Quoted: B-17 gunners shot down more enemy aircraft than any other WW II weapon system...the "Great UnSung".....

Ahhhhh......The B-17 Flying Fortress..........what I would give for a chance to ride in one of those......

Thanks for sharing!

My grandfather (rest his soul) was a ball turret gunner in a B17's. He served a short time as a aerial gunnery instructor in FL, and spent two years in the Mighty 8th over Fortress Europa. I think he really wanted to be a pilot or even a navigator, but his small stature trumped his degree, he was turned down for officers training and immediately assigned to aerial gunnery. He was 4'10" and weighed about 85 pounds.

He was born in a tiny town in W Va, worked as a young man in a coal mine until he had saved enough money to attend Marshall University. He graduated from college and vowed never again to set foot into a mine. Given the fact that he finished school in the middle of the great depression hw was very lucky to get a job as a pipefitter in a chemical mill in Charleston, where he worked until he learned that his older brother had joined the Army, and felt obliged to do the same. After the War he returned to the states and went back to work for Union Carbide, on the night shift. He then decided he needed something to fill all of his free time so he opened a Texaco Station and ran it. Of course this left his weekends free to operate one of the local drive-in theaters.

Copper was one of the meanest men I ever met in my life, but he was also the hardest working. He believed in sacrificing for his family, he never missed church, and he was loved by the entire community, including the governor of the state who attended his funeral.

Did I mention that he also joined the USMC Reserve after returning home, and served part time until he was medically discharged after he suffered a debilitating stroke?