In 1939 a South Dakota Farm boy, (who later became my Dad) was 21 years old, and set off across country, hitch hiking with $15 in his pocket.  When he crossed the Golden Gate bridge in 1940 with 50 cents left in his pocket he worked his way up to see his brother at Hamilton AFB in Marin County and enlisted in the Army Air Corps.

After basic training he was an enlisted man assigned to a manned Balloon Squadron in Washington State when the war began. The call went out that pilots were needed and he took and passed the requirement for that. Flight School in Texas, and after soloing, he started training for Bombers. He was assigned to the 96 th Bomb Wing at Peyote, Texas. From there he rotated over to Snetterton, England and started raids against the 3 rd Reich. His 3rd mission was August 14 th , 1943, mission 115, Schweinfurt, known in the history of the 8 th Air Force as “Black Thursday”. He was assigned to co-pilot Captain Tom Kenny's plane, The Fertile Myrtle III. The Unit Commander, Colonel Archie Olds, designated that aircraft the lead aircraft for the raid, and took over his job as co-pilot. In addition to carrying the usual crew of 10, it also had the lead navigator and lead bombardier on board for a total of 12. Dads job was to assume the tail gunner's position and also act as Squadron Coordinator for the Unit Commander who had to synchronize the attack and fly the plane as co-pilot at the same time. He would tell Colonel Olds the status of the flight (group of aircraft in the attack) positioning etc, and the Colonel would adjust the attack accordingly.

They were part of the 3 rd wave to attack the Schweinfurt ball bearing factories that day; all told there were 376 aircraft (B-17s and B-24's) dispatched, 291 made it over the target. 60 of those failed to return. 5 crashed in England on landing, 12 that did land were so battle damaged that they were scrapped, never to fly again. Total loss was over 600 Flight Crew and 77 aircraft. Of Dad's unit, the 96 th , 41 were initially dispatched, 32 made the raid, 7 did not return. Dad witnessed them being shot out of the air at 21,000 feet. It is considered to be the largest air battle ever, even today. The target was so far into Germany that the defenders could attack the bombers on the way in, land, refuel and rearm, and attack them on the way out. And the Fertile Myrtle III was the lead plane.

After dropping their bombs and on the way back over Rheims they were hit by flack, killing the navigator, wounding the pilot, co-pilot, and the bombardier, and blew away the Plexiglas nose, setting two engines on fire. They dropped from 21,000 to 11,000 feet due to the loss of power and were immediately jumped upon by 5 German ME110 fighters looking to finish off the cripple. They fought the fighters off, downing two, which took the fight out of the others and limped home on two engines.

That raid almost changed the course of the air war. The 8 th Air Force was seriously considering eliminating daylight-bombing raids because of the losses sustained.

Another time returning from a raid they were in the landing pattern when they noticed aircraft flying alongside them. It was German Bombers raiding their field! Both the B17's and the Heinkel's were on the same flight path, at the same altitude, but accomplishing different objectives. Dad's flight had to land, they were low on fuel and couldn't divert, and the German's had to drop their bombs before they could return to their bases. They did have the gunners on the planes shooting at each other also. Imagine that when you start thinking your home free.

Dad said that every time he went up during the war, he always brought the aircraft back with another 50 holes in it. I do have a picture somewhere of him sitting in the left seat, the pilot's seat, big smile on his face giving a thumbs up. Only you look out the window in that picture to the left wing and see that the furthermost engine is all twisted metal, flames and smoke! I keep asking myself “Why is this fool smiling?” when I look at that picture.

After his 25 missions he came back to the states and landed in South Carolina. His flight of returning Veterans picked up some Major who thought he had new flyboys and not Veterans on his hands. He lines them all up and informs them that they are going to learn how to fly “Tight Formation” for this hop. Somewhere over Tennessee one of the pilots learns that he's become a father and the whole flight overlaps wing tips by 3 feet and plays “Rock-A-By Baby” across the whole state. The major had to be relieved of flight status and assigned a desk job till his nerves calmed down from that experience.

Dad had 700 hours in the B17 and 1,500 hours in the B-29, finished his career in 1960 and lived till 2008.

THE 25 COMBAT MISSIONS FLOWN BY

LT. JAMES WAYLAND DUNLAP

1. BONN GERMANY-------------------------------------------------------AUG. 12, 1943

2. MERVILLE FRANCE-----------------------------------------------------AUG. 15, 1943

3. ABBEVILLE-POIX FRANCE--------------------------------------------AUG. 16, 1943

4. REGANSBURG GERMANY (ABORT, O2 SYSTEM FAILED)--------AUG. 17, 1943

5. WOENSDRECHT HOLLAND-------------------------------------------AUG. 19, 1943

6. WATTEN FRANCE------------------------------------------------------AUG. 27, 1943

7. BRUSSELS BELGIUM---------------------------------------------------AUG. 31, 1943

8. ST. MARDYCK FRANCE------------------------------------------------SEPT. 2, 1943

9. ST. MARDYCK FRANCE------------------------------------------------SEPT. 3 1943

10 STUTTGART GERMANY----------------------------------------------SEPT. 6, 1943

11. WATTEN FRANCE----------------------------------------------------SEPT. 7, 1943

12. PARIS FRANCE-------------------------------------------------------SEPT. 9, 1943

13.. PARIS FRANC E ------------------------------------------------------SEPT. 15, 1943

14. LAPALLICE FRANCE--------------------------------------------------SEPT. 16, 1943

15. RHEIMS FRANCE------------------------------------------------------SEPT. 26,1943

16. SCHWEINFURT GERMANY (BLACK THURSDAY)-----------------OCT. 12, 1943

17. WILHELMSHAVEN GERMANY---------------------------------------NOV. 3, 1943

18. RJUKAN NORWAY----------------------------------------------------NOV. 16, 1943

19. BREMEN GERMANY---------------------------------------------------NOV. 29, 1943

20. BORDEAUX FRANCE--------------------------------------------------DEC. 5, 1943

21. EMDEN GERMANY-----------------------------------------------------DEC. 11, 1943

22. KIEL GERMANY---------------------------------------------------------DEC. 13, 1943

23. BREMEN GERMANY----------------------------------------------------DEC. 16, 1943

24. LUDWIGSHAVEN GERMANY-----------------------------------------DEC.30, 1943

25. PARIS FRANCE--------------------------------------------------------- DEC. 31, 1943

AIRCRAIRCRAFT FLOWN BY JAMES DUNLAP FROM JAN. 1943 UNTIL GROUNDED IN APRIL 1952. TOTAL RECORDED FLIGHT HOURS 2,255 (94 DAYS).

includes time in link and other trainers.

PT-19, BT **(SUSPECT BT-13),  AT**(SUSPECT AT-6),  B-17,  B24,  C-78,  BT-13, AT-11,  B29, B-50  C45,  C-47, C54,  C46, SA-10(CATALINA),  T-6