WWII Bomber Camp Stockton, CA (photos)

[rclausen]

Sorry, Scott. SOS for lunch the second day. Spam in the morning.

Ricky
--

[cco23i]

O.K as long as I get a little SOS. Can't wait to see you all again!

Scott

[Roger Cain]

A few pictures from the Class of 44-3 this past week.







Flight Crew


Jim Ricketts was our ground spotter and did a fine job again.


As usual, used the big lense to pull this one in. Jayson Owen in the left seat.


Rob Collings flying the P-51C Mustang

[Redtracer]

Roger,

Now give us some of thoses premium pics, if you know what I mean!

Red

[Warbird Kid]

Good to see Jayson is still sticking strong with the CF! Nice guy. I think its time we start thinking about a East Coast Bomber Camp for us over here!

[RickH]

East coast would be good,...and the potential target list is soooo long !

[cco23i]

OUSTANDING photos as usual Roger!! Hey Chris, if you need ground crew (with experience) drop me a line.

Scott

[Roger Cain]

and if you need gunners, we had a few at the camp too!

[Jerry O'Neill]

Are they by any chance, "Taigh's Lambs"?
Jerry

[Redtracer]

Roger,

That's what I'm talking about! Now show'em how we pull the props through in Stockton.......

Red

[Taigh Ramey]

Bomber camp was great this year and a good time was had by all.

The wonderful Ground Crew gang from Arizona drove all night after they got off work the Friday before to help set up and get ready for the campers arrival on Wednesday.

The boys from AZ took a liking to the Harpoon and since we had some time before camp started they put some hours in on the PV-2D. They tore into the right engine and pulled, checked, cleaned, gapped, tested and replaced the spark plugs on the right engine. The right had a slight shake to it and a little higher than normal mag drop indicating a likely plug issue and they fixed it right up. This isn't reenacting but it is the real deal. These guys are a true ground crew and it is a real honor to have them working on the Harpoon or any other project here. Thanks guys!

Here are Scott and Bill pulling plugs





Camp begins with Murph teaching gunnery



One of our repeat campers who came back for the third year in a row, Ostenkowski, or Alphabet as he was dubbed by the crew, belts up his ammunition for the gunnery range



The class of 44-3 at the gunnery range with the device that reduced the belted ammo to empty shells and links





He makes the 62 pound Browning ANM2 50 cal gun look like a carbine





Mail call where everyone reads their letters out loud for everyone to enjoy



Wednesday night we had a little social gathering where we had some visitors come by all dressed up. Dressed to the nines, or tens...











Poor Captain Gaston had the miserable job of driving the girls around. It's a tough job but....



Are you hungry Jason? Ricky sure did a great job of cooking for the campers and volunteers. The SOS and SPAM were outstanding as was the tri tip and brats on Jason's mess tray



I had a lot of trouble with the bomb sight last year so I pulled out another one that passed the preflight checks. For any of you Bombsight geeks out there: this sight is one of the oldest ones in our collection and is an M-7. Most of the surviving Nordens are M-9B's which are the latest models produced. The M-7 was the sight that was available just before the war and throughout the early years. This M-7 with a 41 contract serial number still has the automatic erection system on the gyro...careful there you preverts...which was typically removed for service issues. This makes this sight head a rare one and even better it still passes the operational checks.



On the first live run, after lots of practice runs, we dropped a single bomb aimed right of the target and it hit right where it was supposed to. On the second live run the rest of the bombs were dropped with the sight centered on the cross on the ground. Normally the sight delivered one pulse of 28 volts to release the bombs. This pulse then goes to the intervalometer which takes one pulse and turns it into as many pulses as necessary to release the desired number of bombs as selected by the bombardier. Since I didn't have an intervalometer wired into the release circuits I dropped the remainder of the bombs by pressing the manual release button repeatedly. I was told that the last two bombs came out with a lag as compared to the first ones thus the gap from the first pair and the last pair. The closest bombs hit at 20 and 29 feet from the target and the longest were 185 and 210 feet from the center. The sight did great and here are the results:



Here is Jason with his twin 50's. Gotta love Jason and his ever present positive outlook on life! You can't help but have a good time around Jason, just like our own Ken and the Arizona gang. These guys, the Vintage Aircraft crew and all of the volunteers that come out to help sure make this a great event



Don't mess with this guy as he is having too much fun!





Captain Gaston debriefing the crew after the mission



Graduation for Stockton Field Bomber Camp class 44-3





A special thanks to the Collings Foundation and to all of the wonderful volunteers that made this years Bomber Camp the incredible event that it was. well done guys and gals!

More later

[cco23i]

It was a great camp this year! I know from our ground crew side we had a great time prepping and instructing as well as working the Harpoon! THANKS again to Taigh and the gang AND the Collings bunch for putting up with us.

Scott

[Taigh Ramey]

THANKS again to Taigh and the gang AND the Collings bunch for putting up with us.

Scott

Putting up with you all? Are you kidding. What an honor to have you guys come up and play with us. Here is a photo that I love as it shows that the Arizona bunch are our kind of folk.



Man this picture cracks me up and it shows you what it is like to work with the Arizona folks. The bust their butts and have a good time doing it. Thanks again for your help. Crystal is moping around asking when are you all coming back.

[cco23i]

We can't wait until next year!!

The Arizona ground crew

[Roger Cain]

There's a lot of work involved in loading 250 lb bombs into the B-24, as shown briefly in this following set. And this was a cool temperature day. With a second crew you could actually load both sides at the same time with another winch mounted next to the one in the picture.