Sunday April 27 2008 05:15:10 pm

Received in email from Phil Schulz:
Milt, A good story. To bad that old B-29 sits out in the weather like that. It looks like some of the interior is not in too bad a shape. Have been looking and printing some of my Airforce History tapes on Walker. If we are lucky enough to get the same on Pratt from Maxwell AFB we will be in great shape to tell the History of PAAF. In looking at Walker's they give the serial numbers of the B-29s based there in a given month, number and precedures at the dental and hospital. Told how bad things were when the wind blew and no vegitation on 1400 acres of bare ground around the airfield and how the dirt did blow. In the month of December of l944 they used 1,0384,000 gallons of Aviation Gasoline. Had 534,000 gallons on hand at the end of Dec. They averaged 56 hours a day of B-29 flying and had 12 B-29s and 11 B-17s there most months. The crews lived in tents from March thru April in 1943. They had the base mostly complete the middle of 1943 and then it just set there in an idle condition untill the Fall of 43 when they got their first YB-29. It was the 11th service test one built. They borrowed a mockup of a section of a B-29 from Pratt AAF so the crews could study it. Things were very unorganized to say the least. Can you beleive the morale. I don't know how they survived the blizzards and severe cold in a tent. There is nothing up there to stop the wind as the airfield is on high ground. Wiring was bad on the NE-SW runway and had temporary lighting used. Water short in supply, not enough electricity. I don't know how they operated as well as it did. Things were not a well oiled machine. Thanks for the story. Would like to have that big engine they have in their museum for Pratts'. Phillip