I had gone swimming on that Sunday morning at Medical Lake,  near Spokane, Washington.  A short time later, the Washington State Police located me on the lake shore and directed me to accompany them. They would not tell me anything except that they were ordered to return me to Spokane AFB.

As we arrived at the base, they took me to the 345th Squadron Operation and directed me to report to the Operations Officer .  If memory serves me correctly,  he was Capt. Underwood. When I reported to him, still in my swimming shorts, he informed me that an armed conflict had broken out in Korea  AND the 98th Bomb Group was sending SIX (6) B-29s and that I had TWO hours to pack and be back at operations.

When I returned to Ops about ONE  hour and 15 minutes later, I was told the orders had been changed and the whole 92nd Bomb Group was going. I was ordered to report to the “Captain of the Guard”  in the big hangar.  There I was issued a carbine and ammunition and posted on a B-29 as a guard. My instructions was to allow NO ONE on the airplane without proper authority. Never asking OR being told what “proper authority” was, I took my post. This began a most boring night with ONE EXCEPTION.  Sometime later a STAFF CAR, emblazoned with STARS and FLAGS approached my post. I challenged the driver to “Halt and Identify himself. I asked   “What is your authority to approach this post”?   He pointed to the back seat. Suddently the rear window was lowered and an ID Card was thrust at me. I almost fainted as I read Curtis LeMay, General USAF on the card. I asked if his intention was to enter the B-29, if so “What is your Authority?” he replyed . ” I am checking the security of the base. I have no need to enter the airplan or your post”. I saluted and he ordered his driver to proceed on up the ramp. Nothing was ever mentioned about this, so I assume “no news is good news”.

The next day, all 98th along with 92nd ground support personnel moved the 98th B-29s  OUT of the hangars and 92nd B-29s IN.  We worked together doing perodic maintenance on the 92nd aircraft untill all the 92nd departed about a week later. The 98th began departing about the 1st of August.  The 98th flew their first combat against the North Koreans on the 7th of August 1950.

Herb Harper

Out of the Desert available now available at a special price.

We have procured a very limited, last print supply, of OUT  OF THE DESERT.   This book is now out of print with no further plans for a reprint. 

John Blundel was a T/Sgt. in the 98thBomb Group Photo Section. In this book, he tells of his assignment and experience with the 98th from Palestine, through North Africa to Italy. in his book “OUT OF THE DESERT”. Particular interesting is; He describes how most of the cameras were mounted and set up on the TIDAL WAVE, Mission (Low Level Ploesti).

The book is out of print with NO plans for a reprint. We have just obtained the remaining books from Turner Publishing and making them available at half retail price to our readers. The retail price was $25.00, so they are available to you at $14.95 post paid.

Order here:

Below is a picture of an attendence map produced with the Google Earth mapping software. 
Click on the picture for a larger view.

If you are familiar with Google Earth you can download this map and explore it to see EVERYONE who attended.  The .kmz file is located here: Google Earth 2008 98th Bomb Group Veterans’ Reunion

Here is a sample satellite image of several crashes.

Additionally, I have made a Google Earth tour.  If you have Google Earth on your computer, you can download the following .kmz file. 
Run the file and it will give you a tour of the crash sites.

.kmz crash file

If you have technical questions or suggestions about this process, let me know and I will attempt to help.

This is a work in progress and we already have over 1200 records in our database.
If you have further information or corrections for us, please let us know.

Turner Publishing is OUT of these books and both books are now OUT OF PRINT.

We have a small quantity left. Get yours now, just in time for our REUNION IN EL PASO.

CLICK HERE to order your copy.