Honor Flight DFW trip #10

Loren entered the U.S.Army Air Forces on November 27, 1942. After basic training he was sent to Denver Colorado to attend the Army’s photography school. He trained there and was subsequently sent to the China, Burma, India Theater also known as the CBI.

Loren soon found himself in Jorhat, India in the north Assam Valley. As happens many times in the military, Loren’s photography unit was disbanded and he found himself as a perimeter guard at the base.

He served in this duty for about four months and then was assigned as an Air Transport Technician. This was a fancy term for an airplane loader according to Loren.

After serving in this duty for another four or five months he was assigned to the 82^nd Squadron of the 12^th Bomb Group that had been recently transferred from Italy to the CBI Theater.

One day there was a call for a volunteer photographer/gunner on a B-25 Mitchell bomber. This was the same airplane that flew in the famous “Doolittle Raid” over Tokyo Japan in 1942. The book and subsequent movie “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo” chronicled this famous mission.

Loren was given a quick, one week familiarization school on the B-25 and also airplane identification. Photography gunners initially were not part of the B-25’s crew. The designer of the aircraft provided for a fixed camera under the radio operators seat. The problem with this was that after a bomb run, the aircraft usually took evasive action to avoid enemy planes and flak. The fixed position of the B-25’s camera was then virtually useless in providing an accurate record of the bombing mission.

An obvious solution was to have a photographer who could shoot pictures of the damage caused by the bombs by holding the camera out an outer door or window on the airplane. The good thing is that Loren finally was able to do his job and flew 52 missions. The bad news was that photo gunners were not authorized and could not receive promotions.

Three memories stand out in Loren’s mind. The first was when the Japanese cut off the base at Jorhat after they invaded India. The second was when his crew had to land at a very short airstrip in India because the plane was running out of fuel. The third was when his plane was shot up during a low level run over southern Burma and the twin engine Mitchell lost one of its engines.

Loren received an Air Medal with cluster, the Asiatic, Pacific service medal with three battle stars, and the Good Conduct medal. His unit also received a Presidential Unit Citation.

Loren was discharged with the rank of Corporal on October 21, 1945.