By BILL WELCH
Morning News city editor
Keep 'em flying."
The slogan was repeated often during World War II.
To strike at the enemy with aircraft, someone has to keep those aircraft flying.
At the Pacific Ocean island of Tinian, the job of keeping
the powerful B-29 bombers flying fell to 365 men on a ship.
This September, about 30 of those men and their wives will be in Erie to talk over events, memories and friendships that go back 50 years to when they were
members of the U.S. Army Air Force's 1st Aircraft Repair Unit (Floating).
Organizing that reunion are two Erie County men -- John Fendya and Joseph Biggie. It will be the 16th reunion for the repair unit. It's
planned for Sept. 28-29 at the Holiday Inn South.
With reunion number 16 in the works, there has to be something special keeping these men together after all these years.
It might be the cameraderie they feel after
spending so much time together. Once organized, the 1st Aircraft Repair Unit stayed together throughout its deployment, from the time the men were trained in the U.S. until the war ended.
"We had no turnover," Fendya said.
Another factor might be the commander, Gen. Joseph Kingsley, Jr.
"Our commander was a well-respected man," Biggie said. "He was a down-to-earth
person who kept the unit working together."
Kingsley still attends the reunions and it's always an emotional gathering for all, Fendya and Biggie said.
And still one more factor that keeps them gathering is the
insistence of all their wives that they do so.
"Yeah, it's the women that keep us together," Biggie said. "They want us to get together each year. So this year, we are going to honor
the women."
The decision to put an aircraft repair unit in a ship made sense when you think of the nature of island warfare in the Pacific during World War II.
The B-29 was the most complicated of the Army Air
Force's planes and needed specialized support. To take all the needed equipment and machinery and set it up on an island only to take it apart and move it perhaps weeks or months later seemed a waste of
effort. Instead, the Army Air Force acquired a Liberty cargo ship, placed extra living quarters and work spaces in its holds, and armed it to the teeth compared to other Liberty ships.
The ship, named The
General Robert Olds, was the first ship to dock at the harbor of Tinian Island, one of the major B-29 bases. From Tinian, large bomber raids were launched against the cities of Japan.
Almost any part on the B-29 that
needed routine maintenance or repairs work could be sent to the ship where trained technicians could work on them in the shops on board.
Propellers, engines, gun turrets, bomb sights, autopilots, radios, flight
controls and much more could be taken to the proper shop in the Robert Olds and fixed.
The men worked eight-hour days, but often put in more hours than that, Fendya said. "We had nothing else to do."
On
their way to Tinian, there was some question whether the mission of the 1st Aircrat Repair Unit would be successful.
"It turns out, we were," Fendya said. Plenty of commendations for the unit's work
were turned in by commanders and generals at all levels of the Air Force.
Some of the parts the men worked with came from Erie.
"We received a large crate that was labeled "A Product of the Lord
Corporation of Erie, Pa.," Fendya said. "I told my buddies, "That's where I live."'
Lord made the rubber-bonded mounts for the engines and the landing gear.
Other parts from Erie included
the remote-controlled gun turrets made by GE, plus parts from Erie Resistor, Erie Forge and Steel and American Sterilizer.
It was another Erie product that alerted Fendya and Biggie to each other's presence on board
the ship. As the man who decrypted incoming radio messages, Biggie had little reason to mix with the guy who worked on autopilots on the other end of the ship.
But both men received a hometown, homemade publication
called "The Corn Blossom" edited and mailed out by Mary Liebel with the help of her husband DIck. One issue mentioned both men and their mailing addresses. That's how they found each other.
One
thing that still puzzles both men is that their unit//ship was sent to Okinawa in August 1945. The B-29s still operated out of Tinian and Saipan, but the Robert Olds was moved. Units of the 8th Air Force
from Europe were being moved to Okinawsa, too, so it was assumed that the repair unit would be helping with their equipment, but that was never explained.
They never needed to find out, either, because World War II
came to an end. After the two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, the war officially came to a close Sept. 2, 1945. Several months later, the unique floating repair shop was steaming home.
Biggie went to work
with Gloekler Refrigeration until he retired 12 years ago. He and his wife raised a son, two daughters and now have five grandchildren.
Fendya went to work with GE, then Anson Tool, retiring in 1981. He
and his wife raised three daughters, a son and have nine grandchildren.
