Sna Pe Fort Crew

Thanks to Michael Drnec, son of Harry F. Drnec Sr., we have gained a crew picture and some additional information about this crew.

"They ferried a new B-29 to Saipan, thinking they had it made. When they got there, a different crew "claimed" their plane and gave dad and his crew theirs.

The name of the ship they "inherited" was the SnafuPerFort because of it's unreliability. They reworked the plane and, finding it easier to erase rather than paint, took out the fu and r to create Sna Pe Fort. The plane few 35 missions without incident.

As far as the nose art goes I've found out that " Capt. Samuelson painting the nose art on "Snafuperfort". He also painted the nose art on numerous other B-29's based on Saipan." This from http://home.att.net/~sallyann4/samuelson3.html

Samuelson's group was the one that dumped this plane on my dad's group because they considered the plane jinxed. Samuelson's new plane was shot down over Japan with most of the crew lost.

The crew listing has some inaccurate information on the plane my dad flew on.

The listing for Z19 serial number 42-63435 has the name "Sharon Sue". [Editors note: The correction has been made to the squadron list - Jen]

The crew believed that their luck would hold out as long as the crew stuck together. They flew together as a crew on every mission.

Co-pilot Ira Ogush (still alive, living in Chicago Ill) told a story about being pursued by an Ohka (cherry blossom) bomb. They put the plane in a steep dive and somehow my dad (side gunner) hit the bomb detonating it before it could take them out."