When I first started reading the Dukes stories I found them extremely interesting and very humorous. What I didn’t know at that time my life would parallel his. In January I was diagnosed with Leukemia. I went through the various chemotherapy and was determined that the Leukemia was in remission. I then entered what is known as consolidation treatment where I would undergo more Chemo spread over a four-month period. This Tuesday I went in for a blood test and was scheduled to enter the second treatment when I was told the Leukemia had returned. Next Wednesday I go back for a blood test and a bone marrow biopsy and then its’ back to some very heavy chemotherapy.
I don’t want to trade on the Dukes passing but with my cancer and my long-term involvement in the aviation industry I felt there was some parallel in our backgrounds. I started in high school and I’m now 74 years old. I have some humorous stories to tell and some that are just interesting. Some of these stories involve my association with the Douglas A-26 Invader, which was a favorite of the Dukes.
In 1947 I lied about my age and joined the Ohio Air National Guard and was assigned to the 112th Bomb Squadron that flew the A-26 out of the Cleveland Airport. I was scheduled to be sent to aerial gunnery school but that was to be several months in the future. I was not given any training on the aircraft not even in how to climb into the rear gunnery compartment. About a week after joining we had an emergency drill to see how fast the squadron members could assemble and get the aircraft launched. I had to travel 17 miles on streetcars and busses so when I arrived most of the crews were waiting for me. I donned my flight suit and ran to the plane. As I said I received no instructions and in climbing into the gunners compartment I did not lock the gun post to the floor and when I climbed up the gun post swung around and I hit my head on the gun post knocking me out. The aircraft was being run up and I fell to the ground and the aircraft taxied away leaving my prostrate form on the taxiway. The pilot just behind us radioed to our pilot telling him “Hey Rocknowski you just dropped a meat bomb on the ground. The procession stopped, I was revived, and then I was told how to climb into the gunners’ compartment.
On another occasion I climbed into the gunners compartment but on this aircraft there were no guns and I had to sit on a plywood floor. The pilot told me that if I wanted to talk to him I was to press the red button. However I was not told where the red button was as it was normally installed on the gun post. In mid flight I wanted to talk to the pilot and I pressed the only red button in sight. THIS red button opened the bomb bay doors and in the process four or five metal strakes projected into the wind stream. The strakes allowed the bombs to drop free with minimal impact from the airstream. Needles to say our airspeed dropped by almost 100 knots.
On another occasion we were participating in the 1947 air races. We were going to demonstrate low level bombing. While we were awaiting our call up we all sat on the ground just in front of the bunting covered railing and the spectators were all sitting behind the railing. The Cleveland Police were there with their horses and horses do what horses do. The ground was covered with road apples. There was a squadron of P-80s that were to fly before us and as they started their run-up they turned as a group and proceeded to the taxiway. As they gunned their engines it was obvious that the road apples were about to become airborne. Seeing this we all jumped over the bunting covered rail and hid from what was about to happen. The people most of whom had never seen a jet all stood up and were splattered with airborne horse sh!t
