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W.D.Olmsted, the unlikely subject.
Born May fifteen, Nineteen Hundred & Twenty. Parents-W.H.Olmsted & W.S.(Butler) Olmsted. Grandparents, Philo Bert & Sarah Susana (Zickafoose) Olmsted.
This momentous event occurred in the grandparents back-bedroom. I grew quickly into a 6 foot mess. Went to school, about a mile down the road. My sister Carol born a year later, same place, also went. We walked winter & summer the first 4 years. School was called “West Meeting House”. Then a central school was built in Virgil.193O, I think it was. We didn’t go till ‘32-‘33, as I remember? Now we ride a big yellow bus, driven by Floyd McGuinness. His son Leo became my best buddy all thru school. Friendship started early, as they were neighbors for a few years till they moved to Virgil.
Played basketball & baseball. The latter was my favorite. Pitched & firstbase. Couldn’t start a game because of nerves. A couple innings at first loosened me up, so I could pitch. Doubt if could have made it thru school if it hadn’t been for baseball. Graduated 1938, helped on the farm, but that was not for long.
Had life long love of airplanes. Built many with rubber band motors. Loved hunting and fishing. Had an old ‘26 Chevy cut down to a doodlebug. Got into a lot of trouble with that machine. I recall that Grandpa had never learned to drive, so, when we were putting up temporary fences we used the Chevy to stand on and go from fence-post to fence-post to drive them in with a post maul. Grandpa would get tired and we switched off. When going to the next post I would call “stop”, Grandpa would yell “whoa” and on we would go. I recall doing a lot of laughing. He made me a little angry by saying “alright, we’ll quit now and go down and rest. What he meant was we would start milking, sitting on three legged stools. After driving posts all afternoon, I had a hard time squeezing a teat to get milk out.
At this time there was no electricity at our farm, so we cut ice to cool milk and did all the milking by hand.
Got job in Homer at a fish line factory, mainly because Leo had worked there for a spell. But got antsy and headed to buffalo. A Cal Wright went with me and applied at Bell Aircraft, while I tried Curtiss Wright. I got in but Cal didn’t make it. . Found a place to rent, a room on Mayville Ave. in Kenmore. People’s name was Norm & Peg McCarthy. How they put up with me, I’ll never know. Took over their basement for a darkroom, as developing pictures had become a hobby, along with a little race car which damn near killed a little toddler while running it in a cement wadding pool.
Met Marie Schmidt, had a whirl wind courtship and she accepted an engagement ring. Was in Curtiss about a year and was called into the service. On the way to Virgil, I went to sleep crossing Montezuma on route 20, about 4 in the morning. Me and the 40 Chevy left the road at a drop-off, hit nose first then rolled over. Got a ride into Auburn with some guys going to work. Called home, and Ma and Nelson came up and got me. Car later towed to Cortland and was totaled. Lucky I still had one months payment left. Got 400 dollars, which later Marie used to come to Lincoln, Neb. and we got married. I’m in the Army Aircorp at this time.
To back up to Curtiss, I worked first in the plant at Buffalo airport on East Genesee, then after a couple months was transferred to Kenmore plant. Whoa, first, I went to Curtiss school for two weeks, on Military Road. Now am in Kenmore plant. Worked mainly in tail assembly (P-4O) on horizontal & vertical fabrication. That is, drilling and riveting, and then taught an Italian girl named Rosie, to operate a automatic dimpler and rivet machine, as I was going to leave for the service.
Got acquainted with fellows from Nebraska, named Ohrt. The two I remember are, Shorty and Stan. Believe a couple more were cousins and friends. Were off farms and wanted to make more money and maybe get a deferment from the draft, as was my case. Of course, all that was short-lived. Six months at least. Had a high old time while it lasted.
As previously stated, smashed up the car on the way home Sept. 1943 (1942).
Inducted shortly thereafter, at Niagara Falls center and was sent to Atlantic City, for basic training. Billeted at the Ritz-Carlton right on the Board-walk. As a matter of fact, we did our drill marching on same. Most of our classes were in the Convention Hall, which was located near the famous Steel Pier.
Shipped out around Nov.43 (42) for Lincoln Air base in Nebraska. Had all kind of airplane mechanic courses. They asked if anyone was interested in being an engine instructor. Had already studied the Curtiss, Pratt-Whitney, (radial’s) Allision and Merlin-RollsRoyce (twelve cyl. in-lines). They gave me a permanent party pass which meant could live off base. As stated, Marie had come out and getting married, we rented a house with another couple from the base. Think his name was Mix, from Ohio. He also acted as best man, at the wedding ceremony preformed at a justice of peace.
Suddenly am transferred to Detroit for engine specialist course, Marie went back to Buffalo and am living in another hotel. Don’t remember the name. The courses took place in some kind of factory. Excellent teaching- all civilians.
Am now qualified for sub-depot work, rebuilding engines, either in the U.S. or overseas. Am now sent to Salt Lake City for assignment. Am sitting in a class room somewhere, and this fellow in charge says “Anybody interested in flying, go thru that door”. I had failed in the east, and again in Nebraska because of wearing glasses and being too tall. But thinking, what the hell, lets give it another try. Walked thru that door and the fellow sitting at a desk says, “What can I do for you”. Told him probably nothing as having been disqualified twice before. Told him why, and he replies, your height doesn’t matter here as we are in the heavy bomber zone. So my course takes a right turn suddenly. Am sent to Salt Lake City for assignment. Another hitch takes place. Can’t pass flying test as my blood pressure is too high. I think the cut off is 145 and I’m a
little over. Asked the Doc what I can do to lower it. Says to quit smoking and don’t eat any meat and come back in two weeks for a new exam. So they now want to put you to work. They asked if anyone can drive trucks, but I’ve been in long enough to know that can be wheel barrow work. Ask if any one can type and there we go. My highest marks in high school was in trying. Spent the next two weeks typing in some kind of office. Now my pressure is down to the required number.
Off we go to arial gunnery school up in the Mt’s at Wendover. Was there the months of Oct. and most of Nov. Am not sure of those dates, but it don’t make a whole lot of difference now.
To the best of my recollection, went directly to Boise Idaho. There is where the 489th bomb group is to be formed. The one date I’m sure of is Nov.18, Dale Glenn was born back in Buffalo. Could not get a pass home then.
To back up a little , that gunnery school- a blast. All kinds of weapons and we had to qualify on all. Here was my first spotting of that Cal. fruit.--John Foster, complete with mustache. See him again later, as he was assigned to same crew that I’m on. He as Radio Operator, me as first engineer. Wasn’t too keen having a Hollywood Romeo on our ship. Our ship is a B-24. A 32 ton, 4 engine bomber with 4 turrets and two fifty caliber automatic Browning machine guns in each. I, as engineer have the top turret made by the Martin company. John as radio, has a table just under my turret and a little to our right. He has about five radios plus a key for sending code. Now, I have never been on a 24, and only seen one once. The crew consists of Pilot, Engineer, Radio, Bombardier, and a couple gunners. They continually filled crews out as people showed up. We got a few more, all but the copilot. Got him (Doug Strong) at Wendover. We transferred there after one phase at Gowen Field (Idaho).
We are to take three phases at Wendover. Here we go to school days and fly nights. Then we alternate. Fly days and classes at night. A really hectic schedule. I spent any off duty time at the base library, where all the technical information on the b-24 is located. I did this so to hold my position as first engineer. Pappy (J.Elliot-pilot) We’ll see who works out the best. There is lst-2nd-3rd Engineers on board; Olmsted-Burcham-Green. Apparently it was me . You see, I had never been to B-24 school and the rest had. But I think that studying on my own, you learn more than most guys do in classes.
Must say that all this stuff, the three phases, was very enjoyable. Had a few emergency happenings. Such as Pappy putting gear down for landing and horn and lights saying, gear is now locked. Used emergency equipment to cure problem. Once while flying with another crew to check out the engineer, the nose wheel lodged in door way. Had to unbolt the door to get it out. Had to lay atop the batteries, causing my flight coveralls to disintegrate.
One night we are at 20,000 ft, clear weather but we hit an unseen front of some kind which tried to turn us up sidedown. Pappy looking at the Salt flats which had water on and mirrored the sky, tried to fly by the seat of his pants instead of trusting the instruments. He corrected instantly, but I’m up in the roof desperately looking at my chute which is out of reach and also in the roof. We have been flying old 24s till almost the end of the course when they start flying in brand new 24s from the factory Willow-run, near Detroit, --Dearborn ,it was! We named her Cover Girl. It is a B-24 H. Has a total of 48 hundred horsepower. Believe I’m up to shoving off for Harrington, Kansas.
TITLE--BOMBER-24
March 1944, finished our three phases of training in Wendover, which is located on North-West side of salt flats, Utah. Just got orders to start for Harrington-Kansas, as that is first leg of staging. This is in preparation for heading to war zones. Most of ground crew have already left by train. Of course now we find one of brake gauge’s dial is full of brake fluid. Nothing to do but fix it ourselves. Causes some delay; finding one and installing same.
Marie has already left for Buffalo. Now it’s April and we are aloft flying over the Rockies and across the plains states to land at Harrington Air Base. This is where all kinds of stuff takes place. It is called modifying the engines, radio equipment and whole ship is gone over. Crew is issued 45’s, survival material in case of jungle crash. It is a big piece of felt shaped to go under our back-pack of parachute. Embedded in felt are can of fish-hooks, fish line, compass; survival tablets and so-on.
We were there about 8-10 days, then take off for Morrison field, located at West Palm Beach, Florida. Enjoyed the warm weather. Even slept under the wing that night. Spent my time going over the plane, trying to learn all possible, as it will be my home for some time. A couple days later, we are awakened at 0-four hundred. In civilian time, 4-AM. Pre-dawn take-off and head south. According to orders, the Pilot is to open up papers stating where we are to head. It’s either the Pacific or the ETO. We are pleased to find it is the ETO. Its about 1000 miles to Puerto-Rico. Beautiful sight looking down on those islands. From there we hop to Waller field, Trinidad. It is a British possession. Beautiful place but we had to sleep under mosquito netting and take atabrine tablets to prevent malaria.
Next, we take off for Belem, Brazil. Now we are crossing the mouth of the Amazon and am amazed at the size. It is over a hundred miles across. We flew quite low which is a lot more fun than is high altitude. We saw Natives running around in the clearings of the forest, waving spears over their head. Took a few pot shots with 45 at some kind of cows wading around in water near shore.
A bus took us from field and on the way the driver suddenly stopped upon hearing a whistle. Opened door, nobody there and shuts door, swearing ”Damn Frogs”. John claims we had pigeons on board in case we were forced down in jungle we could have sent out S.O.S. messages. All news to me. Had to pull a 25 hr. inspection on Cover Girl. Hard to believe that’s all the time on her, but record says so.
Take off following morning for Natal, Brazil. This is our last stop in South America. The field is right close to the Atlantic. We lived in tents and it rained most of the time. Bought silk stockings for Marie and also a bottle of Channel #5. Natives worked in mess hall and would come in caring stalks of green bananas, however, they were ripe. Had an extensive briefing for the hop across the Atlantic to
Darkar, (Senegal) Africa. Around 1900 miles of ocean with no place to land.
Quite a sobering thought!
We had cargo racks in our bomb bays which were full of spare parts and the crew’s personal gear. I would crawl up on there and go to sleep. Keep my head-set on so pilot could wake when ship needed trimming to keep fuel use at a minimum. Pappy had her trimmed so would fly hands-off, but fuel consumption would change the CG. (center of gravity) as tanks were a little off center. It was comical to watch Rubin pop up in his astrodome, check with the sun. It was up to the navigator to get us safely to Dakar. We were told at Natal to beware of bogus radio signals sent out by the Germans, so you double check your course constantly.
We landed in Dakar late that afternoon (pre-dawn takeoff at Natal) we were 40 minutes over our ETA. Not bad! Had 400 gals gas left. Watch the 7 ft tall Maasai warriors as they guard the field. That night some of us sat by a campfire with about 4 Arabs in white sheets. One younger one could speak a little English. He said he had two wives which his father had bought, with cows as payment. U.S. MPs came in jeeps and the Arabs disappeared. I forgot to say that they were always looking up at the moon and when asked, said that the more that Allah shined on their face, the better person they become.
To back up to the 25 hr inspection, at that time I had found a couple broken studs with nuts on them. They were the same size as the ones holding the jugs (cylinders) and caused concern. Number four seemed to be running good, so nothing can be done now. At Dakar there is a couple more. Still no indication where they are coming from. They just lay in the cowling on #4.
The next morning we take off for Marrakech, French Morocco. It is about 1200 miles northeast of Dakar. Upon landing, it sure is a contrast in cultures. Ox carts running around underneath B-24s. The Arabs were hired by the US, to maintain the runways. Here is better equipment for working on a plane. Mainly staging so I can get up to the engine and take cowling off for a better inspection of just where in hell those broken studs were coming from. Found 4 more here at Marrakech. Believe it or not , with all the cowlings off, still couldn’t find source. But was satisfied they were not from the 14 cylinders. Spent a couple days doing that with the help of “Tigers Revenge” engineer ,Danny Boone . He is a descendant of the legendary Daniel Boone. Bought a couple knives from natives with a couple packs of smokes. One is made from goat skin complete with a goat skin tassel. Just one whif and you know it was a real goat.
As we head for England, we are warned to stay out to sea, avoiding both Spain and Portugal, as they are neutral and night fire at us if we flew over their territory.
Uneventful flight, except that crew objected strenuously to the goat odor, which I admit was over-powering. Damned if I would throw it overboard, so I opened Marie’s Channel #5, and doused the scabbard with all of it. Man, did that cause a stink. Almost give up but hung on and glad I did as I still have it. Was years before the smell left it.
Landed at Valley, Wales, in southern England. Stayed over night and next morning we were racing Danny’s crew, in a hurry to get to our home base. Standard procedure, Pappy and Doug fire up 3, then #1, & 2 then energizes #4 but it won’t engage. I open small access panel to pull manual handle for emergency engaging. But I can see a lot of shaking up in the area of the starter. Now I know where the broken studs come from. The starter motor and adaptor are bolted with that size of stud. Motioned to Doug to shut every thing down, as we are not about to try a take-off on three engines There is nothing at this field to fix it with. So Pappy radioed somewhere and eventually a jeep showed up with a new starter. 2nd engineer and I are dismantling engine so as to get at the starter section. Remove carburetor, generator, fuel pump, external oil system, boy that starter is buried in the accessory section of the 14cyl. l200hp. Pratt-Whitney. I don’t remember how long it took to finish but when we did we had the pleasure of firing up all four and taxing out on the runway. Took off next morning for 489 BG.(Bomb Group) at Halesworth. Uneventual trip, but glad to get to our final destination. Found out a field near by were attacked on their final with loss of a couple ships.
About the next day, Lord HAWHAW come on the German radio welcoming the 489th with Col. Napier and his glamour boys. Just a tad shocking! Seeing that we didn’t know whether it was Pacific or UK. until an hour out of Florida. Total ships going over was 71. All made it. Of course we didn’t go all at same time. Was staggered over a couple days!
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