Tapp was taking a nap, I was flying through some low clouds “fat, dumb and happy,” as they used to say. The clouds parted and a large, dark object loomed dead ahead. Banking sharply, I asked Stettler, “What was that?” Other startled crew members were inquiring: “What’s going on?”

Opps remarked Stettler.
“Why ‘Opps’?” I asked.
Pouring over his charts, he responded with the name of the mountain peak that jutted out of the ocean at that point. “Just for luck,” he said “Lets gain a little altitude, Kenny.”

Obliging him, I gained a lot of altitude.
To this day I believe God parted those clouds that night because he wasn’t through with me yet.

The Starting Conclusion of the War

By the first of August 1945, we were sure that a land invasion of Japan was imminent. However our missions continued and we hit another industrial target on the night of August 4. We were lying around in the Quonset hut the next day when we heard the unbelievable. The atomic bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima!

Rumors of the Japanese surrender were rampant.

While the stunned world waited for Japan to give up, a second A-Bomb was dropped; this time Nagasaki. Still there was no word of surrender.

We were called to another briefing. Our commanders informed us that they had orders to continue the aerial campaign.

On the night of August 13, we took off on another mission. We were told that if word came of the cessation of hostilities, we would be recalled. All radio operators were to listen for the coded message, “Break Utah Utah Utah Break”.

We took of f for the last mission of World War II, bomb bays loaded with 500 pound general purpose bombs. A few hours into the flight we heard a clear voice saying, “Utah.” When we radioed back for confirmation, there was nothing but silence. We continued the flight, wondering if some war—weary airman from our group had called out the expected code word, hoping to call off the war.

The Japanese defenses were as fierce as ever. We destroyed another factory complex at a city named Mito. About seven hours later, when we approached Guam, I radioed for landing instructions. The tower gave the usual traffic pattern instructions but this time the jubilant voice rang out, “You are cleared for a peace—time landing!”

When Tapp said, “You land it, Ken,” I made the smoothest landing of my career.

A final maximum effort mission flown by the entire 314th Bomb Wing was on September 2, 1945, as Japan signed the surrender terms aboard the Battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

It was a V—J Day show of American air power!

The formation was the largest that any of us had ever flown. The coordination was every bit as complicated as any combat mission. I would like to have seen it from the ground.

Each squadron of twelve aircraft had its own position in the aerial show. There were eighteen in the wing, making a total of two hundred and sixteen airplanes. With a one-minute separation between squadrons, that made the victory formation more than seventy miles long! If that didn’t impress the signers of the surrender papers, nothing would.