Climbing Aboard History Again > WW2 Air Force Vet DJ "Red" Ibeling, B17 398th Bombardment Group

How to make a long story short?

Please note, dear readers, this is a personal story where Red's path and mine happened to intersect at the bookstore in the Mesa Main Public Library where yours truly volunteers. But first let's fast-forward into the future for a happy chapter: on Saturday, December 26th at noon World War II VET Red Ibeling will once again be getting onboard a 20-minute Boeing B17 flight taking off on a runway at the Commemorative Air Force Museum located at Falcon Field.
Red, the only one who is not deceased, can be seen standing back row first on the left in the May 12, 1945 image of Bowman's Crew.

He's 92 now and got so royally pissed-off when he was asked to pay $20 to take a nostalgic walk aboard a Boeing B17 Flying Fortress -one of only ten in the United States fit-to-fly - stationed at Airbase Arizona CAF that he wrote his own straight-from-the-gut 11-page pamphlet "Mission Memories: 8th AF 398 BG 602SQ".

On Saturday, thanks to the interest and efforts of friends, he will be taking off on a Sentimental Journal on this plane
B-17G 44-83514
Sentimental Journey

Commemorative Air Force Museum @ Falcon Field
https://www.azcaf.org/


[readers can see other posts about the Commemorative Air Force and Falcon on this site]

B-17G Flying Fortress
Boeing B-17 Sentimental Journey Ride Details:

Climb aboard the legendary B-17 bomber that became known as WWII’s Flying Fortress for a flight that will truly take you back in time. The price for this historic flight is only $425 per waist seat ($850 for nose seats), minimum of five passengers need to be signed up per flight.

As passengers prepare for their flight, a quick tour of the plane will show where each of the 10 crew members were stationed. Passengers will then board and be seated in either the forward section (nose) or aft section (radio room/waist gunners).

The 398th was part of the 8th Air Force 1st Air Division during WWII and was one of many B-17 Bomb Groups stationed in England. The 398th was formed in the United States in 1943 and was stationed in Nuthampstead, England from April 1944 until June 1945.
During that time they flew 195 missions. All missions left from Nuthampstead and were to Germany unless otherwise specified.
Non-Germany missions included locations in France, Holland, and Czechoslovakia.
Readers can see the whole archive in this list >> http://www.398th.org/Missions/Missions_Listing.html