Two Days in the Life of a B-24 Crew
Take a fantasy flight in a real, live Liberator.
- By Stephen Joiner
- Photographs by Chad Slattery
- Air & Space magazine, July 2011
Jamie Stowell, the sole female cadet, enjoyed her turn at a .50-caliber machine gun. “I’m not a gun nut,” she says. “But oh my God! It’s just astonishing power.”
Chad Slattery
Try not to show it’s your first mission on a B-24. As the aircraft banks into a bomb run, .50-caliber waist guns jackhammer the air with bursts of defensive fire. The bomb bay doors growl open, and the fuselage is filled with hot wind and exhaust fumes. On one of the bombs, someone has scrawled a greeting to “Adolph.” A huge cross mark has been mowed into a hay field below and covered with hundreds of pounds of puff-producing white flour.
Welcome to World War II Bomber Crew Fantasy Camp. Don’t get stuck in the ball turret. Or call sergeants “sir.”
The camp is sponsored by the Collings Foundation, a group known for preserving and flying vintage aircraft, and the 2010 session drew 12 “cadets” willing to pay nearly $4,000 each to experience two days as B-24 airmen. On its Wings of Freedom tours, Collings offers glimpses of air combat with fly-alongs in its renowned warbird collection. Fantasy Camp, however, turns toe-dipping into total immersion.
“It’s a vision I’d had since grade school,” says Taigh Ramey, president of the nonprofit Stockton Field Aviation Museum in California. Ramey, who owns Vintage Aircraft, a company specializing in the restoration of warbirds and antique aircraft, provided radios for Collings’ fleet, then expanded into piloting the classic airplanes. Four years ago, he presented his idea to foundation executive director Rob Collings: “I said, ‘Hey Rob, could we, uh, drop bombs out of your planes and shoot the guns?’ Rob thought for a minute and said, ‘I don’t see why not.’ ”
There were a number of reasons why not. “You’re taking an historic airplane, restored to look authentic, and making it into an aircraft capable of doing everything it did in World War II—not just looking like it could,” says Collings. The period-faithful had to be made 21st century functional. Ramey and about 10 volunteers from the Stockton Field museum had to reactivate inoperative bomb racks and rewire gun turrets. To support .50-caliber machine guns that actually fired (rented from suppliers to Hollywood studios), they reinforced gun mounts.
Locating a target range appropriate for the cement bombs was also an issue. Luckily, Stockton Field museum vice president Ken Terpstra has friends with large, private ranches. One friend made his ranch available for the bombing runs; another for a gunnery range.
Paying participants started booking in 2009, and, despite the moribund economy, last year’s camp had one more camper than the 2009 session.
DAY ONE, 7 A.M. In the lobby of a Holiday Inn, a pair of uniformed U.S. Army Air Forces non-coms—1940s-correct down to glasses and wristwatches—bark out a roster of names. Guests at the continental breakfast bar gape as the olive-drab cadre boards a bus bound for the training school at Stockton Army Air Field (better known as Stockton Metropolitan Airport).
Brothers Chris and Craig Connor from Long Island, New York, are on the bus. Craig is a U.S. Air National Guard flight engineer on Lockheed C-130s. Both brothers are hardcore World War II buffs and collectors. “To experience even a minuscule cross-section of what bomber crews endured during the war is going to be incredible,” Craig tells me. “That’s why we’re here.”
In the shadow of the Stockton control tower, Ramey and the volunteers have transformed the Stockton Field museum’s 1970s prefab hangar into a World War II barracks. Bunks and footlockers line one wall. Belts of .50-caliber ammo overflow stenciled wood crates. A lounging re-enactor reads circa-1940s magazines. On the walls are posted orders in the jittery font of manual typewriters, and the mock mail from home bears three-cent victory stamps.
Out in the parking lot, the vibe is decidedly pre-New Army. “Get this through your thick skulls,” roars a sweating sergeant named Murphy at campers standing at attention (sort of). “See these stripes? I actually work for a living. I am not a ‘sir.’ ”
A 60-year old ex-Marine, Tim Murphy is one of about 10 volunteer re-enactors populating the illusion. Most are members of the Arizona Ground Crew Living History Unit, based in Phoenix. Genial and low-key behind the scenes, Murphy describes their mission simply: “Folks come here wanting to be immersed in World War II. Well, we’re gonna drown you.” He plays the part like a B-movie character actor, bellowing and blustering, venting harangue and sly humor. All part of the make-believe, sure. But when Sergeant Murphy gets in your face, you wipe off that grin and shape up.





Comments (10)
I participated in this amazing experience.
Your article and coverage are factual. After reading Mr. Joiner's story I can again smell and hear Witchcraft on the bomb run.
Bravo to your Publisher, staff, and Stephen Joiner.
Maurice (Mo) Levich
Lafayette, Ca
Posted by Mo Levich on May 18,2011 | 09:02 PM
great...I'm an old USAF flight engineer korea 1952. B-24...tough way to make a living.
Posted by bob sayles on May 23,2011 | 12:27 PM
Thanks for the great story. While I'm not an aviator, I have done engineering on 60s-era fighters, and remember vividly the smells and noise in the factory and the hangars. Building warbirds was a unique experience that I wouldn't trade for anything. I'll save my allowance for the B-24 camp...
Posted by Tom O'Brien on May 25,2011 | 01:31 PM
We have B-24 and B-17s over Sacramento now and then. My children have gotten used to the old man dropping everything and rushing out the door to see what the engines making "that
sound" are attached to. As a former mechanic for P-51 and F-80s, who grew up on pulps like "G8 and his Battle Aces" and "Battle Birds", I'll never outlive my love of the smells and sounds of aircraft operations. A moment of pride comes from finding a tome in a used book store in Sonora, titled, "Log of the Liberator". Heavily bound and loaded with pictures of about every one built (I think) I was able to share it with a friend who flew '24s in the Pacific at a time when he was dying of cancer ... yes, he found his old bird.
Posted by ron stone on May 25,2011 | 07:50 PM
My late father was in the 13th squadron and a tailgunner in a B-24. I have a better idea of what he went through during WWII.
Thank you for archiving this piece of history.
Posted by PAUL J. NESTEROWICZ on May 31,2011 | 12:12 AM
We just finished Class 44-3 last week. It was wonderful seeing two of Class 44-2 return for another go. Even Ms. Roosevelt showed up on the last day to stop by and say hello.
This is a fantastic experience for myself and all the Training Cadre from Arizona. The Collings Foundation and Taighs people at Vintage Aircraft are terrific to work with.
Our only regret is that we will have to wait until next year to do it again with Class 44-4.
If you have ever wondered what it would be like, reading about it is no substitute, you have to get yourself to Stockton and participate in this wonderful experience. Its all tax deductible too.
Yours in Service,
William D. Gaston
Captain, Arizona Ground Crew Living History Unit, Inc.
www.arizonagroundcrew.org
Posted by William D. Gaston on June 9,2011 | 04:08 PM
Had a short ride on Witchcraft on 06 09 2011. we developed engine trouble and had to set her back down. No danger to crew or passengers. As I was having conversation with the pilot Jason, we started talking about bomber camp to which I was clueless. I was so stoked I checked out this article in Air and Space magazine. I hope to be enrolled in the 44.4 class. My only connection to aircraft was building models as a teen and the 24 17 25 26 and the beautiful p 38 were a class act to a boys attic room. My father also flew in in those same aircraft but in a belly landing in Sarasota Florida was blinded for three months keeping him out of the war. See you in bomber school! !
Posted by eric gohs on June 12,2011 | 07:05 PM
Got to know a pretty special guy, Ralph Negely, for about 10 years....he was a Gunnery Instructor; much of the time at Whidbey Island....Ralphie said that to qualify, one had to hit 15 or 20 of 25 trap targets (clay pigeons), while standing in the bed of a pickup moving on a dirt road at 25-35mph....I'm rarely that good standing on the ground.
Posted by W.Lee on July 4,2011 | 11:45 PM
Flew as Flt.Engineer {3,000 hrs] on the Liberators,
training flight crews,
This was the high point of my 30 yrs flying in the USAF.I loved the old bird.
Posted by Lee V Mcdaniel on December 25,2012 | 10:52 PM
My father in law flew as radio operator/gunner with the 15th airforce out of Italy. I wish he were alive today to experence such an adventure such as this. Thank you.
Posted by Kenneth Dupre on March 21,2013 | 11:03 PM