In about January 1944, Col. Parker was ordered on temporary duty to the U.K. to fly some combat missions for experience. All Group COs were, by edict, to have combat experience. Some weeks later I received word that Parker had been shot down over Germany and I was to continue as Acting Commander. The promised date of deployment, which (I believe) was February 1944, obviously could not be met because the B-29s simply were not available in numbers, nor were they ready for combat due to many modifications required. In the midst of all this confusion and bustle, Gen. H. H. Arnold paid us a visit, and I never saw so many people and agencies covering up their tracks and keeping out of Hap's way. However, the 40th didn't come up with any criticism that I became aware of.

A labor disagreement of short duration occurred on a cold Sunday morning in early 1944 at Pratt AAF, Pratt, Kansas. The 40th Bombardment Group was working around the clock to meet General Hap Arnold's deadline to prepare its new B-29 bombers for departure to an unknown overseas destination. Most of us were spending a solid 18 hours daily on the flight line, seven days per week. The weather was atrocious with surface temperatures below zero, driving north winds and giant snow drifts across the parking ramp.

Tuesday, 2/29/44, Leap Year Day. Got up at 0630 and had a light breakfast with Doc Lee Hall, then rode to Oklahoma City with Bob Haley and John Nordhagen. We picked up B-29 #308. After we fixed a couple leaks, we got back to Pratt at 1700. I only got to log one hour Co-pilot time. This ship is really swell. It is better modified than the others and has most of the radar already in it. We cruised at 225 mph all the way home. I really like it, but all four (4) engines have to be changed!

In the early part of the winter, we gunners had too little to do. We couldn't get much B-29 flying experience--too few B-29's. Sometimes we found useful things to do: we took link trainer lessons, or stripped and reassembled machine guns, or went to the malfunction range to learn more about the guns. But we spent day after day playing the pinball machines and betting who could get the biggest score without a tilt. As I recall it, Al "Moose" Matulis was the informal champion, and we kidded him that he must have wasted his childhood in a pinball parlor.

We had only a few days remaining in the states when we got our ship. We got our engines changed, had one test hop slow-timing, a hop to calibrate our airspeed meters, and a longer one to test our cabin pressurization and navigation equipment, and we were nearly ready, although we didn't know it.