After being called to serve, Yogi went from Willington to Fort Sill, Oklahoma for basic training. His first assignment was to the newly formed 25 th Infantry Division as a truck drive. Soon after arrival he responded to a notice calling for applicants for pilot training. He took the tests and by the slimiest margins qualified for flight training. While completing basic flight training at Amarillo, Texas he was involved in an accident and as a result was no longer medically qualified for pilot training.
With the newly acquired skills of piloting an aircraft he then went to Louisville, KY to check out as a glider pilot. Within two months he requested a transfer to another specialty. A friend of his that had also entered into glider training was being towed by a C-47 when the tow rope disconnected from the tow aircraft but not the glider. The tow rope snagged on the tree tops and the glider crashed killing the pilot. The incident prompted the request for a transfer.
Yogi then reported to Tyndall Army Air Field for gunners school. He would qualify as a gunner on a B-29. Part of the training involved riding in the back of a truck along a course where clay pigeons were launched and the gunners fired at them. On his first live fire mission against a towed target the gunner students hit more than just the tow target and in fact put a few rounds thru the tow aircraft. The tow pilot resigned his job after that mission.
With each new assignment, Yogi traveled but train to reach his new destination.
After qualifying as a gunner on a B-29, Yogi reported to the Pratt Army Air Field in the early summer of 1944 to be matched with a crew preparing for deployment to the Pacific Theater. He would spend six months at the Pratt Field. On one mission the left main gear would not extend. Yogi did his best to crank the gear down to no avail. For the rest of the night they flew around the area to burn down gas in preparation for a crash landing. At just after dawn the B-29 began an approach into Tinker Army Air Field, Oklahoma City, OK. After touchdown the aircraft came to rest on the left wing tip and came to a stop off the runway. One of the members of the crew had previous experience with B-29 crash landings and was the first to jump out the window to escape a possible fire as that was very likely to happen in such situations. The aircraft did not catch on fire.
B-29 crews were assigned to a specific aircraft but didn't always fly that aircraft. When they were scheduled for a training mission they took whatever aircraft was available. They had a seven day work schedule and were allowed to attend a movie at the base theater on Sunday. They did not go into the town for relaxation. At one point Yogi’s wife joined him in Pratt and with thirty day’s leave he rented a third floor apartment in town.
Most of his training missions were for a new co-pilot who had to practice instrument flying and landings. The eleven man crew practiced with 500 pound bombs that were dropped in a river bomb range.
When the crew was ready for deployment they were given ten days of leave before departing. It was during this time that Yogi had acute appendicitis and had an emergence operation. As a result he was a day late and did not get to go with his crew to Sacramento, CA to pick up a new airplane for the trip to Guam.
By now it is late 1944 into early 1945 when Yogi traveled by train to McCook, NB for high altitude bomb training in the B-29. To operate at high altitude all guns but the tail gun were removed from the B-29 and the crew members for those positions were then called “Observers“. Part of the training for high altitude bomb missions was a trip to Jamaica to drop on a bomb range there. The trip involved a flight of five B-29s in a “V” formation. Over open water the flight entered weather for a brief time. When the formation broke into the clear again the lead aircraft was missing. There was no distress call and the flight members could not detect any signs of bailouts, aircraft wreckage, or oil slicks. The Army and Navy conducted ten days of search and rescue but not a single clue could be found as to the disappearance of the lead aircraft.
The bomb training in Jamaica lasted 30 days. After completing the training the crew took off for the return flight to McCook, NB. A short time after becoming airborne the crew experienced an engine fire. In the B-29 if the engine fire was severe enough it would weaken the engine mount bolts and the engine would fall off. The Pilot in command gave the crew the option of bailing out or staying with the aircraft as they planned a landing in Florida. All of the crew members elected to stay with the aircraft. Just before landing the fire went out and the aircraft landed safely. For the next ten days they stayed in the Floridian Hotel while another engine was flown in and the aircraft repaired. One evening during that stay the crew left the hotel to go out for dinner. On the way they met three girls and during the course of a conversation with them Yogi discovered that one of the girls was from Willington, TX and lived across the block from his parents house. She was there to visit her farther who was an aircraft mechanic at the base. It is always a small world.
After leaving McCook the crew went to Sacramento, CA to pick up their new airplane for the trip to Guam. On the way they landed in Hawaii and Quadulan Island before arrival in Guam and North West Field. Night bombing missions were conducted against the southern Japanese islands.
A few months after arriving in Guam, Yogi went to another bomber organization to check on the crew he had trained with at the Pratt Army Air Field. He was told that the crew had been shot down on their third mission over Japan and there were no survivors.
In August of 1945 his crew was stood down. They were not told why but later found out that their aircraft had been modified and equipped with cameras. With that done it was their mission to conduct reconnaissance of the Little Boy target area and to take pictures of the mushroom cloud resulting from the bomb dropped from the Enola Gay. They were fitted with special suits and dark goggles for the mission. At high altitude they were above the cloud and too high for a fighter response. With the modified aircraft they were also tasked to photograph the second atomic bomb drop.
There was a few days after the second bomb drop where Japanese surrender was being contested by hard liners in the Japanese military. On August 15th, 1945, 130 B-29s loaded with 500 pound bombs took off for what would be The Last Mission and the longest mission lasting eighteen hours. The attack was against strategic targets in northern Japan. One enemy fighter was observed well behind the force and no action was taken to engage the fighter. That fighter pilot owed his life to the bomber pilot that directed no action be taken that day. Three B-29s were lost. The Japanese then surrendered. The story of this mission has been featured on the History Channel. Yogi participated in this mission.
B-29 crew members were released to return to the states based on a point system involving time in service, time in theater, missions, etc. Most were sent to the dock to await a ship for the trip back to the states. Yogi was selected to join the crew of a B-29 taking a senior officer back to Washington to testify before Congress. The aircraft landed in Denver, CO. Yogi departed and was processed out of the Army. He received a $300 discharge allowance paid with $100 cash and a $200 account balance. He was also paid $23.60 travel money.
For his 2 years 9 months of service Yogi received the Air Offensive Japan Ribbon, Asiatic-Pacific Theater Ribbon with two oak leaf clusters, the Good Conduct Ribbon and the World War II Victory Medal. Yogi and his wife raised three girls and two boys. He now lives and still works their upholstery shop in Colorado Springs, CO.
Source:
Ross A. Moon
Colonel USAF Retired
Colorado Springs, CO
Pratt High School

Class 1957

Hiroshima

Nagasaki (Result of "Fat Man" Weapon)