On Thu, 18 Mar 2004 07:27:28 -0900, Dale wrote:

In article ,
(Corky Scott) wrote:

The Navy did some amazing work with the PB4Y-1 and -2. I've read/been
told of patrols as long as 18+ hours. They worked as single-ships or
two-ships most of the time. Brave men.

Dale L. Falk

He returned to the states after his first deployement, and worked up
in the PB4Y-2 as a plane captain. The -2, as you probably know, was a
B-24 with a single vertical stabilizer/rudder instead of the twin
rudders of the Air Force version. I saw a few photo's of him
practicing attacks on submarines, shot from another airplane. He said
he had to work hard to overcome "target fixation", which is the
tendency to concentrate on getting your aim correct on the approaching
target that you forget to pull out in time. I'm sure that happened to
more than one crew during WWII.

Anyway, he was headed back out for his second combat tour when the war
ended. He was "marooned" on Hawaii for several months, eventually
hitching a ride home on the aircraft carrier Saratoga, along with MANY
other returning Navy people.

Corky Scott