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Left to right standing: Russ Cantine, Howard Bahls, Gene Harwood, Merle Gerry, Harold Madsen, John Lounsberry, Bud Lonergan, Glenn Bishop.
Left to right sitting: Art Ecklund, Jack Bradshaw (CAF), Tom Harkin (CAF), Sherry Johnson (CAF), Wendell Van Syoc.
The B-29 was the last major U.S. long-range bomber of World War II and was used heavily at the war's end in bombardment of the Japanese home islands.
The plane is owned by the Commemorative Air Force Inc., a Texas-based nonprofit group dedicated to preserving vintage military aircraft. The squadron is composed of volunteers, and the proceeds are used to maintain the B-29.
The Grout Museum's Sullivan Brothers Veterans Museum and Research Center in Waterloo assisted in organizing the visit.
The B-29 group is interested in contacting other Iowans who served as an on ground crew. Contact:
Merle Gerry
%Grout Museum District
503 South St.
Waterloo, IA 50701
or email
Bob Neymeyer
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Black Hawk County B-29
Veterans Revisit Past
Members of the Black Hawk County B-29 Group, who served in the U.S. 20th Air Force in the Pacific, toured "Fifi", the last flying Boeing B-29 Superfortress at the Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids on July 30, 2002.
The group has about 15 active members and was organized in 1994 by Grout Museum District volunteer Merle Gerry of Waterloo. Most were stationed on Saipan and the group includes a flight engineer, navigator, radio operator, bombardier, tail and blister gunner, equipment operator and central system fire control officer. Their tour of the plane was filmed by Iowa Public Television for a possible future "Living in Iowa" program segment.
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