B-17 Decatur Deb

[Nickster]

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.

[gary1954]

Start Looking through the 8th Airforce websites

[DryMartini]

Have you already looked at the 390th BG web site?
Contact them - they may be able to help.

http://www.390th.org/

[NickV]

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]

[hang the expense]

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.

[DIK SHEPHERD]

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.

[hang the expense]

Hey Dik, you are right on the money.

[gary1954]

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

[jmkendall]

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....

[NickV]

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