Ben Kuroki, only Japanese-American who flew over Japan in WWII -- RIP

[Boggit]

Good read Mirth. Thanks for sharing.  O0

It shows how the Brass were willing to skew, twist and turn on the criteria to get the most missions out of their crews. I suspect that even the 50 mission tours might have been manipulated by the weighting system that many combat fliers did far more actual combat missions than they would get credit for. I don't suppose the RAF were any different, perhaps they were even stricter having a smaller pool of combat pilots to work with.

I suspect PTSD/Combat fatigue was widespread among the crews. Bob always was very down to earth, when he spoke of his experience. There was a touch of sadness, as he lost many friends. He said his brother was a changed man after fighting in the Burmese jungle against the Japanese, so I suppose the PTSD effect was relative (excuse the pun).

[JasonPratt]

I know Granduncle John never said how many missions he flew, but said he piloted one and a half tours. Never heard why it was only half a tour; perhaps he had to replace a pilot on a crew's tour. (Youngest pilot to qualify for the B-17; they might have brought him in that young for a special reason. I hadn't thought about that before.)

[Boggit]

I know Granduncle John never said how many missions he flew, but said he piloted one and a half tours. Never heard why it was only half a tour; perhaps he had to replace a pilot on a crew's tour. (Youngest pilot to qualify for the B-17; they might have brought him in that young for a special reason. I hadn't thought about that before.)

Potentially 75 missions at face value. When you consider the weightings applied to what constituted a mission for rotation purposes, it was  probably a lot more. It sounds like your great uncle was a real war hero, especially as he didn't make a big deal about it.

[JasonPratt]

He didn't like to talk about it; we got him to talk a little every once in a while, and then it was some sparse things about the fear. When he talked about the arrival of the Messerschmidt jets in the theater, that was the presentation -- how utterly unstoppably scary they were.

Mainly though I think he felt bad about having to bomb civilian areas. I would, too. A B-17 raid isn't a precision strike in the best case scenario. He always said it had to be done, but it still made him sad that it had to be done.

Sometimes I wish I could have convinced him to videotape (or at least audio) his memories before he died, but I don't think he ever would have agreed to. I'm 100% sure he considered himself not much better than a war criminal, and certainly not as a hero; but the latter is rather common of course. :)