Radio Silence and Death over Frankfort

A couple of weeks ago, at a meeting of airtanker pilot in Reno, Walt Stewart
was a guest speaker.
He was a pilot on B-24, and his bombs were actually the first to hit the
refinery. "Utah Man" was the name of his B-24 and there was a documentary
video made about it a while back.

He talked about how on the way there, his navigator realized that the
formation
had turned about 40 miles too early, using the wrong railroad for point to
start the turn.

They were 2nd in their particular group in the formation, and they were
completely sure that turn that was made was wrong, but was unable to
question
it on the radio, due to radio silence.

Shortly afterward, the #1 plane in their group turned back out of formation,
and headed towards the right target, which they were happy about, because
they
knew it wasnt just them that knew a navigational error had been made.

He did stress how gutsy it was though, to just turn the particular group out
of
the formation like that, and its a gamble that if you are correct, you are a
hero, and if you are wrong, off to Ft Leavenworth you go.



Ron
Pilot/Wildland Firefighter




I meant to say it was Ploesti I was talking about...


Ron
Pilot/Wildland Firefighter