100yr old B-17 pilot talks about his experience

He must be a 4 star by now.

I saw him on C-SPAN. Damn good interview.

Lafayette has a WWII veteran that’s still living, and he’s close to 100 years old. His name is Hewitt Gomez and he’s a client of mine. He flew in secret missions over Europe dropping off special personnel in the dark of night behind enemy lines in airplanes painted black to avoid detection. He wasn’t the pilot but he was part of the flight crew.
He’s the older brother of Ron Gomez, who was a state representative for Louisiana.

LINK

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

My mom had first cousins (twins) who flew B-17s during WWII. Both went in as 19 year olds. They were recalled during the Korean War and flew B-29s as refuelers.
Were two of the neatest men I’ve known.
Thank you for your service James and Warren.

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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.

Ever read Randall Jarrell’s poem “Death of the Ball Turrett Gunner?”

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From my mother's sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.

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damn hour and a half late