Monday, August 15, 2005

B-29 gunner remembers plane's place in history

By AUDREY PARENTE | News-Journal Staff Writer

SOUTH DAYTONA — John Swisher ducked into a foxhole near his tent many times on the island of Saipan during World War II to survive ground strafing by Japanese Zeros.

As a gunner aboard B-29 bombers, he shot down at least 15 of the light and agile enemy fighter planes that attacked American planes during dangerous missions.

The 105,000-pound B-29s flew at 365 mph, up to 30,000 feet off the ground, dropping bombs and leaflets over Tokyo before the Japanese surrendered unconditionally on V-J Day.

That was 60 years ago on Aug. 15 in JapanAug. 14 in the U.S. because of the time difference.

But Swisher nearly didn’t make it home after V-J Day because of an incident that happened after the Japanese surrender, while he was flying supplies to prisoners of war.

“The war was over, but I was still in Saipan,” he said. “We dropped supplies and started coming back, but I said, ‘Let’s go over Hiroshima again.’ So we dropped down from 10,000 feet. There was just nothing there but a big brown spot. Two fishermen were in the bay and they jumped into the water. Then we went over to Iwo Jima to see what that was like.”

As his B-29 made its return approach to Saipan, Swisher said the pilot shouted to his crew to “Put on your Mae West (an inflatable vest used by pilots).” The plane had run out of gas and glided onto the island.

“They had to tow us from the field,” Swisher said. “I almost got killed on my last mission and we weren’t even fighting.”

Terry Aitken, senior curator at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, said more than 3,900 B-29s were used for only 15 months during World War II.

“The numbers are approximate. Historians can never agree on these things,” Aitken said. “Slightly more than 10 percent were lost in combat — about 414, which resulted in 3,000 casualties.”

Among the survivors, Lefty Palmer of Virginia, chairman of the 73rd Bomb Wing Association, said the B-29 “is the plane that won the war, and the story might have been written differently if it had not been for the B-29 Superfortress.” Since the war’s end, B-29 crewmen have met at annual reunions to renew acquaintances.

“We have about 1,200 members left, but we are losing them at 3 percent a year,” said Palmer, who noted the percentage is accelerating as the veterans get older. “Our next reunion is in April 2006.”

Swisher, 82, a retired insurance salesman, has attended past reunions to share photos and memories. The Indiana native, who later used the GI Bill to get a bachelor’s degree from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, was almost 21 when drafted into military service after high school. At the time, he was working for the American Shipbuilding Company.

“They (the draft board) said, ‘Would you like Army, Army Air Corps, Navy or Marines?’ I had the choice, so I took the Air Corps, ” he said . “The reason is, I figured in infantry I would be in mud, dirt and water if I was shot, but if I went down while I was flying, it would be a clean death.”

He trained on the gun turret in Denver, Colo., learned how to put a machine gun together blindfolded in Boulder, Colo., and then was sent to Walker Army Air Base, Kan., to practice bombing runs as a gunner aboard a B-17.

Finally, he trained in a B-29, but he never got to fire the guns until he went on the 1,500-mile missions from Saipan.

“Most of them were night missions, because by the time we got to Japan it was day. We started bombing at 30,000 feet, and it made the plane jump a little, but we weren’t hitting anything, so we went lower — 5,000 to 8,000 feet — and it was very dangerous,” he said. “I thought I shot down 17 Zeros, but they (military records) only said it was 15.”

Some B-29 crewmen died during bombing missions. Others died from strafing. But one memory especially haunts Swisher. He recalled strolling around the corner of his tent, headed to visit the fellow crewman, when he heard a gunshot.

“We were going to play chess. But bang. He shot himself,” Swisher said.

Another vivid memory for Swisher was a visit, on a three-day-pass by cargo plane to see his cousin on the nearby island of Tinan, just before the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945.

“He (Swisher’s cousin) was a crew chief on a B-29. He didn’t fly. I found him working on a plane, but across the runway were Army and Marines with machine guns guarding another B-29. There were white sheets all around underneath the plane,” Swisher said. “I said, ‘What’s going on?’ and he said, ‘They are probably going to test a bomb.’ ”

Swisher later learned that it was the atomic bomb “Little Boy” being loaded aboard the Enola Gay, which was dropped on Hiroshima, killing and wounding about 150,000 people.

While Swisher was on Tinan, he also saw leaflets being loaded aboard B-29s.

“I took one as a souvenir,” he said. “They (the leaflets) asked (the Japanese) to surrender, but they (the Japanese) didn’t do it, so we still continued to bomb different places.”

Even after the second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, “they still didn’t surrender (immediately),” Swisher said. “We went up and put 1,000 B-29s in the sky and we dropped regular 500 pound bombs.”

At this point, he said it was “a milk run” with no opposition, and shortly after he got back to Saipan, he learned the Japanese had surrendered.

“I slept for 26 hours straight, I was so relieved,” Swisher said, but his work wasn’t finished. Supply-drop missions were then followed by B-29 plane rides to get the B-29 crewmen off the island and return home.

“It took so long that I didn’t get discharged (back to the United States) until November and didn’t get home to Cleveland until Christmas Eve.”

Swisher’s son, Bill, said he didn’t realize until recent years what his dad had accomplished until his father received several citations from President George W. Bush.

“I always asked him things, but he didn’t talk much in those days and didn’t make a big issue about it,” Bill Swisher said. “He had a normal life, raised five kids.”

“I am amazed at how he pretty much took it all in stride.”

Did You Know?

War leaflets gave warning.

During World War II, leaflets depicting the B-17 Fortress or the B-24 Liberator bomber were dropped over Germany.

Germans retaliated with a leaflet with drawings of Allied airplanes that looked like flying coffins.

More than 20 types of leaflets were dropped by the U.S. during Wold War II over sites in Japan, Thailand, Burma and Taiwan.

During the Korean War, the Air Force dropped a leaflet showing a B-29 dropping bombs, including such wording in Korean as: “You will meet our fire bombs.”

Leaflets dropped during the Vietnam War included photos of the B-52.

Warning leaflets were used in the Gulf War, in Afghanistan and in Iraq.

SOURCE: www.psywarrior.com. Compiled by Audrey Parente

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