For the last nine weeks, Apple TV has released an episode of Masters of the Air, the latest WWII drama series by the producers of Band of Brothers, so Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg are associated with it. I purposely haven’t watched any of them so I can binge-watch them in one weekend, and that’s what I did this past weekend.
It may not measure up to Band of Brothers, but I highly recommend it. I think it was better than The Pacific, which aired in 2010. Too bad this series wasn’t made earlier. Band of Brothers aired 21 years ago and had the emotional benefit of interviews before the start of each episode with the actual soldiers on which the book and series were based. Most of the vets are now dead. My guess is that at least 98% of them have passed.
I would have loved to have watched it with my father. While he didn’t fly on the B-17 bombers the series was based on, he earned his wings in the Navy during WWII as a gunner flying in the PV-1 Ventura, which I have pictured at the top of this post. My father is in the photo below. He’s either the second or third from the left. I feel like this is something I should know, but I’m pretty sure he’s the one in the middle.
I remember renting the Spielberg film Always from Blockbuster in junior high, really enjoying it, and recommending Dad to watch it before we had to return it the next day. Blockbuster had those two-day rentals. I always thought it was a little sleazy that the day of rental was considered a full day. Anywho, I remember walking to the kitchen. Dad just finished watching the movie. We were always the type to be kind and rewind. Not to mention, we didn’t want to be fined. It was always our habit to rewind immediately after viewing. Dad was shedding a few tears, wiped his eyes, and called me “Boy” like he always did. He said something like, “Boy, you picked a really good movie. It brought back a lot of memories of my flying days. That plane was similar to what I flew in.” Up until then, I had no idea he flew while in the service.
In case you were wondering, the plane in the film was an A-26 Invader. And here’s another piece of movie trivia for you, it was Audrey Hepburn’s last film.
After watching the last episode of Masters of the Air, I decided to go through a few of my father’s things related to flying days. Here’s his 1940 Bluejackets Manual and a flight log. His military career started when he enlisted in the Navy after Pearl Harbor. After the war, he joined the Ohio National Guard and then went into the Army for the Korean War. He retired from the Army in 1968.
Looking at the flight log led me to do a little research. For instance, I didn’t know what the “Character of Flight” column was for or its entries. Here’s what I found:
C – Training
Y – Nite Flying
G – Gunnery
J – Scout-Patrol Escort
O – Utility
V – Instruments
I loved my father’s penmanship.
Searching for subs sounds cool, but may have been a little boring. Bombing certainly sounds exciting. Dad did have a story about his plane being shot down, the pilot landing on the water, and knowing from training he only had x-amount of seconds to get the life raft out before the plane submerged. I believe everyone survived, but they were lost at sea for several days and his parents were informed he was MIA. I noticed all the dates were two to six months after D-Day, June 6, 1944.
The High Velocity Aircraft Rocket, or HVAR, also known by the nickname Holy Moses, was an American unguided rocket developed during World War II to attack targets on the ground from aircraft. It saw extensive use during both World War II and the Korean War.
And they were indeed a part of the PV-1 Ventura: These aircraft could also carry eight 5-inch (127 mm) HVAR rockets on launchers underneath the wings.
From my understanding, in the military sense, a rocket has to be guided to be called a missile.
I think only one PV-1 Ventura exists. One took 16 years to restore (without engines) and is on permanent display at the Orlando Sanford International Airport. I would very much like to see it in person one day, but it’s not presented in a way in which I would be able to view it very well. I learned in this video there are guns at the top and the rear. In the rear, the gunner would have to lay on his stomach, and I think Dad mentioned that.
