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.”