Aero Vintage Books

Robert L. Woolfolk, my mom's uncle, served in the 390th BG, 571st BS, on board B-17G-25-BO 42-31651, FC-G, Decatur Deb. This aircraft was shot down by fighters on May 28, 1944, near Magdeburg, Germany. The mission was to Koenigsburg. Robert Woolfolk was a UCLA Olympic-class swimmer who became a bombardier and was on his fifth mission. Seven others from the plane perished, and three were taken prisoner. I have MACR 5259 and have seen photos of the crew jackets, but can't seem to find a photo of the aircraft's nose art. Any help would be most appreciated.

Start Looking through the 8th Airforce websites

Thanks for your pointers. Surprisingly, the 390th Bomb Group Museum at Pima doesn't seem to have a photo of it either. I'll keep looking. I'm hoping by having this post here, when someone does find a photo of it and tries to research it, they'll see this and contact me. I do have a photo of a jacket in the 390th Memorial in the UK, which shows the same lettering as I've seen on other Decatur Deb jackets.

Thank you for your help.
Nick

P.S. To Dik: I went to the MGM auction in Culver City as a youth and saw all those great planes. A neighbor of ours worked at the studio, and we got to stick our heads in a few. I recall a PB2B and some others. Your photos bring back some great memories![/img]

My wife is the daughter of one of the former CEOs of MGM. Wish I would have married her earlier than i did,I might have had a shot at one of those birds.

Yeah, it's a shame. They were all given to The Air Museum, but Ed just couldn't afford the expensive of moving them. Also, there were other factors involved.

And, like I said before, the people that had the money weren't interested in helping and the people that had the interest in helping didn't have the money.

Hey Dik, you are right on the money.

Mr. Bill Varnedoe is a great historian, and has a lot of information on the Mighty 8th. You might want to contact him. He is a former Air Combat Veteran as a Navigator on B-17s. Hope it helps you out.
billvar@comcast.net

Hang the expense;

I was thinking the same thing about the three B-29s that Disney used to do that movie: "Last Flight of Noah's Ark".

My First cousin's husband was the Disney Exec in charge of Overseas productions.

If I had just been a bit older. As it was I was having trouble finding room for an extra GTO. Let alone a B-29 or two...or three....

Thanks for the lead, Gary.

And JMKendall, I have two B-29 tail gunner's compartment projects for sale or trade if you'd like to get that B-29 fantasy going...
Nick