· RUEL SK

30 CRUEL SKY
then, for McCormic~ the red "assholes" on the enemy planes had turned to black crosses
and the rear seat of a sleek A·20 to a waist gun position in a B-24 fuselage.
The waist area was pretty small. When looking or shooting at enemy aircraft, the
gunners would sometimes bump into each other. From the comfort point of view, this part
of the fuselage was highly ventilated by the slipstream blowing through the two open waist
windows. The only advantage was that the waist windows were convenient means to load
or unload guns and ammunition belts, or evacuate a wounded airman on a stretcher.
Furthermore, there was no such thing as a "coffin seat," only a thin aluminum skin between
them and deadly elements like 20-mm splinters and 88-mm shrapnel. So everybody was
doing his best to reinforce his position. One way to protect oneself was the flak suit. It
came in sections that snapped together, each section covering a specific area of the body.
The full complem~nt was quite heavy and would wear a man out if worn for a long while.
Waist gunners put an extra flak suit over empty ammunition boxes so they could sit by their
guns during assembly time.
Staff Sergeant Jack Laswell put his flak suit on the floor of the left waist gun
position for extra armor protection. Straight out of high school, he was flying his 15th
mission in the high-high-right squadron lead ship, with pilot 1st Lt Donald W. Smith. The
19-year-old gunner had flown with different crews in every gun position, except the top
turret. He found the ball turret was the best and most accurate of all but impossible to get
out of it ifthe ship had a problem!
Sergeant Plesa found his tail turret was prepared and maintained properly, although
he did not get a chance to boresight his guns as he wanted to. The ground crew assured him
that the vital checks were done.
Staff Sergeant Raymond W. Ray, Our Gars tail gunner had turned 19 in May. Even
though it was only his 8th mission, he was wise enough to wear the back and chest parts of
a flak suit and he sometimes sat on an extra one.
All checks completed, bunches of ambling Teddy Bears assembled mthe dar~
waiting for the signal to board ships. Everyone had his own way to cope with this anxious
time. Some would doze. Others did their usual amount of fooling. First Lieutenant
William J. Mowat came up in front of his crew with, "What's up Doc?" The pilot liked to
talk like Bugs Bunny "for fun." He liked the cartoon character so much that the ship Hot