B-17 brings back memories for area residents

For many of the several hundred people gathered at the Central Nebraska Regional Airport on the Fourth of July to see a B-17 Flying Fortress come to town, it was indeed a "Sentimental Journey."

That was the name of the B-17 flown by the crew of the Arizona Wing of the Commemorative Air Force that touched down in Grand Island Friday.

But for Richard Nietfeld of Grand Island, it was a "Sentimental Journey" back to his boyhood on a farm in the St. Libory area, when the B-17s, stationed at the Grand Island Army Air Force Base, came flying overhead.

Nietfeld also remembers one of the B-17s crashing in 1943 near Husker Highway and 150th Road, by Wood River.

"I wanted to see the plane and look around it," said Nietfeld, a Korean War veteran who was with his wife, Lorna. "We kind of took notice whenever they flew over when I was a kid."

For George Dorn of Grand Island, seeing the B-17 brought back memories of a time when he worked on the planes as an Army Air Force mechanic near Warrington, England, the site of the largest U.S. Army Air Force Base outside the United States.

Dorn said a lot of the B-17's crew never made it back after their bombing missions over Germany.

"But, as long as the pilot didn't get hit, they could bring them back in and land them," Dorn said. "And I seen some of those planes after they landed. They were all shot up with holes blown into their fuselage (main body of the aircraft). It was hard to believe how those B-17s could still fly, let alone land. I wanted to see one of those B-17s again because I worked on a lot of those engines."

This four-engine heavy bomber was an aircraft of legend with its "ability to return home despite extensive battle damage, its durability, especially in belly-landings and ditchings," according to a Wikipedia article. It dropped more bombs than any other plane over Germany during World War II.

Dorn credits the B-17 as the plane that helped the Allies win World War II.

"It was that generation that gave us the right to live in a country where we know freedom," said Shelby Bolke, a crew member of the Arizona Wing of the Commemorative Air Force, about the pilots and crew that risked their lives flying the B-17s during World War II. "A great number of these guys made the ultimate sacrifice to give us that right."

Shelby said it's in the memory of those pilots and crews that CAF members restored the B-17 and fly it around the country.

"They were 18- and 19-year-old kids," Bolke said of those World War II B-17 pilots and crews. "This plane was never pressurized or insulated. At 37,000 feet, it could be 60 degrees below zero in this aircraft."

Of the great sacrifices made by those young men, Bolke related the story of a B-17 raid over German ball-bearing factories on Oct. 14, 1943 (known as "Black Thursday”) when, according to a Wikipedia article, "Of the 291 attacking Fortresses, 59 were shot down over Germany, one ditched in the English Channel, five crashed in England, and 12 more were scrapped due to battle damage or crash-landings, a total loss of 77 B-17s. One hundred and twenty-two bombers were damaged to some degree and needed repairs before their next flight. Out of 2,900 men in the crews, about 650 men did not return, although some survived as POWs. Five were killed and 43 wounded in the damaged aircraft that made it home, and 594 were listed as Missing in Action. Only 33 bombers landed without damage."

"That's the kind of sacrifice these guys made for us," Bolke said. "We are out here to honor all the veterans, not just the ones that flew."

John Klingenberg now lives in Hastings, but was a youth during World War II living on his family farm near Chapman.

"When we were growing up on the farm this (Central Nebraska Regional Airport) was an active air base and there was a lot of B-17s here," Klingenberg said.

As Klingenberg remembered his youth, overhead the B-17 circled the Grand Island airport. Not only seeing the plane again, but also the thundering sound of its engine triggered memories for Klingenberg.

"It got to the point where we could recognize the engine sounds," he said. "Dad would be eating a meal and he would say, ’Here comes a B-17,' and my sisters and I would dash out the door and Mom would be sitting there at the table all by herself."

Klingenberg remembers there were many planes that came from and flew to the Grand Island Army Air Force Base.

Toward the end of the war, the base's primary mission was to train pilots and air crews of Boeing B-29 Superfortresses for overseas duty in the Pacific Theater.

"They (B-17s) would take off and make a circle to the east, which was just a little bit from our farmstead (about eight miles from the base)," Klingenberg said. "It was kind of awesome growing up with that many planes around. You got used to identifying the planes by the engine sounds."

Sentimental Journey pilot Mel Tiensvold of Prescott, Ariz., said the plane was built toward the end of the war and did not see active service.

Of the 12,000 B-17's manufactured during World War II, half of them were the "G" model, which was the type that visited Grand Island Friday.

The plane was equipped with 13 50-caliber machine guns, though it was primarily a bomber that could carry up to 8,000 pounds of bombs depending on the distance of its mission.

The Commemorative Air Force was formed in the early 1950s and now includes more than 11,000 members, several hundred of whom serve as pilots and flight or maintenance crew members committed to preserving World War II American aviation heritage. They are all volunteers.

The CAF is responsible for operating a fleet of more than 140 airplanes known as the Ghost Squadron. CAF is a nonprofit that's privately funded and self-supporting, dedicated to preserving the military aviation heritage of World War II.

Tiensvold said CAF's goal is to restore those World War II aircraft as working models and not museum pieces.

"We want people to know what these planes were like," he said.

Tiensvold said the planes are part of America's heritage.

"The most satisfaction that we get out of this is when we actually have someone who was involved with these planes," he said.

And the stories they learn from these veterans are "phenomenal," Tiensvold said, such as the veteran who came up and put his hand on the bomb bay door, stood there for five minutes and then "broke out in tears."

"They got all the farmers off the field who were 18 and 19 years old and took them to a strange country and thank God they did what they did or we'd be speaking German or Japanese right now," Tiensvold said.

LaRue Rehrs of Hampton was also a young child growing up on a family farm during World War II near Hampton.

"I remember the noise that came over," Rehrs said.  "You knew they were coming. It was a different sound and you knew what it was."

Seeing the plane brought back memories for Rehrs of World War II and the sacrifices many of the "Greatest Generation" made to defeat the Nazis and Japanese. She had family members and family friends who served this country during the war, but didn't come back.

It was a time of reflection for Rehrs.

"I just wanted to see it again," she said.