The following was related by Eric Brewster about his dad, the professor Dr. Rudolph Brewster, who flew in the Army Air Corps in WW2. It's a great story. Not a "sea story" per se but a great story about what was clearly The Greatest Generation. My dad was one of those as well and I preserve this story in the memory of all of those people.

Here’s the fabled B-26 story:

B-26s were probably the hottest planes ever produced in WWII. They were medium range bombers that were sometimes flown as fighters because they had unusually large engines and were very maneuverable….an engine miss would result in immediate loss of altitude. They had short wingspans and were highly maneuverable…..therefore, a mischievous treat for young pilots. Remember, in WWII there were a lot of 20 and 21 yr old pilots who delighted in buzzing local populations on training missions. The Army Air Corps liked ‘em young, because they flew without abandon and fearlessly as they just didn’t think about mortality. My dad was flying with a young Captain in South Dakota who was buzzing cars on the highway. I mean, mere feet above the rooftops of the cars……they would come up the underside of a large hill, swoop over the ridge and if a vehicle was coming over the ridge it would scare the bejeebers out of them. Well, they didn’t know that a fully laden coal truck was coming up the other side and when they went over the ridge, they hit the load of coal piled up in back. It took away their belly-slung antennae and started peeling away the belly skin like a sardine lid being rolled up. My dad had to climb along the main beam with a hatchet cutting the rolling skin away. Their parachutes fell out of the plane as well and there was a fuel leak. With radios and other instruments, they didn’t know where they were and started looking for a base to land, not knowing if the landing gear had been damaged. After hours of circling around and about to run out of gas, they saw a runway in the distance and it was a base in Wyoming. As they circled, they saw the firetrucks and ambulances lining up for the impending disaster. They managed to land okay….they climbed down out of the plane as the tail gunner fell out of his bay covered with coal dust, promptly sat down on the runway and emptied little piles of coal dust out of his shoes. There was much ado over the incident, the Captain was never seen again and the story made its way all over the Eighth Air Force command. Fifteen years ago, my dad showed up at a Confederate Air Force show where the last B-26 was appearing. My dad casually mentioned the coal truck incident and the B-26 veterans welcomed him into the plane as a member of the legend that still was being told and remembered. Yes, Dr. Rudolph Brewster, English professor lived through some outstandingly crazy experiences. Twelve years ago that plane crashed, thus ending an era as it was the last B-26 in existence…..over 1,500 were produced…..my dad did shed a tear for the passing of the last link into the past. He tells of one time a B-29 bomber was quartered in their hanger and an Airman must have been wandering around in the cockpit and hit the landing gear switch. The whole bomber collapsed on the hanger floor with a resounding whomp! It took days for the bomber to be disassembled, removed, crated and sent to Pratt, Kansas for rebuilding.

There were heroic times and there were humorous times. I’m sure some of the rest of you have similar stories of crazy young kids at war…..their humorous stories….their heroic stories…..their stories that affected them the rest of their lives. It’s important that we share and perpetuate those stories so The Greatest Generation is never forgotten. My dad maintains to this day that his war years in the USAAC were the greatest days of his lives. He maintains contacts with old USAAC buddies, but they’re going fast. Thus endeth the epistle according to St. Eric The Windy…..I hope you enjoyed a piece of the past.

Eric