6th Ops Group veterans light up stories of bygone age

  • Published
  • By William Polson
  • 6th Air Mobility Wing historian
Long before the unit we know today as the 6th Operations Group came to Florida, it had a very different mission in a very different location. The 6th Bombardment Group had been assigned to defend the Panama Canal, but was moved, on paper, during World War II back to the United States to prepare for long-range bombing missions in the Pacific Theater. Many who had served with the old group in the Canal Zone stayed behind.

Meanwhile, a new band of brothers flew under the pirate with skull and crossbones - the distinctive emblem of the 6th that dated back to its first assignment on the Caribbean side of Panama. From April to November of 1944, approximately 1,400 men formed the ground crews and flight crews that would make up this new version of the Group. Initially in Texas, but later and primarily in Nebraska, they learned to fly huge, silver-gleaming planes that would later roar across the Pacific to help end World War II.

"These were the days of fanciful speculations and exaggerated rumors. Some typical stories were: a B-29 could fly non-stop around the world; it carried armament equal to a light cruiser (a Navy ship); it carried a bomb load of a B-17 squadron," according to the historical record, the Pirate's Log, of the Sixth Bombardment Group Association, a modern-day organization of 6th veterans.

"You have to remember that none of us had ever seen a B-29 before," said Don Gleacher, a former member of the 6th Bombardment Group who had served as a tail gunner on the Superfortress nicknamed 'Reamatroid'. "At the time, they only had these new planes over in the China-Burma-India Theater. We had only heard stories about the Superfortress. Most of us had trained to be a B-17 crewmember, but all of a sudden after we came out of training we had to know how to handle this new one."

Once fact had been separated from fiction during training at Grand Island Army Airfield, Neb., in the summer of 1944, these new members of the 6th Bomb Group learned they were headed to the Pacific. There, they would be stationed on Tinian, a small island in the northern section of the Mariana Islands chain. Their missions involved flying hundreds of miles across the Pacific, avoiding enemy fighter planes and anti-aircraft fire, bombing military targets on the Japanese mainland or dropping mines in the nearby waterways, and then hopefully returning back to Tinian before they ran out of fuel. Some of them didn't make it.

"One time we were attacked by Japanese Zero fighters, and one of our propellers was hit," said Milan "Emil" Dananay, who served as a tail gunner on the B-29 nicknamed 'Blind Date/Lady's Delight.' "We had to shut off the engine because it was vibrating so badly that it shook the plane. We had to make an emergency landing and have the propeller changed, but we weren't captured."

On May 23, 1945, Dananay and his crewmates weren't so lucky. During one of the most massive bombing raids of the war, 'Blind Date/Lady's Delight' was shot down near Tokyo. They were eventually captured and taken to the main prison of the Kempei Tai (the notorious Japanese secret police often equated to Hitler's Gestapo) in Tokyo, adjacent to the Imperial Palace grounds.

"I was scared," said Dananay. "I tried to hide the parachute, and then went into a cave. Eventually I got hungry and had to come out. A little boy spotted me in the fields as I was walking past a tomato patch. He ran back to the village and I ran into the woods nearby. Soon afterwards the soldiers started searching. I was caught in the woods."

More recently, some of those men who served during World War II came together for a reunion in San Diego sponsored by the Sixth Bombardment Group Association. The approximately 110 people who attended this year's event included 25 veterans with their family members and friends. They gathered to share their past with family, hook up with old buddies, catch up with each other's lives, and add a few embellishments to old war stories from long ago.

"It's just amazing how they light up when they get around each other during these reunions," said Jeanne Holmes, a co-organizer of the reunion. "Sometimes they'll start talking about stories that even their own families have never heard before."

One such story came courtesy of George Gresko, who experienced his own version of the old adage about a deceased feline being resurrected by the fulfillment of new-found knowledge. While serving on Tinian, he had heard of a brand new B-29 crew that was talking about how they were going to win the war.

"This didn't set to well with me," said Gresko. "Most of us had been on the island for some time, flying missions day after day, and we thought that was a little bit arrogant for this new crew to show up and say those things.'

One day, he wandered over towards the restricted area to take a look at this new crew's plane, when he was stopped by a guard who took his name and dog tags. Several days, later Gresko's aircraft commander pulled him aside and sternly warned him about staying away from the plane of Col. Paul Tibbets, Jr., named the "Enola Gay.' On Aug. 6, 1945, that same plane - painted with the 'Circle R' emblem of the 6th Bombardment Group to confuse any Japanese reconnaissance - dropped the first atomic bomb.

"It wasn't until after we heard about the bombing of Hiroshima that I understood what I had walked in on," said Gresko.

As part of this year's reunion, the City of San Diego sponsored a ceremony on Sept. 9 at the Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery. Guest speaker Air Force Col. (Retired) Clark Kholos recounted the many successes of these men as they flew some of the most dangerous missions of the war. "They earned over 2,250 combat awards individually in addition to the four campaign stars to their Asiatic-Pacific Theater ribbon and two Distinguished Unit Citations." As part of the ceremony, the City of San Diego issued a proclamation marking Sept. 9, 2011 as "The Sixth Bomb Group Day."

This year's event marked the 23rd time that the Sixth Bombardment Group Association veterans have gathered together over the past 27 years. Their first reunion in 1984 drew only 40 members, although attendance at subsequent events jumped to as high as 330. However, for those who came this year, and for those who will attend next year's reunion in Charleston, S.C., and wherever else after that, these reunions mean more than just a number count.

"For us, this is about the things we've done, the places we've been, and the airplanes we've flown," said William Webster, who had served as an aerial photographer for the Group. "This is a chance to see the other Group members and share a very special bond. This is camaraderie.