National Air and Space Museum

My grandfather was Maj Gen John S. Samuel. He was the group commander of the 322nd Bomb Group. According to him and the group history, he actually rode in the jumpseat on its 200th mission. According to him, he "didn't want to take the credit or the mission" from the pilots who normally flew the aircraft.

When I was on active duty, I got involved with a B-26 Bomb Group and attended a few of their reunions. The thing that stuck with me was how each member would tell stories about the other guy who saved them during a mission but would never tell you about their own accomplishments. It was only after the member you had been speaking with walked away and another member came up to tell you about the living legend you had just been speaking with. That humility and camaraderie defines the WWII era of true heroes.

Please let me know if there is an opportunity to work on the restoration of the B-26 Flak Bait. I would consider it an honor and a way to remember so many of the great men I met and who are no longer with us.

Recently we began researching a B-26 that crashed in our township 4/22/1951. All three crew were killed and the tail section along with the engines were taken away and the fuselage was buried. We have located the debris field and found a number of metal and glass pieces. We also purchased the crash investigation report. Our next task is that we are going to investigate the area in hope of finding where the plane was buried and we are also planning on having a memorial service for the three crew. The crew were all members of the Ohio Guard 202nd sqdn and were flying to Delaware for towed target practice.

My father, Elvin Wagner worked at the Middle River, MD plant of Martin Marietta during WWII building B-26 bombers. He told stories of how the wartime effort included making the factory rooftops resemble farms to ward off attacks from the air. He met, and married my mother, an RN, returned from the war and working at Martin in 1949. Howard Head was one of my father's co-workers at Martin. Using the ideas of blending lightweight metals and plastic , Howard formed Head Ski Co. in Timonium, MD. My father worked there until the company moved to Boulder, CO sometime in the late sixties or early seventies.