After the various training phases at Salina in late 1944 and early 1945, the group was sent to Batista Field, Cuba for over-water radar and navigational training. Some of the experiences there were oftentimes amusing as well as exciting. One of these occurred at 0300, when Crew 10 was rushed to the flight line for 0500 takeoff. The crew hurriedly piled out of the truck and rushed to their assigned B-29. Suddenly A/C Tom Bell exclaimed, "Hell, it only has three engines!" Things like this seemed to happen periodically at Batista. Crew 10 eventually was assigned another more airworthy plane and took off into the blue to accomplish that day's training assignment.

When Crew 10 arrived back at Salina most of the other crews had been home on leave, returned and departed for the Pacific. They soon received their B-29 at Herington, Kansas and followed their comrades to North Field, Guam, by way of Mather Field, CA, Hawaii, Kwajalein. It was on this barren atoll that they first learned of the death of President Roosevelt. It was also the crew's first introduction to spam.

They finally reached their destination of Guam about mid April 1945. The island with its lush greenery was stark contrast to that they had expected. The quonset hut that was to be their home wasn't bad either. Jones met up with an old boyhood chum stationed at the Navy Base at Agana. There they renewed old friendships. Furthermore, when Elmer was looking for something better in the way of food, he knew where to go. Sooner or later, most of the airmen became regular customers at the Navy galleys.

The first 12 missions of P-10 were regular bomb runs, their first, on 24 April being a daylight raid on Hitachi Aircraft Plant near Tokyo. They got their first look at Mount Fuji on the way in.

Mission 13, on 22 June, was a special assignment for this crew. They were to make a bomb run - with no bombs - on a particular target solely to take radar photos. This they did singly in advance of the main force. Elmer often wondered if they had been made guinea pigs to see if the Japanese would shoot down a single plane. About 16 of the 30 missions that P-10 flew were this type of special radar run. These were not considered reconnaissance flights inasmuch as they accomplished the main force.

Another of these special radar missions was made on 30 June (Mission # 16) - this time to Hiroshima and Kokura at an altitude of 28,000 feet. This was much higher than any of their previous missions. On the way to Japan they encountered mechanical problems and found it necessary to land at Iwo Jima for quick repairs before proceeding on. During this brief stop, the crew decided to look over the island. They walked atop the concrete bunkers overlooking the beaches below that the Japanese had built to counter the Allied invasion. Through massive and believed indestructible, they failed to turn back the U.S. Marines. Wrecked tanks and other military equipment still littered the beaches. Every B-29 airmen grew to revere these men of valor whose blood and sacrifice gave us this oasis in the vast and threatening waters of the Pacific. There were few, if any, flight crews that didn't seek refuge there in an emergency situation. By so doing, many of these crews, and planes, were able to survive and fly another day.

While reconnoitering this volcanic isle, they passed by a Quonset displaying a shrunken Japanese head atop a four-foot pole. They walked briskly past this gruesome trophy and proceeded on and up to the top of the historic Mount Suribachi. It was here that the most remembered picture of World War II was taken.