re: 100yr old B-17 pilot talks about his experience

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My Dad was a Ball Turret Gunner on a B-17 . He was 19 yrs old .

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He must have been small. I say that because that’s usually what determined who would be the ball turret gunner. Small guys were the only ones who could fit in the damned things. But they had to have gargantuan balls of pure titanium to do it. It was one of the most dangerous positions to man. Due to the tightness of the turret, they could not wear a parachute. If the plane was going down, they had to be helped from the turret (and pray the hydraulics weren’t knocked out) then get their parachute on, all while the plane was falling rapidly from the sky. It was an incredibly uncomfortable and exceedingly dangerous job.