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According to the order itself, this is late by a day, due to an apparent transcription mistake in my calendar of events regarding the crew. Need to fix that. Yesterday, in 1943, Jay Zeamer was officially awarded his first Silver Star, this one for the November 20, 1942, mission that was, remarkably, his first combat mission as pilot-in-command of a B-17. The mission—a recon of Buna, the Vitiaz Strait, Rabaul, and Gasmata—was originally assigned with Hocutt as pilot and Zeamer as copilot, but when the plane got mired in the mud prior to take-off, Zeamer prevailed on Hocutt to switch places. The mission was no doubt more exciting than anyone expected, not least for Zeamer’s handling of the plane. You can read about it in more detail in the story of the crew on the website, but it’s enough to say here that Hocutt was sufficiently impressed to declare Zeamer… Continue reading

My dad, a lifelong pilot and engineer, has written a fine novel of World War II. He grew up during the war and lost an older cousin to flak over France in 1944, so he has a personal attachment to it. He actually wrote the book, titled Ad Astra (from the Kansas state motto), a few years ago, but on the occasion of creating a Kindle version of it, we’re perfecting and adding a bit to it and will be reprinting the paperback later this year. (In conjunction with a Kindle-version update to two of his other books as well.)   When I designed the cover, I needed a shot of a B-17 that wouldn’t present any rights issues for us. I settled on a shot Dad took of Collings’ “Nine-O-Nine” after we flew on her in Denton, TX, back in 2009. She was small enough on the cover that… Continue reading

If you visit my “About” page, you’ll see a photo of me sitting in the pilot seat of the Collings Foundation’s B-17G “Nine-O-Nine.”  I’ve had the pleasure of touring the plane a few times over the years on the Foundation’s annual stop around Dallas, but that was a special year because, with the Foundation’s local crew’s permission, I was able to get a private visit, before the crowds hit.  I was working on my feature screenplay about the Eager Beavers then, and wanted to have more time to get a feel for the plane than a typical twenty-minute walkthrough would allow.  Plus I just wanted the chance to be on the plane for an extended period of time to get even the slightest sense of what that was like.  I spent four hours on Nine-Oh-Nine that day.  Never got out.  Sat in the nose compartment for a good long time, taking… Continue reading

March 14/16, 1942 Mid-March 1942 was a significant time in the Southwest Pacific theater, marked by one of the most notable events of World War II, as well as some lesser events, woven through the fabric of the Eager Beavers story, whose import would only be known in time. On the 14th, the 40th Reconnaissance Squadron of the 19th Bomb Group was formed at Townsville in northern Australia, and flew its first mission that day. The 40th would become well-known in the coming months under its new designation, the 435th Bomb Squadron, which it would receive in April. It was another step in the 19th’s ascension to primary bomb group in the theater; elements of the 7th Bomb Group were, that very day, ceasing operations in Australia, or more tragically, in the case of the ground echelon of the 14th Bomb Squadron, fighting for their lives as infantry at Mindanao… Continue reading

February 25 This day in 1942 was a happy day for Joe Sarnoski, “Rocky” Stone, and the rest of the 13th Reconnaissance Squadron (soon to be renamed the 403rd Bombardment Squadron). That day they lined the rail of the transport ship U.S.S. Argentina to gaze on the hazy outline of the Australian coast. They had been at sea for thirty-two days, having left Brooklyn, New York, on January 23, with eight other transports, traveling under the protection of three cruisers and eight destroyers of the U.S. Navy. Over that month they had endured the highs and lows of five thousand men packed together on a single ship, most at sea for the first time, sailing to an unknown future as saviors of a distant land most knew only by name and caricature. They had watched wistfully as they passed within sight of the Florida Keys. They had been raised by… Continue reading