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Landing a B-17by
Bob Bowman | |
If
readers of this column ever stop calling or writing me about East
Texas history, I suppose someone will have to put me out to pasture.
And
speaking of pastures, long-time reader Ray Jayroe called me recently to tell me
about a day in the 1940s when the pilot of a B-17 plane ran out of gas and decided
to land on a dirt road at the McQueen farm at Keltys, a sawmill town near Lufkin.
As it coasted down the road, the plane nosed into a pond.
But
the men in the neighborhood somehow pulled the plane from the pond, filled it
with gas, and the pilot prepared to take off.
However, at the other end
of the road stood a cluster of trees. The pilot’s new-found friends soon cut down
the trees and the pilot revved up his engines and took off to the cheers of Keltys
onlookers.
The B-17, a valued addition to the U.S. Air Force family, was
the product of World War II.
It had leak-proof gas tanks, a “stinger” turret in the tail to fight off
attacks from the rear, and other features seldom found on other planes.
With
firepower on the front, back and top, the B-17 was dubbed “the flying fortress”
and could take enemy planes in stride without protective escorts. It could also
lay its bombs, known as “eggs,” from eight miles up and then get back to its home
base safely.
Often called ”the bomber with a fighter’s zip,” the B-17 contributed
immensely to the U.S. Air Force’s air superiority during World
War II.
Ray Jayroe was only ten years old at the time and had the mumps. But the B-17’s
landing at Keltys impressed him so much that he remembers the Keltys event with
the clarity of a good spring of water.
Ray went on to become a long-time
employee at Southland Paper Mills, Inc. at Herty, another small town near Lufkin.
Southland also made history, too. In the 1940s, it became the first mill to make
newsprint from southern pine wood fibers.
But that’s another story.
Bob
Bowman's East Texas July 25, 2010 Column
A weekly column syndicated
in 70 East Texas newspapers
Copyright Bob Bowman
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