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Frank
Wrublevski
Offutt AFB 1990
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Our
crew flew to Guam with our assigned plane piloted by Lt
Heimlich and Lt. Quinn. It was a long flight from California
to Hawaii and the weather was perfect. Our second stop
was Wake Island for fueling; the weather was rainy and
misty which made it difficult for our navigator, Lt Doty.
The island was a speck in the ocean. If we missed it,
we could have ran out of fuel and been lost at sea. Thank
God we landed safely. On the following day we arrived
at our destination - Guam.
We
were assigned to our living quarters and met with the
other crews. We went on only one practice mission and
bombed Rota before we got the word that we were going
on our first mission. It was an incendiary attack on Tokyo.
For a green and inexperienced crew, we really got the
hottest target in Japan. Also it was Friday the 13th but
we were lucky that it was a night mission. This meant
we waited for no other crews to make a bomb run and had
less chance of detection. Somehow we came in on the wring
heading and bombed Tokyo against the grain but came through
without a mishap. Someone was watching over us and we
returned safely to our base.
Our
second mission was Kawasaki of April 15. It was also a
night mission. The flight to the target was uneventful
so we were able to rest before we reached the destination.
We were unlucky this night; the Japanese caught our plane
in searchlights and we were able to use every available
weapon they had to shoot at us. Again, we were in and
out and returned without a scratch.
By
the time the war was over, we had 24 sorties to our credit
plus two aborts. Our crew always sweated take-offs because
of the bomb load and the short runways but we all returned
to our loved ones after the war was over.
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