Destiny or Fate......eventually, in the end, it's all history

Growing up did you have dreams or aspirations of becoming something specific?  When you were young, did people say,  "You'll make a great leader or follower someday"?  Retrospectively, did actions or events in your former days lead to an expected or unexpected outcome in the future? Whether you believe in destiny or fate, the path in life you follow, eventually leads to your destination. 

Below are 2 pages picturing Robert A. Dempster, Jr, the eventual pilot of the Pistol Pakin Mamma, taken from the Freeportian, the Freeport high school (Freeport, Pennsylvania) yearbook.  Do these pages show a man destined to lead others?

It's sad to think that 9 of the crew went to their deaths, never knowing if their great sacrifices ever truly made a difference; they never lived to find that "we won the war".

A man said to me, at my father's funeral in 2003, "You're never forgotten until everyone who's ever known you are also gone".  I'd like to think, that by and from this blog,  we are keeping the memory of these brave men alive for future generations, that they'll never be forgotten.

A Well Endowed Woman: The Mamma Flies Again in color

I've had a dream for quite a while of someday making a copy of the origional nose art from The Pistol Pakin Mamma so I can eventually build a B-24J model and add the authentic art work to it.  Here's a bit map copy I made and colorized as best as I could with a mouse.  I think it looks pretty good.

The lines in her halter top aren't quite right but I think she'd be okay on a little plastic model.



Logs of the Lost: The Rene Brabender personal Mission Logs

More than a year ago I ordered the Missing Air Crew Report of B-24J, 42-72989.  At that time I wasn't sure how to proceed in my search for more information regarding the crew and their loss.  Low and behold the MACR included the crew's addresses and next of kin on the report.  Maybe the hesitation I felt to make cold calls to families of men long passed on came from the cold calls I made during a 6 year stint of selling insurance for a very large and reputable insurance company in Pennsylvania years ago.  But, these feelings were overcome by the lack of feeling in which printed copies of microfilmed accident reports leave one to feel.  Hey, 1944 was a long time ago,  maybe no one would be left?; what was I to do but hit the phones.  Lucky for me, one crewman was from Erie, Pennsylvania; only 2 hours drive from my home.  Looking in the phone book, I found the "Brabender" name in Erie.  I made the call and hit the right family on the first try. Well, not directly, but close enough to be of great help.  From these calls and a Youtube video the [Rene] Brabender family contacted me; they (Tim Brabender) in turn contacted the [Philip] Brodziak family. Also the [Richard] Smith family has found us via the video.  All of these families have been a great help in unraveling this story with and by their contributions. 

Aside from original letters written to my family from my great-uncle, some of the most pertinent information I have in my possession are the Rene Brabender Mission Logs.  These logs, kept by Rene, of the nearly day to day missions truly are the "gem of gems".  I hope that Rene and the crew are looking down and smiling.    These priceless bits of information were graciously provided by the Rene Brabender family.  These logs have been kept as is, except for annotations by me and color-coded links to pertinent information/photographs which I've added to the record. They have been emailed, printed, copied, scanned and posted so I hope they come out clear for you. It is with great honor that I present to you the Rene W. Brabender mission logs.

Please note: "Benjamin R. Cook, Jr.-observer", on the "Dottie Anne" crew roster above. Ben Cook was the co-pilot on the Pistol Pakin Mamma during their notable, harrowing flight on August 14th, '44.  I wonder if he ever suspected, he'd be bailing out of a plane within a months time, on August 3rd?  

Back to the Future

If you're like me, you sometimes have a "black & white" view of history; I blame this on the invention of photography. Your memories of day to day life may be in color, but your "hard copy" was recorded in black & white.  Living in our modern, Kodachrome color-filled days we tend to forget that the people of the past, themselves, really did see in color.  Though color photography has, in essence, been around since the 1860's, it's black & white that has prevailed and captured most of modern mans significant history to date.  I, being born in the early 1960's see my baby pictures in black & white; my first Kodak camera was a black & white model; my memories seem to be in black & white.  [Most] kids today have no idea what a "wringer" washing machine is, nor do they remember having to get off the couch to change the TV channel or adjust the rabbit ears, scratch their 45 or LP records on a phonograph, listen to AM only radio in a car, reel to reel, 8 track or cassette audio tapes and maybe some don't even know what a VHS tape is.  Do I dare say that today, with our "modern" entertainment technologies of Cd's, DVDs, MP3, MP4, E Mail, text messaging and smart phones, that even the wonder of  "color photography" may someday lose its significance? Imagine if the 1939 movie "The Wizard of Oz" were in black & white only.  Color production in its early days was an expensive endeavor; it [color photography] was used for items of high importance, things of significance. 

We've all seen the recent films and photographs of "WWII in color" on TV documentaries; these are a rarity indeed; if they were an item in abundance they wouldn't be marketed as "WWII in color"!  As you can imagine, while doing this study into the history of the Pistol Pakin Mamma, I've viewed thousands of photographs and videos of air planes in black & white only.  To me, it's of great wonder then, why?; of the thousand of photo's of B-24 bombers, that I know of only one offering in color photography; not colorized, but color.  It just so happens that the only color photo I've ever seen of a B-24 just so happens to be of Our B-24 ( I do know others exist).  The photo at the top banner on this blog is the one.  I found it on the web site B-24 best web from contributor: Robert Livingstone , author of at least 2 books pertaining to WWII aircraft.  I can't say who, where or why this particular photograph was shot in color, but I assume it was of/for some significance.  We must appreciate the fact that this is one of the few color photo's of a WWII plane. In my mind I'll believe, it was because she was a plane of significance with a crew of importance; one memory I'll always see in color.



An additional note: I now believe this photograph was likely taken at Wheeler Field, Hawaii as it had a modern concrete runway.

A letter for the Lost: Lt. Richard M. Smith account of crash

At the time of the downing of the Pistol Pakin Mamma on September 11, 1944, Lt. Richard M. Smith was able to bail out from the burning plane.  Approximately 45 minutes later, while floating in the waters off Marcus Island, he was taken prisoner by the Japanese.  I can't honestly say if my great-uncles widow or any of my family ever received a copy of this letter but I'm sure that Lt. Smith certainly mourned the loss of his crew mates, "his brothers".  This letter was graciously provided to me by the Brabender family.  Below is his [Smith] account of the tragedy to the best of his knowledge. 

Written to Rene Brabender's mother on November 6, 1945:

Dear Mrs. Brabender:

["I feel the loss of all my friends on the crew as much as though they were my brothers.  I wish I could offer you some hope and encouragement.  All I can give is my very deepest sympathy."]

Sincerely yours,

Richard M. Smith
2nd Lt., A. C.

"As nearly as I can remember, the following is an accurate account of what happened on the morning of September 11, 1944:

We arrived over Marcus Island at 1035 on the 11th of September and since there was no shipping there, we decided to drop our bombs on the island installations.

Almost at the time of bombs-away, we received practically a direct hit from anti-aircraft fire and started burning immediately.  The worst fire was below and forward of the flight deck.

Sgt. Brodziak, our engineer, left his turret position at once and we tried to put the blaze out with the extinguisher from the flight deck but the thing did not work and by that time we were just a mass of flames in the forward part of the plane.  I had torn off my flak suit, ear-phones and oxygen mask to get to the fire so I do not know if any "bail-out" instructions were given or not.

While I was getting my chute on, both Lt. Dempster and Sgt. Brodziak left the flight deck and I never saw either of them again.  Lt. Chambers, who was flying his first mission as co-pilot never left his seat.  I am certain he was killed instantly.

I ran down the catwalk and stepped out of the left-rear bomb-bay door which was still open.  Just a few seconds later, our bomb-bay gas tank exploded and the plane nosed over and dove straight into the water.  I watched it all the way down and not another man got out.  The whole thing was over from beginning to end in less than two minutes time.

I was in the water about 45 minutes when a landing barge came out from Marcus Island searching for survivors.  I tried to avoid them but they saw me and took me aboard.  They searched the area for an hour or so but no one else was about in the water.  At the island the Japanese told me three had bailed out, but one's parachute did not open and the third man drowned.

I had seen one other chute floating down below and behind mine, but I could not get near him.

I was held on Marcus for a week and then a plane was sent form Japan for me to take me to[Yokohoma (assumed due to blurred print)].  From there I was sent to a prison camp named Ofuna, about 20 miles southwest of the city.  There I was questioned and imprisoned until July 25th of this year (1945).  A group of us were then transferred to Omori prison camp where we were held until liberated on August 29th by Navy and Marine personnel.

The preceding paragraphs are absolutely all I know to tell anyone of what happened and I am absolutely sure I am the only survivor of "Pistol-Pakin Mamma"."  


 





 



B-24 cockpit video tour

This is one of the finest descriptive explanations of the Pilot and Co-Pilot flight controls for the B-24 on video that I've seen.  Please watch and appreciate the complexity of flying this heavy bomber and imagine flying this while under heavy enemy fire.