy decision for me to leave
but I feel I must. We stood up and
shared a firm understanding hand shake, I looked him in the eye and extended a
heart felt thank you, best wishes and good luck. As I walked out I knew I would immediately be replace, he had no
other choice. I genuinely liked the
fellow, he was older than any of the others, too bad we’d never met before – we
shared a genuine interest in the well being of “our branch of the service.”
The
next day I received notice I was elegible for rest leave in Hawaii and jumped
at the opportunity. When I returned to
Guam there was a surplus of engineering officers pulled from all parts of the
20th AF. The PLM I’d set up
was in full operation with what I was told were peace time ground crews. For some reason I had no desire to look
things over, I noticed the ground crew were being marched to and from work –
this more than anything else caused me to loose interest in that operation.
I was notified the
abundance of engineering officers was because MacArthur had frozen all
engineering officers in place. The
reasoning was that if engineers were retained they could keep equipment
operational until peace time personnel could be in place. I met new fellows stuck just as I was and we
setup operations in our own barracks. I
still had my jeep and we toured the island and took photos with new PX cameras
– then took it upon ourselves to change engines on airplanes out on the flight
line just to be doing something. Those
events are separate stories.
A Post War Visit with Ex T/Sgt Stedge
After the war Stedge and I sporadically kept track by exchanged Christmas cards. En-route to CA in 1955' in my 51' Olds pulling a trailer of household goods, a wheel bearing went out when not far from where he lived. The people at the garage knew Stedge and told me he had a big cattle operation and was quite well off. I told them I thought he was a great guy and to say hello to him which they did. In 1971 while living in California and working for Rockwell, (North American Aviation when I started), I received a call from him. He and his family were on a vacation and wondered if he could stop by and say hello. We had a most enjoyable visit for about two hours. We hadn't seen each other since Guam. He told my wife about the wing tip incident, it all came back to me as he described it. It was vividly etched in his memory, per his version I’d saved him from certain court martial when in reality any review would have shown he was conscientiously doing his job.
Six
months later we were shocked to receive a letter from his wife that he had died
of a heart attack! He must have known something might go wrong and was making
visits he wished to make.
Crash removal rig to quickly clear runways, built per Gen LeMay’s orders.
They were never used, most crashes were in accessible to such a rig.
I was told that in the event of an attack or major disaster it would be my job to clear damaged aircraft out of the way. Though such was no longer a military threat I figure bull dozers would be the most practical thing to use, either pushing or pulling with steel cable. The cletracks simply didn’t have enough traction. No way was the above going to climb over structure and tree trunks.
314th
Wing Commanders Lead Ship
Circular
Logo at left is for 314th Wing, Statistics show:
19th
Bomb Group: 1805 missions, 43 aircraft
shot down
29th
Bomb Group: 1768 missions, 43 aircraft
shot down
39th
Bomb Group 1354 missions, 29 aircraft shot down
330th
Bomb Group 1374 missions, 10 aircraft
shot down
Also
shown are the Logo's for each of the Four Photo Recon Surveillance Units.
Painter at work
Getting Ready For Take Off 5-7-45
1945
19th BG member who had been in the 19th BG in the Far
Pacific in 1941 & 1942.
L/Col
John Roberts CO 19th BG standing far right, M/Sgt Conrad Marvel 28th
Sqd Inspector kneeling at right.
L/Col John Roberts far right, occasion unknown
After thoughts
I
later read about 20th AF operations claiming LeMay improved
operations by ordering a change to Production Line Maintenance. They may have heard LeMay say they should
implement PLM but I know it was never used on Guam during the War and would
have been a disaster if attempted during the war. The last month of the war we were still propping a removed engine
up on sand bags because there were no engine maintenance stands on the flight
line. Engine stands were used for engine build up at the service center where
they did use a PLM system for engines.
The big maintenance stands did not arrive until the last month and we
were too busy getting off “Maximum Effort” mssions to mess with them, we used
home made stands. I don’t have first
hand knowledge of what they did on Saipan or Tinian, but am convined they did
maintenance the same way we did.
Mariana’s air fields were not set up with PLM areas in mind. Our dinky three B-29s as a time operation would have been a joke, when trying to turn around up to 150 B-29s per group, lifting off with a full load of bombs everythird day. Whoever claimed PLM methods were used during war didn’t know what they were writing about.
I wondered who they interviewed for setting up the PLM, 30th and 93rd sqds were still making do keeping airplanes flyable just as we were, I had no idea who was left,but I’m sure others were interviewed, making it strange they selected me after lipping off the way I did, I was not bucking for approval.
I smile when looking back, we got a lot done in a short time, in fact I’m proud of it. The PLM was still in use, as set up, when they released some 160 of us held over EO’s three months later.