1st Lt. Carroll G. Snustad, AC, Crew 56, 62nd Sqd

The following was written by Eleanor Snustad, Carroll Snustad's widow.
Thanks to Paul Satran, their foster son for sending this.

In April of 1945 1st Lt Carroll G. Snustad and his B-29 crew of 10 were stationed on Guam in the Marianas. From their base, North Field (now Andersen AFB), they would fly 25 bombing missions over Japan, of which two were over Tokyo. After the war ended this crew flew back to Japan two times, while the Peace Treaty with Japan was being signed on September 2nd, 1945, flying over the battleship U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay. From Guam to Japan was six to eight hours of flight time and the round trip was twelve to sixteen hours in the air over water.

Their B-29 was named Snude’s Dudes by the crew members. This crew did not return to the States as a group after the war was over, because Carroll was hospitalized on Guam with a malignant tumor. Crew members returned to the States one by one as they managed to ride along on other B-29s. The sad story is that Tex Evans, navigator on all the Snude’s Dudes missions was killed when the B-29 he was riding in to come back to the States, crashed on landing in California. Tex Evans was from Vernon, Texas. Carroll and I visited his mother in 1947.

After the war, Carroll went back to work for Hastad Electrical Engineering in Halstad, Minnesota, a job he held before he entered service in the U.S. Air Force. After the war, the REA was a government program bringing electricity to rural America, beginning in the early 1940s. Carroll, with a crew, surveyed the area and established where power lines were to run, which ultimately led him to be elected Manager of the Halstad Telephone Company in 1955, which included four other Exchanges in the Red River Valley of the North. He held this position for 12 years until his death from cancer in June of 1967, at the age of 48.

Carroll was very active in civic affairs, as well as a dedicated Christian man of faith. He was instrumental in the planning for building the new ALC Halstad Lutheran Church in Halstad, Minnsota.

In July of 1959 Carroll and Eleanor adopted a baby girl, Paula Jane who turned age 2 in May of 1961. In June of 1961, Carroll and Eleanor were asked to consider taking in 3 brothers that had been orphaned, Paul, Scott and Steve Satran ages 11, 9, and 5. Carroll saw this as a real challenge. He said about the war, he was spared for a purpose, so there was no question about what our future would be like: making a home for them in their growing up years.

Carroll Snustad Date of Service was from 16 April 1942 to 30 October 1946

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