USO B-29 View

The Pratt Army Air Field and the crews trained here have won no small distinction in the part they played in the war. There were four Bomb Groups. First came the 40th, followed by the 497th. Then came the 29th which was succeeded by the 346th. The latter went across in the summer of 1945 making room for the final group - the 93rd.
The first Superfortresses to see active service over Japanese territory were trained at PAAF. They were of the 40th.
The first and last bombs dropped on Japan by B-29s were loosed by Pratt trained crews. The initial B-29 raid on Tokyo (this was by the 497th) was led by Lt. Colonel Robert Morgan. He had been a Flying Fortress pilot with the Eighth Air Force over Europe. His ship was the Memphis Belle, become famous through the movie short of the same name, depicting the plane's last bombing mission. Some time following his return to the States, Colonel Morgan, then a Major, was stationed here for Superfortress training.
The final bombs falling on Japan were dropped by the 346th just 36 minutes before the cessation of hostilities.
The first B-29 crewman to win the Congressional Medal of Honor received his training with the big ships at the base here. He was Sgt. Henry Eugene Erwin, youthful Alabaman and radioman who, with the rest of the 11-man crew, came to the Pratt field in September, 1944. In April of 1945, the plane, the City of Los Angeles, was over a bombing target in Japan. Sergeant Irwin pulled the fuse of a phosphorus bomb and dropped it in the chute. Because of a faulty fuse it exploded in the chute and blew back into his face. He took the burning bomb, generating 1300 degrees of heat, struggled through the crowded cabin and tossed it out an open window. He had saved the lives of the entire crew. Although burned so badly there was little hope of recovery he was returned to Iwo Jima, then Guam, then back to the U.S. where, at last reports, he is recuperating nicely.
Commanding officers of the field during its two and a half years of life were, in order of tenure: Lt. Col. John F. Nelson, Col. James Hammond, Col. George E. Lovell, Col. Emile T. Kennedy, Col. Kermit D. Stevens and Col. Reuben Kyle, Jr.
In its early days the Pratt field was used for the training of crews of the B-26 and B-17. However, they were soon succeeded by the B-29. The Pratt Tailwind, PAAF's popular publication, states that the Pratt Army Air Field pioneered the B-29 program of the Army Air Forces, being the number one installation exclusively dedicated to training crews to serve on the AAF's pride.
In a short history of the field the Tailwind, in the final paragraph of its final edition, has this to say: "The field brought much to Kansas and to Pratt itself, but no more than was given it in return by the people of the state and town."