09 Feb Moses Lake
On Leave ~ Brother Lou, Sister Dorothy and Herman in Spokane 1943
From June 16 until July 10th Herman was on leave and visited his family in Spokane. His next stop was 100 miles away — Moses Lake, Washington. When World War II started, the Army opened the Moses Lake Army Air Base for training B-17 Flying Fortress crews. Moses Lake, in the rain shadow of the Cascades, turned out to have ideal flying weather — clear weather most of the time, high cloud ceilings the rest. (Fittingly, in 1950 Moses Lake was renamed Larson Air Force Base, a tribute to the late fighter pilot Major Donald A. Larson (1915-1944) from nearby Yakima, who was killed in a mission over Nazi Germany.)
This is where combat crews were assembled and given their initial flight and gunnery training in preparation for going overseas. This may also have been Herman’s first encounter with a B-17. Most importantly, this is where Herman met the other nine men that from then on he would be traveling, living, eating, flying with.
There were two members of the original crew who did not fly on the Liberty Lady the day of March 6, 1943. (See the entire Liberty Lady crew list here.)
- Navigator 2nd Lt. Charles L. Stevenson (Steve)
- Waist Gunner Howard C. Granger (Howard)
I’m trying to imagine how these young men felt as they were being assigned to fly together in what they knew would be extremely dangerous missions.
THE MEN I LIVE WITH
To-day –
The men I live with …
To-morrow –
God only knows.
Each of us has a story
To write in red
Across the sky.
Each of us a glory,
A flash in the blue,
Then good-bye …
Today –
We study and live and love,
To-morrow –
God only knows.
Herman Allen 1943
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