The NMUSAF's Lost B-29 "Command Decision"

Shay · **Posted:** Wed Feb 21, 2007 12:17 am

Most know that the B-29 "Command Decision" is one of the more famous SuperFortresses to have survived the Korean War and that it has the distiction of being a "Bomber Ace" after shootind down 5 MiG 15s.

And most of you also know that the Fuselage at the NMUSAF marked as "Command Decision" is not actually Serial no. 44-87657 (Command Decision) but is in reality Ser. No. 44-62139.

"But" did you know .......that "Command Decision" survived heavy flak and multiple MiG attacks on countless bombing missions only to be destroyed by being dropped from a helicopter, and while being transported from the AF Museum, on loan to another museum as well as being rolled off of a flatbed truck? (As I've been told)

Anybody have anymore information on this? When, where, why and how did this happen and what happen to her remains?

Shay
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Semper Fortis

APG85 · **Posted:** Wed Feb 21, 2007 6:40 am

Never heard that one. I thought it was scrapped after the war...

mustangdriver · **Posted:** Wed Feb 21, 2007 8:22 am

That sucks, I thought the real command decision was in the museum.

Shay · **Posted:** Wed Feb 21, 2007 9:09 am

APG85 wrote:

Never heard that one. I thought it was scrapped after the war...

So did I.

Until I read this last night:

http://home.comcast.net/~noseart/0noseart.html

Quote:

Command Decision [7657] 19BG-28BS: "Command Decision" was probably inspired by the stage play and 1948 movie of the same name. The cast of the film reads like a "who's who" of Hollywood actors at the time. The lead character, played admirably by Clark Gable, was rumored to have been based on the 98BG's Colonel "Killer" Kane (read more).

The most knowledgeable of the Seven Dwarfs (from Disney's Snow White & the Seven Dwarf's), Doc, is making his "command decision" based on Dopey's flip of a coin. Although the depicted scene is satirical, Command Decision is certainly the best know B-29 of the Korean War. It is the only bomber ace and last B-29 bomber retired from the USAF. Officially credited with shooting down five MiG-15s, the aircraft had an early history of nose gear problems. One of our missions was scrubbed when its nose gear collapsed and blocked the rest of us from taking the runway.

Remarkably, the color photo (that I took & restored) of a 28BS B-29 on a daylight bomb run has been identified as Command Decision. Up until Joe Savko solved the conundrum, the tail number had been a mystery because no B-29 by that number had ever been manufactured. Joe wrote, “(7657) had been in a SAC unit (and) SAC, in the name of secrecy, played games with their serial (numbers) … In fact, SAC had three phantom bomb squadrons on paper that it kept moving about early in the Cold War."

Anthony Queeno provided most of the photos and data on Command Decision contained on these pages, especially during the final chapter of its combat service. (click here for Tony's pages).

Command Decision's nose art is on display at the Air Force Museum, but what you see is not the original art or airplane. After the original was destroyed in a multiple transportation accident, the forward section of #44-62139 was requisitioned and painted for the display. It's ironic that an aircraft that survived heavy flak and multiple MiG attacks was damaged after being dropped from a helicopter, and while being transported from the AF Museum, on loan to another museum, rolled off of a flatbed truck, was destroyed, and had to be replaced

Anyone else heard of this?

Shay
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Semper Fortis

Shay · **Posted:** Wed Feb 21, 2007 5:16 pm

mustangdriver wrote:

That sucks, I thought the real command decision was in the museum.

It used to be.

I've lived in Dayton since I went to Kindergarten and I'm 30 now. I remember when the museum was only the one hangar and the annex. And I still remember walking through "Command Decision's" Fuselage back then. Of course back then you could actually sit in the seats and play with all the buttons. Now it's all closed off with Plexi-glass.

I'm still figuring out the story so bare with me. "Decision" was the NMUSAF's 1st B-29. It was retired to Wright-Patt I think around the beginning of 1957. At that point it was intact and whole. A couple of years later the museum recieved Bocks'Car late in 1961. Obivously "Decision" took a back seat to "Bock'sCar" and at some point was made to be transferred to another museum.

I haven't figure out all the facts yet but I think it's during this transfer that "Decision" was damaged by a helicopter air lift and ended up back NMUSAF as a fuselage walk -through display.

What I do know, after recieveing a email from Clyde Durham(Left gunner on Command Decision), is that around the 1st part of the '90s or maybe even the last part of the '80s, "Decision's" fuselage was being transferred to another museum again and this time was loaded on a flatbed truck. While in transit the truck carrying the fuselage was involved in accident wrecking not only the truck but "Decision" as well. At this point the museum acquired the fuselage of 44-62139 and repainted in the markings of and displayed it as "Decision".

Like I said I'm still working on it. I still have a couple more emails to send out. So we'll see. i'd like to know what was done with "Decision's" remains.

Shay
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Semper Fortis

APG85 · **Posted:** Wed Feb 21, 2007 6:54 pm

What a waste... I have heard the museum has some B-29 components in storage. I wonder if they belong to the original Command Decision?

Shay · **Posted:** Sun Feb 08, 2009 11:18 am

News article concerning "Command Decision's" arrival to Wright-Patt.

Shay
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Semper Fortis

APG85 · **Posted:** Sun Feb 08, 2009 11:36 am

Interesting article but the last paragraph is forbidding "Command Decision was to become a traveling AF display..." Wonder if that meant cut off the wings, tail, aft fuselage and put the forward fuselage on a truck and take it around the country as a display tool...?

Second Air Force · **Posted:** Sun Feb 08, 2009 11:44 am

It will take some time for me to find them, but I have photos of the "traveling AF display" noted in the last paragraph of the large article. I'll try to find the photos (they are not good quality, I warn you) and post them this evening.

Scott

BHawthorne · **Posted:** Sun Feb 08, 2009 11:50 am

Hrrrm, isn't it less than honest for a museum to paint up an aircraft as another? The goal of a museum should be preserving history, not faking it. That would be like me paint up my F-84F as a Thunderbird then slapping kill marks on the side when my aircraft was only a trainer. :wink:

APG85 · **Posted:** Sun Feb 08, 2009 12:00 pm

BHawthorne wrote:

Hrrrm, isn't it less than honest for a museum to paint up an aircraft as another? The goal of a museum should be preserving history, not faking it. That would be like me paint up my F-84F as a Thunderbird then slapping kill marks on the side when my aircraft was only a trainer. :wink:

I might be wrong but I think the "plaque" in front of the fuselage says it is "marked" as Command Decision. A lot of museums do this. The B-17 at the Pima Air & Space Museum is one example (I believe there is also something there telling the visitor the actual tail number of the plane)...

Xrayist · **Joined:** Wed Jun 08, 2005 12:51 am **Posts:** 322

Shay:
Thanks for you post. I first visited the museum in 1968, shortly after we moved to Cleveland. I remember being able to sit in the pilot's and engineer's seats in CD's fuselage.
I went back to the museum in Oct of 07. I was very disappointed at the plexiglass partitions that had been put up. Unfortunately some people today have little respect for other's property, so it is a necessity.

APG85 · **Posted:** Sun Feb 08, 2009 12:25 pm

I found a little info here...

http://home.comcast.net/~noseart/0noseart.html#command

Garth · **Posted:** Sun Feb 08, 2009 1:02 pm

Shay wrote:

What I do know, after recieveing a email from Clyde Durham(Left gunner on Command Decision), is that around the 1st part of the '90s or maybe even the last part of the '80s, "Decision's" fuselage was being transferred to another museum again and this time was loaded on a flatbed truck. While in transit the truck carrying the fuselage was involved in accident wrecking not only the truck but "Decision" as well.

The funny (sad variety) thing is that if that sort of thing were to happen today the fuselage would probably be kept and restored.

Second Air Force · **Posted:** Sun Feb 08, 2009 1:02 pm

Here are the four photos I have, and I apologize for the postage stamp sizing. This is how I captured the images from ? and when I try to enlarge them they are very blurry.

It's definitely a B-29 on a trailer, but where did the black camouflage go? Was this the real Command Decision cleaned up for display? I wish we had more information.

Scott

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The NMUSAF's Lost B-29 "Command Decision"

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