Sharing their memories
Lolita Harper
They sat relaxed in the hospitality suite at the Hyatt Newporter, in
shorts and button-down shirts, glad to be in the company of old
friends and happy to feel the cool ocean breeze on their skin.
But their minds were miles away from the plush Newport Beach
hotel. Instead, they were in the cockpits of B-24 bombers of 60 years
ago with a skull and crossbones painted on the side. Jim McAteer,
decked out in a bomber jacket covered in pins and patches, was one of
the original pilots in the Jolly Roger 90th B-24 Bomb Group.
“But not anymore,” he said. “Now I’m just an old man driving
Volvos.”
His peers laughed at the comment, thinking back on the high-flying
action McAteer saw between 1942 and 1945, when the Jolly Roger 90th
B-24 Bomb Group was at its prime.
The members of the dwindling group of World War II survivors are
now retired, with children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren,
but they get together every so often to tell old stories and
reminisce about their Air Force days. This year, the veterans
gathered at the Hyatt Newporter on Jamboree Road under the direction
of Santa Ana Heights resident Robert Hanley, known to the boys as
Bob.
Hanley worked for the past two years to organize the reunion and
wanted his fellow war heroes to come to Newport Beach and spend four
days in paradise. The men and their families, have a list of
activities to take part in while at the Newporter, including
concerts, a harbor cruise and the reunion dinner and dance. The Fun
Zone Boat Company said it was “payback time” and donated the harbor
cruise.
In their down time, they are free to hang out in the patio room,
where there is a never ending supply of munchies. A large banner with
the signature of a skull and two bombs in the place of crossbones
marked the reunion headquarters.
On Thursday afternoon, a handful of reunion guests gathered for
lunch on the sun deck, while others stayed indoors thumbing through
photo albums. Retired Master Sgt. William B. Haggerty of San Diego
recounted his adventures in Australia, New Guinea, Canton and the
Fiji islands, Biake Island, the Philippines and Japan.
A scrapbook of the Jolly Roger 90th B-24 Bomb Group sat in front
of him, and he pointed out planes and men that he was in charge of.
An 8-by-10-inch group photograph of his engineer company filled an
entire page, with the nicknames of each of the men written in the
margins. Haggerty ran through the photo and pointed at each of the
young men dressed in light fatigues with their shirts unbuttoned and
sleeves rolled up because of the sweltering heat.
“He’s dead, he’s dead, he’s dead,” he said as he went across the
rows. Three men at the bottom right were still living, he said.
World War II veterans were quiet when they got home from combat,
he said. They didn’t talk much about war, and the younger people
didn’t really care to know.
“Now, younger kids pay more attention,” Haggerty said.
And when they do, they get stories of air raids and rustic camps,
where helmets were tied to trees to be used as wash basins.
Pictures of beautifully decorated B-24s also littered the
scrapbook, and Haggerty pointed out those that he oversaw maintenance
for.
“There’s a little A-20,” he said, pointing to a plane named Little
Chief. “It wasn’t for combat, it was just for getting around in.”
Haggerty could still rattle off the serial numbers of all his
planes.
He pointed to another plane, painted with a stork carrying a
full-grown, naked woman, named “Pappy’s Passion.”
“Serial number 41, 100, 22,” he said. “More than 100 missions in
that plane.”
Then on to “How ‘M I Doing,” a bomber decorated with a voluptuous
woman in a low-cut full-length gown with a dangerously high slit.
“Forty-one, two-three-six-eight-nine,” he rattled off.
On another page, a familiar young face stared back at the
85-year-old man. The young airman was dressed in a leather bomber
jacket and posed handsomely for the photograph.
“That was when I got the Outstanding Airmen award,” Haggerty said.
“They made me wear a flight crew jacket. I got ridiculed about
wearing that jacket with the wings because I wasn’t in a crew.”
“That’s when I had hair,” he added.
The survivors of the Jolly Roger 90th B-24 Bomb Group -- a
spirited, funny crew that thrives on good-natured ribbing -- will be
at the Hyatt Newporter through the weekend, thanks to the years of
organization by Hanley -- also known as “good old Bob.”
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