Lou Tirado gets back on the horse
According to KTLA, 95-year-old Lou Tirado last flew on a B-17 when it was shot down over Germany while he was a ball-turret gunner and he became a prisoner of war for eight months. The pilot and tailgunner didn’t make it, but Tirado and six others parachuted from the aircraft.
Some of his friends took up the money for his flight;
“It’s unbelievable. I still don’t believe it,” Tirado said. “The last time I was in a B-17 was the day we got shot down … 72 years in September.”
Tirado got choked up as he spoke about the two crew members who died.
“They deserve a lot more than this,” he said.
Tirado, who now lives in Laguna Woods, was able to get into the plane’s ball turret to take a look at the cramped seat in which he traveled into combat.
Category: Historical
Awesome!!!!!!!
HOOOOAH !!!!!!!!
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This was way cool Jonn, nice to see a sharp 95 year old enjoying this moment…
All respect for you Mr. Tirado. Thank you sir for serving in a way I cannot imagine. At 95 how do you still haul those big balls around?
After watching the video I would love to speak with him a while. Just to hear some first hand history before it is lost. What a sharp minded man! I just hope if I live to be that age I still have half the wits about me he does. What a great and humble guy!
LOL you left an opening for someone to say “you made it, you are a half wit”! ha ha
Great story! Thank you for your service Lou Tirado.
Ball turret gunners had yuge brass balls as standard issue. Mr. Tirado seems to have had at least 1 upgrade!
Groovy cool. I hope I still have all my wits if I live to be 95!
(On a side note, I had an uncle attached to the 8th Air Force–I remember his saying 314th Repair Squadron, which I have never been able to track down so maybe I remember wrong(a little help?). He worked on the instruments in B-17s and B-24s. He was pretty sharp; after he had his cerebral hemorrhage, you couldn’t play Trivial Pursuit in the say room with him because he would answer all the questions.)
There have been at least two published histories of the 8th Air Force that list the units. If you have access to the base public library on an USAF base, they might be on the shelf. Also, some used book stores have entire sections on military books.
Someone in the UK, I don’t remember whom, wrote a comprehensive 8th AF history right down to the individual missions. It might help.
Thanks.
I’m sorry I couldn’t be more help; I’ve been racking my brain trying to remember the books. I read Jablonski’s Flying Fortress a long time ago and I don’t think it has information on the repair squadrons.
Do you know to what field he was assigned?
Sorry, no clue besides somewhere in England.
https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/I/AAF-I-17.html
The above link will take you to a highly detailed description of the repair echelons and who was doing what to keep ’em fling in the ETO. I didn’t see the unit. Of particular interest to you is stuff beginning on p.633
Here’s the y. You know where it goes.
Check.
I think these gunners had the most vulnerable spots possible on those planes. That’s a helluva job to do.
BZ to Mr. Tirado.
Simultaneously the most vulnerable and best protected. The ball turret had more armor than any other position on the plane, but was more exposed to fire since the turret hung beneath the aircraft. And there was no room for a parachute; it was hung on a hook from the turret suspension inside the aircraft, so the gunner had to rotate the turret to vertical to bring his hatch back inside in order to get it.
Getting stuck inside a jammed turret was a real possibility, resulting in a few gunners being crushed to death when the plane had to make a wheels-up landing. I read about one instance in which a B-17 took severe damage that ruined the hydraulic and electrical systems, the ball turret gunner was trapped, and the crew was unable to crank the gear down. They still had some fuel, so the pilots orbited their airfield while the flight engineer, radioman, and other gunners busted out the wrenches and started dismounting the ball turret in flight, figuring they could at least give him a slim chance of survival. The turret was jettisoned at low altitude into a freshly-plowed field, and the gunner miraculously walked away. The B-17 crashed and burned on landing, killing the other nine men aboard.
On a lighter note, that B-17 is “Nine-O-Nine,” operated by the Collings Foundation. That’s the very same aircraft that I took my son through a few weeks ago, with the pictures in the weekend open thread. She’s not quite as clean as some (CAF Arizona Wing’s “Sentimental Journey” looks showroom-new inside and out, I don’t know how they do it), but she’s a good plane, and she flies just fine.
I could not imagine how anyone could bring himself to climb into that turret for a ride on the underside of an a/c, let alone having that exposed and vulnerable space as your fighting position. Yes, there was a small hatch to the fuselage but the turret had to be positioned just right hydraulically for that hatch to open and, too often, it didn’t. The only defense an a/c had from an attack from below her was that gunner. I do not think those men had anything below their belts but brass balls.
TOW. We writing at the same time. I like yours better.
Someone needs to interview this gentleman indepth and record his story. We’re fast losing the people who fought in WW2 and can relate personal experiences.
Awesome story about an awesome guy. Thanks Jonn.
My grandfather killed himself in the early 50’s. Shot down twice, apparently. I never got the full story, but he was really sick after that time in a camp and his escape. Another BTG.
http://www.flensted.eu.com/1944072.shtml
Rock on, Lou.
Just awesome.
I wonder if he wants a job? I could use a few guys like him.