Georgia Magazine - October 2010 - (Page 29)

➤ Thousands fought and died in B-17 Flying Fortresses during World War II.The Liberty Belle, operated by the nonprofit Liberty Foundation, serves as a flying museum and a reminder of veterans’ sacrifices. ANDREW HUGHES/WWW.MASQUEMAN.COM ➤ Donald Hassig, right, pilot of the first Liberty Belle for 21 of its 64 combat missions, takes a flight in the namesake B-17 with Don. The Liberty Belle is one of fewer than 15 Boeing B-17s flying today. Here, Don pilots the iconic bomber over San Francisco. MICHAEL O’LEARY Don and Underwater Admiralty Sciences specialists recovered this B-17 from a river in the Labrador wilderness. in World War II. Subsurface radar showed eight blips deep in the ice. Drilling to one bomber a year later confirmed the discovery and depth: The planes lay entombed in 260 feet of ice. Don joined, hoping to recover a B-17. A Douglas hydraulics company he owns built a prototype machine for melting through the ice. He ferried the device, dubbed “the gopher,” to Greenland on a restored C-47 military transport plane outfitted with snow skis. In 1990, crew members using a refined “super gopher” opened a 4-foot-wide shaft to a B-17—only to find that the ice had crushed the plane. The adventurers regrouped and the next year reached one of the P-38 Lightnings. The structurally stronger fighter had been preserved. The first section was winched to the surface 50 years to the day after the Lost Squadron crash-landed. The restored P-38, named Glacier Girl, flew again in 2002. Yet Don had long since sold his share. He wanted a B-17. October 2010 ‘The more I learned about World War II history ... and the more veterans I met, the more I realized we need to keep their memories alive.’ —Don Brooks Scouring records, he focused on reports of a Flying Fortress that had set down on a frozen lake in Labrador in 1947 and sunk the next spring. In 1998, Don and specialists with Washington state-based Underwater Admiralty Sciences searched with sonar for days before finding the wreckage 20 feet deep in a river eight miles from the crash site. Ice had floated the plane downstream. Using diving gear, Don and others inspected the B-17. In flight, it had been carrying two bodies. The crew had gotten the bodies out, but left the caskets. Don, swimming through the bomb bay doors, spotted a casket. “I knew I had the right airplane.” More online at www.georgiamagazine.org He won salvage rights in Canadian court in 2004, floated the B-17 nearly 70 miles and trucked it to Douglas. Restoration will take at least 10 years, he says. “Then there’ll be another B-17 flying.” It will be his second. In 2002, Don had teamed with noted warbird restorer Tom Reilly, then of Kissimmee, Fla., to rebuild a Curtiss P-40 fighter. Reilly was also restoring a B-17. Did Don want to buy an interest? Reilly asked. Don’s reply: “What about me just buying the whole project?” He formed the nonprofit Liberty Foundation to exhibit the plane, which took another two years to restore. Never used in combat, the B-17 was painted to look like the Liberty Belle in which his father flew, from nose art to the tail’s white “J” in a black rectangle, mark of the 8th Air Force 390th Bomb Group. Don saw the resurrected B-17 as a tribute to his father and the 390th. The Belle took off again Dec. 8, 29 ROBERT MESTER/UNDERWATER ADMIRALTY SCIENCES http://www.georgiamagazine.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Georgia Magazine - October 2010

Georgia Magazine - October 2010
Contents
Viewpoint
Mailbox
Picture This?
Georgia News
Calendar
Currents
Special Energy Report
Branching Out
Unforgettable Alabama!
Restoring Warplanes and Honoring Veterans
My Georgia
Georgia Gardens
Georgia Cooks
Cookbook of the Month
Snapshot

Georgia Magazine - October 2010