Social ENTREPRENEURSHIP project
Reflection Social Entrepreneurship
My experience at the exhibition was O.k . Mine exhibition time was end of the exhibition so around 6:30 to 7:00. This got me to speak about our ideas on water problem that we have in niger in Africa. I did not use the elevator pitch because people wanted to know what this project was about but also on sales pitch. Also I took major points out of the elevator pitch and used them.
My emotions changed throughout the evening is I wanted to be on my bike or sitting at home being lazy but more to the end I was actually enjoying it. When at the exhibition all I was thinking was my orange beauty because being at school at night just is a bad feeling to me. But after it was all done it was not that bad.
A moment I felt "in the flow" of things was When I felt the most flow was when people said I have only 60 seconds and timed me and it flowed just like flow trail. It was one of the one lucky time. Just like in downhill race. You ride better when you're timed. The investor might felt it was a little sloppy But to me it was some of my best speaking and it felt that it flowed only the investor could say it flowed
The most difficult question I was asked by an investor was , How is this different than the other water businesses? Why this was so hard because it was a mother and it did not just want to say that there business just sucks and you should invest with us but I had to really explain the whole thing. After that she looked a little confused but she ended up giving me money and that all what matters . Just kidding it about the learning progress and she was the last investor I talked to that night.
My strategies for a successful evening was to talk smooth and to enjoy the time while you're there and also makes the the exhibition go a whole lot quicker. Also practice it and get idea in what you will bring for the Exhibition and make sure what you are going to say is right to the point.
I would prepare differently next time is I would take note cards and maybe use a bigger computer because of the website. Also next time maybe have a 3D model and water was the main topic for everyone. It was boring I would think it would be very boring if I was audience and it was boring to me because it was not related to biking. But I thought the idea was cool because we were trying to help people of Africa.
My experience at the exhibition was O.k . Mine exhibition time was end of the exhibition so around 6:30 to 7:00. This got me to speak about our ideas on water problem that we have in niger in Africa. I did not use the elevator pitch because people wanted to know what this project was about but also on sales pitch. Also I took major points out of the elevator pitch and used them.
My emotions changed throughout the evening is I wanted to be on my bike or sitting at home being lazy but more to the end I was actually enjoying it. When at the exhibition all I was thinking was my orange beauty because being at school at night just is a bad feeling to me. But after it was all done it was not that bad.
A moment I felt "in the flow" of things was When I felt the most flow was when people said I have only 60 seconds and timed me and it flowed just like flow trail. It was one of the one lucky time. Just like in downhill race. You ride better when you're timed. The investor might felt it was a little sloppy But to me it was some of my best speaking and it felt that it flowed only the investor could say it flowed
The most difficult question I was asked by an investor was , How is this different than the other water businesses? Why this was so hard because it was a mother and it did not just want to say that there business just sucks and you should invest with us but I had to really explain the whole thing. After that she looked a little confused but she ended up giving me money and that all what matters . Just kidding it about the learning progress and she was the last investor I talked to that night.
My strategies for a successful evening was to talk smooth and to enjoy the time while you're there and also makes the the exhibition go a whole lot quicker. Also practice it and get idea in what you will bring for the Exhibition and make sure what you are going to say is right to the point.
I would prepare differently next time is I would take note cards and maybe use a bigger computer because of the website. Also next time maybe have a 3D model and water was the main topic for everyone. It was boring I would think it would be very boring if I was audience and it was boring to me because it was not related to biking. But I thought the idea was cool because we were trying to help people of Africa.
vietnam artist statement project
My perspective piece express my perspective that share in my sense of Vietnam in a few of different ways.The 4 helicopters represents war. The top view is of that you only see the top of war acts but you don’t see the bottom of things. Also medic helicopter is on fire of that war don’t view the injured as a top reorder to them, Also no machine guns on the helicopter. The river represent flow but war does not have flow. Also it is the start of the war. The mesa represents safeguard the top of life that soldier had before they went to Vietnam war. The trees represents cover and protection and safeguard that I thought would be safe place to be.
In order to ensure that my work is top dog I had to do 3 drafts. I did each piece in different ways I first did the back view of the helicopter with writing on it explaining what I was doing on it. It looked super messy and did not look real good. My second piece was at the side view and had a gunner. It look very messy and the gunner was bad. Then I did the top view and it looked better but I colored with color pencils.
What inspired my work was just learning about Vietnam and its anti-war piece. The Helicopter I thought looked cool and I thought it would be different than what other people were doing for their art perspective project. Also it was a big vehicle in Vietnam.
In order to ensure that my work is top dog I had to do 3 drafts. I did each piece in different ways I first did the back view of the helicopter with writing on it explaining what I was doing on it. It looked super messy and did not look real good. My second piece was at the side view and had a gunner. It look very messy and the gunner was bad. Then I did the top view and it looked better but I colored with color pencils.
What inspired my work was just learning about Vietnam and its anti-war piece. The Helicopter I thought looked cool and I thought it would be different than what other people were doing for their art perspective project. Also it was a big vehicle in Vietnam.
Short stories
Short Story Reflection
In the short story project we had to write a story of a world wars. It had be non fiction and fiction. You had to take a real event and put it in your story. It had to be 5 to 7 pages. To get the info you had to look up fact about the event. So when you put those facts into the stories it had be the event that you looked up for. The project was simple to me.
My story did the best in the the climax of the plot, it when character thoughts changed and he goes into almost mental challenge and he has to shake themselves together or they get killed. But I think all stories had their character survive. Jerry said, “this was a mistake.” “This terror of war, Its wrong. It’s like a war against yourself and what you believe in, and then getting yourself together to fight in it.” In this Tom has a climax his thought go wondering why he was there.
My round character where weak in this story because you don’t know about Jerry thoughts when they come out of the clouds. Also you don’t know Tom’s thinking of when he first joins the 8th squadron. My story would be great and straight A work. When I was revising my work the biggest problem that interfered was at first I had things that never happen in world war 2. After I changed that.
The next problem was my essay needed a lot of work of putting in s’s and ed’s. I also had a lot of sentences that needed to be redone. Next Heather helped me make it past tense. Then stepan edit it and then my dad looked at and it was ready for the basket.
In the short story project we had to write a story of a world wars. It had be non fiction and fiction. You had to take a real event and put it in your story. It had to be 5 to 7 pages. To get the info you had to look up fact about the event. So when you put those facts into the stories it had be the event that you looked up for. The project was simple to me.
My story did the best in the the climax of the plot, it when character thoughts changed and he goes into almost mental challenge and he has to shake themselves together or they get killed. But I think all stories had their character survive. Jerry said, “this was a mistake.” “This terror of war, Its wrong. It’s like a war against yourself and what you believe in, and then getting yourself together to fight in it.” In this Tom has a climax his thought go wondering why he was there.
My round character where weak in this story because you don’t know about Jerry thoughts when they come out of the clouds. Also you don’t know Tom’s thinking of when he first joins the 8th squadron. My story would be great and straight A work. When I was revising my work the biggest problem that interfered was at first I had things that never happen in world war 2. After I changed that.
The next problem was my essay needed a lot of work of putting in s’s and ed’s. I also had a lot of sentences that needed to be redone. Next Heather helped me make it past tense. Then stepan edit it and then my dad looked at and it was ready for the basket.
Blue and Green Don’t Mix
My name is Tom Vanderham and I was a trained waist gunner in World War 2. I was stationed at an Allied base in France, close to border of Germany. I had just arrived on a B-29 and our base was filled with B-17s and B-24’s. My name went over the intercom and I had to go to the General’s headquarters.
A bearded man was standing with medals and a tall pilot was standing next to him. The officer said, “This is your new waist gunner, Tom Vanderham, he’s the one you asked for.” The pilot looked at me with a smile. The pilot introduced himself as Charles and welcomed me to the Big bad Wolf, 8th Squadron. We had a 10 crew member plane, it was 73 feet and 10 inches tall with 4- 50 caliber machine guns,5- 30 caliber machine guns, and a butt load of bombs. He said, “You will like it here.” Then, we shook hands and he walked with me to our bunker. He said, we would head into the air tomorrow to attack an armory.
A tall dark man, who looked like he had been at a beach all day said, “It’s where they build tanks.” Then he said his name was Allen, he was from California and he was a top gunner. Then he asked me what I did. I told him I was a waist gunner and that I am from Canada. There was light-skinned Mexican speaking Spanish and looking at a map. His name was Alfredo and next to him, a tall man with a beard, whose name was Jerry. He was the other waist gunner. Jerry said, “Nice to meet you. The other crew members are playing football outside.”
Then the alarm went off. And all the others got their gear on. The jacket that they gave me was big on me, and had 3 holes in the chest area. We ran to where there was a green plane that had a picture painted on it of a wolf wearing a suit and a hat and holding a gun while smiling. We all jumped into the B-17. The waist guns were 30 caliber had to be heavy. The gun was on a track and you could move it up, down, left or right. That big gun had to be heavy. The bullets that we used were around two inches long. We learned back in Air Force training that these rounds were larger because fighter plane armor was always improving. Then Jerry walked in and asked, “You pumped?” I had never heard that before.
The pilot said were going now, so strap yourself in. The plane started to move and before I knew it, we were in the air. The pilot said we have an armor factory to bomb and that it was going to be an easy mission, in and out. Easy as pie. We had P-51s and Spitfires escorting us so it was going to be even easier than that.
Then, through the radio we heard that there were 15 planes coming. We could see them, they were small Italian fighter planes- C202s. The Spitfires rushed in. It was crazy how fast the Spitfires were destroying the C202s. Then one escaped from the Spitfires and began shooting a bunch of rounds at a plane in front of us. Then the C202 did a sharp turn and headed straight at our plane. I had it in my range and barely put my hand on the trigger when the 30 caliber let out around 25 rounds and it hit the plane right in the engine. The plane did a direct dive. Jerry said, “you got one kid!” All at once the fighter planes were gone. Then a fire arose on our right and it looked like the whole plane next to us had caught on on fire. Some one yelled “On our six” and again this time a German 109 curved like a C shape and headed straight at our 30 cals. I aimed the guns right at the cockpit of the plane and fired. The plane went down without fire, no black smoke. Jerry said, “you got a pilot kill!” I had just put another swastika on our plane now. It was this plane’s first Nazi direct kill Jerry had told me. I had a deep pain in my chest and didn’t feel so good. War is just war, I told myself and started to shoot at any 109s that I saw. I was shooting the tails off of planes. The swastika was gone on so many 109s, because of the way they do loops around the B-17s. It was so easy to shoot Hitler’s little symbol right off their 109s. The Navigator said, “One more mile, amigos. Here we come Hilter!” Jerry said, “go take a break. I will get the radio operator on your gun.”
I walked to where the bombs were waiting to be dropped on Armory. I heard my name being yelled. I ran to where Jerry was. He had blood all over him. I asked him if it was him that had been hit. It was the radio operator. His chest was filled with holes. The guilt was almost too much. Jerry said it was a mistake getting the rookie radio operator on a waist gunner’s job. Jerry started cursing the kids name. I went to my gun and after 2 minutes went by, he was still cursing that kids name. It was sad--Jerry was almost making a joke of it, but then he would start cursing the kids name some more. If I had to write a report on why Jerry was cursing this kids name, all that I would say is “so it goes.”
The radio operator was lying there still. His blood was all over our pants, jackets, and our hands. It looked like we had killed a man. I had a frown on my face because of how many curse words Jerry was yelling at the top of his voice. A kid got killed. His first mission, and it was mine too, but I was trained to be a waist gunner and that kid was trained to be a radio operator. After thinking and hitting 109s, we heard the bombs drop. The mission was a success, but it was really a failure, because the radio operator was killed.
The B-17 did a 180 degree turn really tight and Jerry and me started tumbling and so did that kid’s body. Jerry was really letting out some words now. I guess the kid’s name was Marty. Jerry started cursing again. It was horrible sight. After an hour of Jerry cursing and being covered with blood that was not mine, I was glad to see the landing field, and even happier when we landed. When we got out of that B-17 it wasn’t pretty. Alfredo asked me and Jerry what had happened, but then two medics brought the kid out of our plane and we ran to him, feeling more guilt. Then Jerry asked the medics if he and I could ride with them to pay our respects. The medic said, “He’s dead, but sure.” Later on, I found out that it was Jerry’s step brother that died.
After that we were asked to clean up our spot of the plane. We were still a mess, so we took a hose to it, but it wasn’t long enough. So Jerry again was complaining and cursing the hose, when some girls on bikes came riding by. I waved back and they laughed at us and said some words in French. I assumed they were not good words. Jerry turned around and started throwing things,got the hose,turned it on full blast towards both girls, and the girls fell and ran away. Jerry kept on spraying them. Charles walked up and said, “You boys will be single for rest of your lives.” Jerry got a look in his eye, like he had an idea. He pointed the hose at Charles and turned it on. Charles ran.
That night, they had a celebration for the success of the mission. I learned during that celebration that a lot of B-17 crew members were super cocky. I also learned that Jerry had an attitude that no one could handle. The Memphis Belle crew members came in making jokes and telling everyone how many kills they got and how many successful missions they had. All of us sat at this big table. The Memphis Belle crew came along and one of them said, “You boys did real well”. Charles stood up and said, “Was that a threat or a compliment?” Jerry then stood up too,then they all stood up, and a brawl broke out. I was in the middle of it and some how got out. Shortly after, a HQ officer came and shot his pistol into the air and the fight ended. The Big Bad Wolf and Memphis Belle officers were called into his office. Jerry stood next me and said “We are going to get a suicide mission out of that.”
The HQ officer raised his voice and said, “You both will be going on a difficult mission to an airfield where we think they might be making new planes- ME262s. Charles, you will not get a new radio operator, your waist gunner will be yours. You leave at 0600, you got it?” The Memphis Belle crew did their standard “Yes Sir”. We looked at him and said nothing. The next morning, we were ready. The plane was fixed and cleaned and it had 10 Swastikas for kills. The Memphis Belle had around 20 Swastika’s that represented the enemies it had taken down.
When we took off, it felt normal. Jerry looked in a bad mood. “We are going to die” he said. Charles made the navigator do the duties of the radio operator. He looked at us and said, “You guys should start acting like you’re in a world war and not act like you’re in high school.” Jerry looked down and saw an empty shell that we missed at clean up and threw it at him and it hit our new navigator right in the head. He started yelling at Jerry. I just watched. I had to keep myself from laughing.
We heard Allen yell “109s!!” and, man, they looked different. He planes began shooting and one spun so that the white bottom of the plane showed. When I saw the German Cross, I put my hand on the trigger, watched the wing fall off, and the plane spiraled into a burning ball of fire. There had to be at least 20 planes and we had no escort. The Memphis Belle had to bail and turn around because they had lost an engine.
Back at base, they were trying to reach us, but there was an intersection of so many planes and radios connecting. We could hear the Germans and there masked voices. It scared me. There were 109s everywhere, and their cannons could destroy a B-17. I heard stories of their cannons going right through a plane and hitting the pilots and anyone who was in the way. How many were shooting at us? It seemed like twice as many as I was hitting into balls of fire.
The navigator ran back to check on us, he ran back again in 2 minutes. He was out of breath. We had no idea of how close we were. He told us that we had 20 minutes until the drop sight. We made it to the drop sight, but our plane was a wreck. One engine was dying and we could hear it. Jerry went on with his cursing again, but this time it was toward the 109s. There were 3 left, and they were smarter. They were only trying to hit the back of the plane. When they went around us we could to see their cross and swastikas, it also showed us that their engines were smoking.
Then suddenly, we could hear the drop door open and we could see black smoke of the artillery hitting the cold blue sky. The 109s had disappeared and we could hear our bombs exploding. Once again, we made it through. The tail of the plane was falling off and there was holes all over the top of our plane. The only wounds suffered were my ears because of of Jerry’s cursing. There were only four B-17s left. We started out with 14. When we landed, it was a happy sight. The Memphis Belle crew was standing there waiting.
We were asked to go in to Headquarters where we found out that we had dropped bombs successfully. Unfortunately, they were trying to reach us during the mission to abort, because they wanted to capture and study the ME262s. They gave us our next mission to fly with RAF Lancasters and bomb a shipyard off the coast of Germany. Also, we would be dropping fuel tanks instead of bombs, so we would go an extra 20 miles and drop the fuel for our ships off the coast of Germany. We were going to be leaving in 5 hours, 8:00 PMA night raid.
When it was 7 o’clock, we boarded our plane. There was an unusual box on the plane so I opened it and there was a ton of flash lights including bigger ones with attachments for the 30 Cals. By giving everyone a flashlight, the time went by quickly and it was already 8 o’clock. The engine started so we strapped ourselves in, and the plane began to increase speed. We were suddenly 100 feet in the air and rising. There’s always this image in my mind when I close my eyes, of our plane nosediving on fire spinning to our death. I could hear the loud Lancasters engine and we could see the RAF symbol on the planes. There had to be 29 planes, maybe more.
We could see these lights coming out of the clouds like fire flies. Jerry said, “Big targets are easy to shoot down.”Then the pilot said, “Get ready, we’re in enemy territory.” Out of nowhere there was 9 BF110s. The Lancaster closest to us went crazy. Their gunner went nuts shooting at every BF110 and maybe more. Jerry had this smirk on his face and said, “This is a night raid and BF110 are night fighters, this is cool.” No planes were attacking us and the Lancasters were following their leader, who was not shot down yet. Jerry and I were hitting the BF110s noticed the armor on these planes was better than regular fighter planes. We felt like we had been lied to. We both agreed to protect our team and the leftover Lancasters. We decided to shoot at the glass of the planes and hit the pilot directly. We told the top gunner and the bottom gunners to go for a glass shot. There were BF110s coming right at my gun and my 30 cal rounds hit the glass and the plane went down. 10 minutes went by and there was only one BF110 left and the lead Lancaster shot him down with ease. There were only 10 Lancasters left now, and we started with 29.
The Lancaster on the side of us was missing a front part of the plane. Their bombardier was gone and so was their navigator. Our plane was just fine, no shots in it, no fires. They headed to the right and we headed to the right. We could see the fires below where bombs hit the shipyard. It was a success. Jerry said that night raids are easy.
We flew for another 15 minutes when we saw this blue light. “Drop away,” the bombardier yelled. We could see the splash when the tanks hit the water. The radio officer said we were close to the borders of Russia and Germany, so he asked if we could land at a closer base than U.S Command. So we were allowed to land at an RAF airfield.
When we landed our plane at the RAF airfield, we were called to another meeting with plans to bomb an airplane factory. The RAF officer said this would be the biggest bombing that allied forces have done. There would be15 B-17s,12 B-24s, and 16 Lancasters. The B-17s would bomb an armory and plane factory. This factory is where they made their bombers supply and it would stop this war one year early. “Meet, dismiss” he had said and Charles said, “Let’s do it!”
We got into our plane and I went to my waist gun, but there was a knock on the plane door. It was a young RAF officer around 28 years old. He said “Tom?” I walked toward where he was, and he told me that my Grandpa had died from a bear attack. The officer said, “You are aloud to bail this mission if you like Gunner.” I said that I would stay. He said, “Here’s a letter that he left for you. Do what you think is best.” I walked to my waist gun again and Jerry asked, “Are you o.k.?” I opened the letter and it was his medal that he got in World War I. I walked up to Charles and said, “You deserve this.” He asked me how I got it from my Granddad. He said, “Sorry for your loss, but we need to focus.”
I walked back to my waist gun and we took off. We flew all together for an hour. Then we separated into groups. “We have ME262s,” yelled our top gunner. It was a jet fighter. They were going around our plane they were hitting on another plane. The plane was in strands. The whole side of the plane had 2 foot wide holes in its side. The turrets were not shooting. Jerry said, “That better not be us.” We started shooting at any one we saw. A plane suddenly flew over and we shot 28 rounds and hit the engine of the ME262. They weren’t attacking our bomber though. Every other B-17 was grey and had blue stripe on it’s tail. Our bomber’s engines were yellow and we had a yellow tail. The whole plane was grey. It was a cat in a room filled with dogs. If there was a ME262 around, it would get shot even coming close to our bomber. The B17 who was next to our bomber, had an ME262 trying to hit him with missiles. He exploded in flames. Then we moved out as a squadron into the clouds. A RAF officer from the base tells the radio operator to get in the clouds, “it will give you cover.” We moved to the clouds. I was so nervous that an ME262 would run into the plane. Charles later told me that he was shaking, because he was so scared. After being in clouds for about 45 minutes, we dropped out of them.
Once we were out of the clouds, we saw what happened to those bombers. The damage was severe. The Radio Operator called in all 9 of the bombers. After calling, he found out that a lot of them had only 5 of their 9 crew members. One plane had it’s navigator flying the plane. Some planes had no turret. We were afraid. Jerry said, “this was a mistake.” “This terror of war, Its wrong. It’s like a war against yourself and what you believe in, and then getting yourself together to fight in it.” Watching the plane right beside us, we saw 4 crew members jump out of that plane The plane was called “Duty Calling.” Then we heard from a distance shots from a plane like an ME 262 . Then the parachutes disappeared. Our pilot yelled out, “Remember, war is full of lies and secrets and confusion.” It wasn’t right putting people in that terror and misery.
When that ME262 came in my sights, all those thoughts disappeared and it was time for blazing war. The bombardier said, “Here’s the artillery” as black flak mist was hitting the air around us. Then The B-24s were coming back from their armory raid right overhead. Their guns went off at an ME262 approaching. 10 of them were there in the mist . Jerry yelled. “Here we go!” I was hitting the trigger and the ground was covered with rounds. Then I slipped on one and grabbed onto Jerry’s jacket and he also fell as bullets from the ME262 ripped through and hit right where our guns were. Both guns fell and Jerry said, “were screwed!”. We heard quick screams from the top gunner and we quickly went to him and saw that he was all shot up. We laid him on the ground and laid his jacket over his head. We decided that someone had to do be the top gunner. Then the navigator said, “I'll do it” and climbed up. The Bombardier needed better gunners, so we got to the front of the plane as quick as we could. We got on the nose guns and started shooting away. Then the bombardier finally said, “drop away!” We could hear the whistle of the bombs and the crash and booms. You could hear the rest of the bombers drop too. The ME262 disappeared and artillery stopped. It was quiet. The flight back had a rumble sound to it . We just sat in our chairs and fell asleep . When I woke up, we were trying to get our landing gear down. The bombardier yelled at me and Jerry to go to the crank that got the landing gear down, but it was only halfway down. The navigator joined Jerry and was spinning the crank when it stopped in its down position. We landed and we were hugging and yelling, “we did It!”
When we got out, people were coming to plane to greet us. We kissed our plane and hugged our pilot.
“We fought, we won, and that’s what matters” said the General. Charles went up and punched him in the face. Me and Jerry were laughing .
After the war, Jerry went to Boston and settled down with a wife and had kids. I went back to Canada where I lived with my sister.
Around 40 years later, Jerry and I got together with our families and went back to Germany for a vacation. Everyone went to an art gallery and Jerry and I walked behind them recalling old times. They stopped and looked at a painting that showed a B-17 and ME262 flying around it shooting while the B-17 dropped bombs on factories. Jerry and I just stared at the art almost crying.
Jerry said “A lot of people died that day.”
“Also they got it wrong the ME262s were gone when we dropped the bombs.”
My name is Tom Vanderham and I was a trained waist gunner in World War 2. I was stationed at an Allied base in France, close to border of Germany. I had just arrived on a B-29 and our base was filled with B-17s and B-24’s. My name went over the intercom and I had to go to the General’s headquarters.
A bearded man was standing with medals and a tall pilot was standing next to him. The officer said, “This is your new waist gunner, Tom Vanderham, he’s the one you asked for.” The pilot looked at me with a smile. The pilot introduced himself as Charles and welcomed me to the Big bad Wolf, 8th Squadron. We had a 10 crew member plane, it was 73 feet and 10 inches tall with 4- 50 caliber machine guns,5- 30 caliber machine guns, and a butt load of bombs. He said, “You will like it here.” Then, we shook hands and he walked with me to our bunker. He said, we would head into the air tomorrow to attack an armory.
A tall dark man, who looked like he had been at a beach all day said, “It’s where they build tanks.” Then he said his name was Allen, he was from California and he was a top gunner. Then he asked me what I did. I told him I was a waist gunner and that I am from Canada. There was light-skinned Mexican speaking Spanish and looking at a map. His name was Alfredo and next to him, a tall man with a beard, whose name was Jerry. He was the other waist gunner. Jerry said, “Nice to meet you. The other crew members are playing football outside.”
Then the alarm went off. And all the others got their gear on. The jacket that they gave me was big on me, and had 3 holes in the chest area. We ran to where there was a green plane that had a picture painted on it of a wolf wearing a suit and a hat and holding a gun while smiling. We all jumped into the B-17. The waist guns were 30 caliber had to be heavy. The gun was on a track and you could move it up, down, left or right. That big gun had to be heavy. The bullets that we used were around two inches long. We learned back in Air Force training that these rounds were larger because fighter plane armor was always improving. Then Jerry walked in and asked, “You pumped?” I had never heard that before.
The pilot said were going now, so strap yourself in. The plane started to move and before I knew it, we were in the air. The pilot said we have an armor factory to bomb and that it was going to be an easy mission, in and out. Easy as pie. We had P-51s and Spitfires escorting us so it was going to be even easier than that.
Then, through the radio we heard that there were 15 planes coming. We could see them, they were small Italian fighter planes- C202s. The Spitfires rushed in. It was crazy how fast the Spitfires were destroying the C202s. Then one escaped from the Spitfires and began shooting a bunch of rounds at a plane in front of us. Then the C202 did a sharp turn and headed straight at our plane. I had it in my range and barely put my hand on the trigger when the 30 caliber let out around 25 rounds and it hit the plane right in the engine. The plane did a direct dive. Jerry said, “you got one kid!” All at once the fighter planes were gone. Then a fire arose on our right and it looked like the whole plane next to us had caught on on fire. Some one yelled “On our six” and again this time a German 109 curved like a C shape and headed straight at our 30 cals. I aimed the guns right at the cockpit of the plane and fired. The plane went down without fire, no black smoke. Jerry said, “you got a pilot kill!” I had just put another swastika on our plane now. It was this plane’s first Nazi direct kill Jerry had told me. I had a deep pain in my chest and didn’t feel so good. War is just war, I told myself and started to shoot at any 109s that I saw. I was shooting the tails off of planes. The swastika was gone on so many 109s, because of the way they do loops around the B-17s. It was so easy to shoot Hitler’s little symbol right off their 109s. The Navigator said, “One more mile, amigos. Here we come Hilter!” Jerry said, “go take a break. I will get the radio operator on your gun.”
I walked to where the bombs were waiting to be dropped on Armory. I heard my name being yelled. I ran to where Jerry was. He had blood all over him. I asked him if it was him that had been hit. It was the radio operator. His chest was filled with holes. The guilt was almost too much. Jerry said it was a mistake getting the rookie radio operator on a waist gunner’s job. Jerry started cursing the kids name. I went to my gun and after 2 minutes went by, he was still cursing that kids name. It was sad--Jerry was almost making a joke of it, but then he would start cursing the kids name some more. If I had to write a report on why Jerry was cursing this kids name, all that I would say is “so it goes.”
The radio operator was lying there still. His blood was all over our pants, jackets, and our hands. It looked like we had killed a man. I had a frown on my face because of how many curse words Jerry was yelling at the top of his voice. A kid got killed. His first mission, and it was mine too, but I was trained to be a waist gunner and that kid was trained to be a radio operator. After thinking and hitting 109s, we heard the bombs drop. The mission was a success, but it was really a failure, because the radio operator was killed.
The B-17 did a 180 degree turn really tight and Jerry and me started tumbling and so did that kid’s body. Jerry was really letting out some words now. I guess the kid’s name was Marty. Jerry started cursing again. It was horrible sight. After an hour of Jerry cursing and being covered with blood that was not mine, I was glad to see the landing field, and even happier when we landed. When we got out of that B-17 it wasn’t pretty. Alfredo asked me and Jerry what had happened, but then two medics brought the kid out of our plane and we ran to him, feeling more guilt. Then Jerry asked the medics if he and I could ride with them to pay our respects. The medic said, “He’s dead, but sure.” Later on, I found out that it was Jerry’s step brother that died.
After that we were asked to clean up our spot of the plane. We were still a mess, so we took a hose to it, but it wasn’t long enough. So Jerry again was complaining and cursing the hose, when some girls on bikes came riding by. I waved back and they laughed at us and said some words in French. I assumed they were not good words. Jerry turned around and started throwing things,got the hose,turned it on full blast towards both girls, and the girls fell and ran away. Jerry kept on spraying them. Charles walked up and said, “You boys will be single for rest of your lives.” Jerry got a look in his eye, like he had an idea. He pointed the hose at Charles and turned it on. Charles ran.
That night, they had a celebration for the success of the mission. I learned during that celebration that a lot of B-17 crew members were super cocky. I also learned that Jerry had an attitude that no one could handle. The Memphis Belle crew members came in making jokes and telling everyone how many kills they got and how many successful missions they had. All of us sat at this big table. The Memphis Belle crew came along and one of them said, “You boys did real well”. Charles stood up and said, “Was that a threat or a compliment?” Jerry then stood up too,then they all stood up, and a brawl broke out. I was in the middle of it and some how got out. Shortly after, a HQ officer came and shot his pistol into the air and the fight ended. The Big Bad Wolf and Memphis Belle officers were called into his office. Jerry stood next me and said “We are going to get a suicide mission out of that.”
The HQ officer raised his voice and said, “You both will be going on a difficult mission to an airfield where we think they might be making new planes- ME262s. Charles, you will not get a new radio operator, your waist gunner will be yours. You leave at 0600, you got it?” The Memphis Belle crew did their standard “Yes Sir”. We looked at him and said nothing. The next morning, we were ready. The plane was fixed and cleaned and it had 10 Swastikas for kills. The Memphis Belle had around 20 Swastika’s that represented the enemies it had taken down.
When we took off, it felt normal. Jerry looked in a bad mood. “We are going to die” he said. Charles made the navigator do the duties of the radio operator. He looked at us and said, “You guys should start acting like you’re in a world war and not act like you’re in high school.” Jerry looked down and saw an empty shell that we missed at clean up and threw it at him and it hit our new navigator right in the head. He started yelling at Jerry. I just watched. I had to keep myself from laughing.
We heard Allen yell “109s!!” and, man, they looked different. He planes began shooting and one spun so that the white bottom of the plane showed. When I saw the German Cross, I put my hand on the trigger, watched the wing fall off, and the plane spiraled into a burning ball of fire. There had to be at least 20 planes and we had no escort. The Memphis Belle had to bail and turn around because they had lost an engine.
Back at base, they were trying to reach us, but there was an intersection of so many planes and radios connecting. We could hear the Germans and there masked voices. It scared me. There were 109s everywhere, and their cannons could destroy a B-17. I heard stories of their cannons going right through a plane and hitting the pilots and anyone who was in the way. How many were shooting at us? It seemed like twice as many as I was hitting into balls of fire.
The navigator ran back to check on us, he ran back again in 2 minutes. He was out of breath. We had no idea of how close we were. He told us that we had 20 minutes until the drop sight. We made it to the drop sight, but our plane was a wreck. One engine was dying and we could hear it. Jerry went on with his cursing again, but this time it was toward the 109s. There were 3 left, and they were smarter. They were only trying to hit the back of the plane. When they went around us we could to see their cross and swastikas, it also showed us that their engines were smoking.
Then suddenly, we could hear the drop door open and we could see black smoke of the artillery hitting the cold blue sky. The 109s had disappeared and we could hear our bombs exploding. Once again, we made it through. The tail of the plane was falling off and there was holes all over the top of our plane. The only wounds suffered were my ears because of of Jerry’s cursing. There were only four B-17s left. We started out with 14. When we landed, it was a happy sight. The Memphis Belle crew was standing there waiting.
We were asked to go in to Headquarters where we found out that we had dropped bombs successfully. Unfortunately, they were trying to reach us during the mission to abort, because they wanted to capture and study the ME262s. They gave us our next mission to fly with RAF Lancasters and bomb a shipyard off the coast of Germany. Also, we would be dropping fuel tanks instead of bombs, so we would go an extra 20 miles and drop the fuel for our ships off the coast of Germany. We were going to be leaving in 5 hours, 8:00 PMA night raid.
When it was 7 o’clock, we boarded our plane. There was an unusual box on the plane so I opened it and there was a ton of flash lights including bigger ones with attachments for the 30 Cals. By giving everyone a flashlight, the time went by quickly and it was already 8 o’clock. The engine started so we strapped ourselves in, and the plane began to increase speed. We were suddenly 100 feet in the air and rising. There’s always this image in my mind when I close my eyes, of our plane nosediving on fire spinning to our death. I could hear the loud Lancasters engine and we could see the RAF symbol on the planes. There had to be 29 planes, maybe more.
We could see these lights coming out of the clouds like fire flies. Jerry said, “Big targets are easy to shoot down.”Then the pilot said, “Get ready, we’re in enemy territory.” Out of nowhere there was 9 BF110s. The Lancaster closest to us went crazy. Their gunner went nuts shooting at every BF110 and maybe more. Jerry had this smirk on his face and said, “This is a night raid and BF110 are night fighters, this is cool.” No planes were attacking us and the Lancasters were following their leader, who was not shot down yet. Jerry and I were hitting the BF110s noticed the armor on these planes was better than regular fighter planes. We felt like we had been lied to. We both agreed to protect our team and the leftover Lancasters. We decided to shoot at the glass of the planes and hit the pilot directly. We told the top gunner and the bottom gunners to go for a glass shot. There were BF110s coming right at my gun and my 30 cal rounds hit the glass and the plane went down. 10 minutes went by and there was only one BF110 left and the lead Lancaster shot him down with ease. There were only 10 Lancasters left now, and we started with 29.
The Lancaster on the side of us was missing a front part of the plane. Their bombardier was gone and so was their navigator. Our plane was just fine, no shots in it, no fires. They headed to the right and we headed to the right. We could see the fires below where bombs hit the shipyard. It was a success. Jerry said that night raids are easy.
We flew for another 15 minutes when we saw this blue light. “Drop away,” the bombardier yelled. We could see the splash when the tanks hit the water. The radio officer said we were close to the borders of Russia and Germany, so he asked if we could land at a closer base than U.S Command. So we were allowed to land at an RAF airfield.
When we landed our plane at the RAF airfield, we were called to another meeting with plans to bomb an airplane factory. The RAF officer said this would be the biggest bombing that allied forces have done. There would be15 B-17s,12 B-24s, and 16 Lancasters. The B-17s would bomb an armory and plane factory. This factory is where they made their bombers supply and it would stop this war one year early. “Meet, dismiss” he had said and Charles said, “Let’s do it!”
We got into our plane and I went to my waist gun, but there was a knock on the plane door. It was a young RAF officer around 28 years old. He said “Tom?” I walked toward where he was, and he told me that my Grandpa had died from a bear attack. The officer said, “You are aloud to bail this mission if you like Gunner.” I said that I would stay. He said, “Here’s a letter that he left for you. Do what you think is best.” I walked to my waist gun again and Jerry asked, “Are you o.k.?” I opened the letter and it was his medal that he got in World War I. I walked up to Charles and said, “You deserve this.” He asked me how I got it from my Granddad. He said, “Sorry for your loss, but we need to focus.”
I walked back to my waist gun and we took off. We flew all together for an hour. Then we separated into groups. “We have ME262s,” yelled our top gunner. It was a jet fighter. They were going around our plane they were hitting on another plane. The plane was in strands. The whole side of the plane had 2 foot wide holes in its side. The turrets were not shooting. Jerry said, “That better not be us.” We started shooting at any one we saw. A plane suddenly flew over and we shot 28 rounds and hit the engine of the ME262. They weren’t attacking our bomber though. Every other B-17 was grey and had blue stripe on it’s tail. Our bomber’s engines were yellow and we had a yellow tail. The whole plane was grey. It was a cat in a room filled with dogs. If there was a ME262 around, it would get shot even coming close to our bomber. The B17 who was next to our bomber, had an ME262 trying to hit him with missiles. He exploded in flames. Then we moved out as a squadron into the clouds. A RAF officer from the base tells the radio operator to get in the clouds, “it will give you cover.” We moved to the clouds. I was so nervous that an ME262 would run into the plane. Charles later told me that he was shaking, because he was so scared. After being in clouds for about 45 minutes, we dropped out of them.
Once we were out of the clouds, we saw what happened to those bombers. The damage was severe. The Radio Operator called in all 9 of the bombers. After calling, he found out that a lot of them had only 5 of their 9 crew members. One plane had it’s navigator flying the plane. Some planes had no turret. We were afraid. Jerry said, “this was a mistake.” “This terror of war, Its wrong. It’s like a war against yourself and what you believe in, and then getting yourself together to fight in it.” Watching the plane right beside us, we saw 4 crew members jump out of that plane The plane was called “Duty Calling.” Then we heard from a distance shots from a plane like an ME 262 . Then the parachutes disappeared. Our pilot yelled out, “Remember, war is full of lies and secrets and confusion.” It wasn’t right putting people in that terror and misery.
When that ME262 came in my sights, all those thoughts disappeared and it was time for blazing war. The bombardier said, “Here’s the artillery” as black flak mist was hitting the air around us. Then The B-24s were coming back from their armory raid right overhead. Their guns went off at an ME262 approaching. 10 of them were there in the mist . Jerry yelled. “Here we go!” I was hitting the trigger and the ground was covered with rounds. Then I slipped on one and grabbed onto Jerry’s jacket and he also fell as bullets from the ME262 ripped through and hit right where our guns were. Both guns fell and Jerry said, “were screwed!”. We heard quick screams from the top gunner and we quickly went to him and saw that he was all shot up. We laid him on the ground and laid his jacket over his head. We decided that someone had to do be the top gunner. Then the navigator said, “I'll do it” and climbed up. The Bombardier needed better gunners, so we got to the front of the plane as quick as we could. We got on the nose guns and started shooting away. Then the bombardier finally said, “drop away!” We could hear the whistle of the bombs and the crash and booms. You could hear the rest of the bombers drop too. The ME262 disappeared and artillery stopped. It was quiet. The flight back had a rumble sound to it . We just sat in our chairs and fell asleep . When I woke up, we were trying to get our landing gear down. The bombardier yelled at me and Jerry to go to the crank that got the landing gear down, but it was only halfway down. The navigator joined Jerry and was spinning the crank when it stopped in its down position. We landed and we were hugging and yelling, “we did It!”
When we got out, people were coming to plane to greet us. We kissed our plane and hugged our pilot.
“We fought, we won, and that’s what matters” said the General. Charles went up and punched him in the face. Me and Jerry were laughing .
After the war, Jerry went to Boston and settled down with a wife and had kids. I went back to Canada where I lived with my sister.
Around 40 years later, Jerry and I got together with our families and went back to Germany for a vacation. Everyone went to an art gallery and Jerry and I walked behind them recalling old times. They stopped and looked at a painting that showed a B-17 and ME262 flying around it shooting while the B-17 dropped bombs on factories. Jerry and I just stared at the art almost crying.
Jerry said “A lot of people died that day.”
“Also they got it wrong the ME262s were gone when we dropped the bombs.”