JOHN KOEHNE -- MISSION COMPLETE

B-17 pilot, 1^st LT John Koehne, probably had a hunch the mission of April 2, 1944, would be different.  Over his combat missions to date, he had generally flown as co-pilot.  On this mission, a less experienced replacement pilot would co-pilot Ole Mose -- Koehne would pilot.

JOHN KOEHNE -- 2013 AT PENNYBYRN

Targeting a Nazi ball bearing plant and aircraft manufacturing facilities in Austria, over 500 heavy bombers rose at daybreak from the Southern tip of Italy.  According to briefing instructions, it was the 15^th Air Force’s largest mission to date.  Koehne knew from past experience, this would be a long, dangerous flight -- to bomb a fiercely defended target.  That the crews typically received double credit for missions of this sort was of little consolation.

LT JOHN KOEHNE & FAMILY 

Ole Mose was one of 19 heavy bombers that went down during ferocious aerial firefights over the target.  Many others went missing in action.

Late in the summer of 2013, from his home in Pennybyrn at Maryfield, 93-year old Koehne reminisced, “Over the target, four anti-aircraft shells exploded very close to us.  I realized we were in trouble, control cables were cut, one engine gone, and gaping holes appeared in the wings.”

We had to drop out of the formation and German fighter planes swarmed all over us.  I put it on auto pilot and went aft to inspect the ship, only to find it on fire.  I immediately ordered the crew to jump.  The entire crew made it out safely, but I had to go back to the cockpit to get my parachute.”

With his parachute on, Koehne could not clear the damaged bomb door.  “I jumped out with the parachute under my arms.  The main parachute would not open, but an auxiliary chute opened just seconds before I hit the ground!”

Due to his rapid, but unplanned descent, Koehne said, “I was the last man to jump, but the first one to hit the ground!” 

German soldiers picked up the downed airmen for interrogation and imprisonment.  Several crew members were wounded.  One died from his injuries within hours.  “He was bleeding heavily, I knew he was in bad shape.  Both Austrian farmers and German soldiers tried to care for him, but it was too late,” recalled Koehne.

Survivors of the Ole Mose crew spent the rest of the war as POWs.  After his discharge, Koehne joined the Air National Guard in St. Louis, his hometown.  Mostly through night classes, he earned a degree in economics and business administration from St. Louis University, graduating cum laude in 1955.

He became a contracting officer with McDonnell Aircraft.  His favorite McDonnell recollection was negotiating a billion dollar contract with Ross Perot.  After contractual work with the Navy in Washington, D.C., Koehne came to the Triad to work with AT & T.

He was caregiver for his wife for seven years, until she died in 1997.  They had five children.  At Immaculate Heart of Mary in High Point, he became president of the Young at Hearts group.  In 1999, he married Julia, also a Young at Heart member. 

Surely, the Young at Hearts aren’t into hazing, but Koehne has bungee jumping in his background – with filming by his wife as proof.  He explained, “It was free for me, because of my age.” 

Known as “Big Jim” in his younger days, Koehne was wheel-chair bound and in failing health at the time of our visit.  He was noticeably blessed with careful attention from his wife and other caring attendants.  Typical of so many of his generation, he was proud to have served his country and felt blessed to have lived 93 years. 

 

Koehne passed away on Pearl Harbor Day, December 7, 2013.  According to his obituary, he died with a cross around his neck, his wife holding one hand, his rosary in the other, and the American flag draped over his legs. 

 

An unusual looking mechanical device hung on a wall of the Koehne home.  The unusualness went away after a bit of Internet sleuthing about Ole Mose.

RECOVERED FRAGMENT OF B-17 "OLE MOSE"

Marty Upchurch, a nephew of Ole Mose’s lone fatality, is the Newsletter Editor of the 99^th Bomb Group Historical Society.   Upchurch has thoroughly researched and documented the B-17’s loss.  He has visited the crash site in Austria and talked with witnesses of the crash as well as with some who cared for his uncle before he died.

Upchurch also brought back miscellaneous pieces from the Ole Mose crash site.  They had been stored in an Austrian farmer’s barn for over 60 years.  One of those parts is an unusual looking mechanical device – it’s the one John Kuehne proudly displayed on the wall of his Pennybryn at Maryfield home.

After Koehne's death, she asked that I come by and pick up the large assortment of WW II caps he left -- most of which were new and had not been worn.  She wished them given to other WW II survivors -- that mission has been completed!

     

COMBAT MISSIONS LISTED IN NEW TESTAMENT

The vest-sized New Testament that Army draftee Elmer Jones was given in 1943 remains in pristine condition.  Perhaps tender loving care and proper storage has extended its life.  Storage was not the case during the New Testament’s earlier years – its owner took it to war with him.  

 

Via the Aviation Cadet program Jones was commissioned as a second lieutenant and navigator in the U.S. Army Air Forces.  Later in World War II he became a radar operator and joined the crew of “Double Trouble,” a B-29 Superfortress bomber operating from Guam.  The B-29 had a second name, “City of Maywood.”  Maywood, Illinois was the aircraft commander’s hometown.

1 LT ELMER JONES, GREENSBORO, NC, AND HIS WW II B-29, "DOUBLE TROUBLE"

On the front flyleaf of Jones’ military issued New Testament he dutifully recorded the names of his mother and father, “Mr. and Mrs. Arthur C. Jones, 1115 Gregory Street, Greensboro, NC.”  This entry was dated 1943. 

In retrospect, Jones could have written, “Another Glenwood boy has gone to war!”  (Glenwood is a small community within Greensboro, NC which sent an inordinate number of their finest young men into the military service -- "Glenwood Boys" were proud of their roots and the community was proud of its "Glenwood Boys.")

On April 24, 1945 Jones made another entry in his New Testament – inscribing on the blank back flyleaf, “Hacithi [Hitachi] Aircraft Factory. Visual. 15 hours 45 minutes.”  Thus was described his first combat mission against Japan.

Subsequent entries described additional bombing raids as well as several radar reconnaissance missions.  Such were the horrific days of forcing Japan’s surrender – and/or identifying potential targets for the atomic bomb if it did not.

Jones made 30 entries in his New Testament, each a descriptive line-listing of one of his B-29 missions.  World War II aviators were forbidden to keep diaries, but Jones may have argued theologically that his were entries of thanksgiving for the crew’s safety and hopefulness that the war was being shortened and lives saved with each mission.

   

The entry of June 25-26, 1945 was particularly striking, “Radar photo Hokkaido, Murotan, Otaru, Sapporo longest flight -- 23 hours.”  Hokkaido is Japan’s northernmost and second largest island.  The other locations are cities on Hokkaido. 

B-29 "DOUBLE TROUBLE" CREW THAT FLEW LONGEST MISSION OF WW II

Interestingly, the Japanese never expected a solo American bomber so far north.  The landing lights were even turned on at Sapporo, supposing the “Double Trouble” was a friendly incoming aircraft.

Just one line in Jones’ Bible, but the June 25-26 mission is recognized as the longest non-stop combat mission of World War II – 4,650 miles in 23 hours.  For this mission, he was awarded one of his two Distinguished Flying Crosses and became part of North Carolina’s contribution to aviation history.

Literary license may have been taken after a September, 1945 mission when Jones recorded his 30^th and final mission, “Tokyo buzz job.  Power show, 16 hours, 21 minutes.”  This entry was arguably an understatement.  It represented participation in the massive spectacle of air power over USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay after the surrender ceremonies were signed ending World War II.

The last page of Jones’ New Testament contained words of advice from The Gideons International organization, “Look up your chaplain at the first opportunity.  Your welfare is his first concern…”   

LT ELMER JONES' WW II NEW TESTAMENT

Sometimes referred to as Service Testaments, the first page of Jones’ New Testament is intriguing.  It is a January 25, 1941 note from President Franklin D. Roosevelt, “As Commander-in-Chief I take pleasure in commending the reading of the Bible to all who serve in the armed forces of the United States.

Throughout the centuries men of many faiths and diverse origins have found in the Sacred Book words of wisdom, counsel and inspiration.  It is a fountain of strength and now, as always, an aid in attaining the highest aspirations of the human soul.”

Soon after World War II, Jones partnered with his uncle, who owned John Robbins Motor Company, which would later become the local GMC truck dealership.  He bought the business after his uncle died and operated it into the mid-eighties .

Recalled to active duty during the Korean War, Jones remained in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, retiring as a lieutenant colonel.  A member of Centenary Methodist Church, Elmer C. Jones passed away April 5, 2014 at the age of 89.  He was the last surviving crew-member of “Double Trouble.”

His son, Colonel Charles A. Jones United States Marine Corps Reserves (Retired) now has his father’s New Testament and obviously considers it a treasured possession.  His reflection, “My father was unable to record his final flight in the New Testament – the flight that is and always will be his longest.”  

PENNSYLVANIANS ENJOY CALLING NORTH CAROLINA HOME

The late night radio message from an east-bound B-17 from Tokyo was stark but calm, “I am 25 minutes from Oahu with 20 minutes of fuel.”  A second message followed a few minutes later, “Now ditching.” 

BILL MCKENZIE WAS ON BRIDGE WATCH WHEN 
A RADIO MESSAGE CHANGED THEIR ROUTE

Within minutes, air traffic controllers directed search planes and rescue ships to the anticipated crash area – an extremely remote area 65 miles west of Honolulu.

Additionally, four Navy destroyers in route to Japan via Pearl Harbor were ordered directly to the crash scene at flank speed.

Aboard the ditched B-17 was a contingent of top officers from General Douglas MacArthur’s Tokyo headquarters, including Ambassador George Atcheson Jr., Chairman of the Allied-Council for Japan.  Hand-cuffed to Atcheson’s wrist was a briefcase filled with sensitive Japan treaty information to be personally delivered to President Harry S. Truman.

The next morning, three survivors were picked up by a Coast Guard cutter after a Marine Corps fighter pilot spotted the wreckage and an overturned raft.  Navy and Coast Guard ships recovered five bodies and another sank during recovery efforts.

 

Among the four bodies never recovered was Ambassador Atcheson, a World War I veteran, 27-year Far East diplomat, and General MacArthur’s top adviser. 

Gunnery Controlman Bill McKenzie was standing bridge watch aboard the USS McKean, one of the four destroyers mentioned earlier.

USS MCKEAN DD-784

 “We were looking forward to a liberty call in Hawaii when ordered to bypass the Islands and go directly to the crash scene.  We searched for three days and nights, with specific orders to watch for a survivor or body with briefcase containing highly confidential documents.” 

McKenzie entered the Navy in June, 1946 after high school graduation in McKeesport, PA.  (McKenzie, from McKeesport, aboard the McKean, has to be a linguistic analogy of mention!)  “After the B-17 crash diversion, the remainder of my enlistment was spent on occupation duty out of Yokosuka and Sasebo, Japan.  The Japanese people were very nice to us – any problems were brought on by our own troops.”

GUNNERY CONTROLMAN BILL MCKENZIE 
ENJOYS LIGHTER MOMENT AT SEA

A former high school classmate invited McKenzie to Tokyo, “We met accidently on a train.  He was an Army draftsman in the Supreme Commander’s Headquarters in the Dai-Ichi Building.  It was a memorable event for me to see General MacArthur in the flesh!”

Following his Navy discharge, McKenzie graduated from Muskingum College (now University), a United Presbyterian school in New Concord, OH.  He later earned a Master’s Degree in finance from University of Pittsburgh.

Realizing I knew less about Muskingum College than they knew about the Mississippi Southern College my wife and I attended, the McKenzies filled me in.  “John Glenn dropped out of Muskingum during World War II to become a Marine Corps aviator – on his way to earning six distinguished flying crosses and becoming the first American to orbit the earth, U.S. Senator, etc.  His dad was a New Concord plumber, and John married a Muskingum coed.  They were faithful in returning for school reunions.”

I deferred mention that Hall of Fame kicker, Ray Guy, came from our school -- punting and orbiting the earth don’t have a lot in common.

After working initially with Gulf Oil Company, Bill McKenzie spent most of his business career with US Steel Corporation, “I primarily did real estate work, which involved heavy travel all over the country.  I slept on business in all but three states!”

McKenzie’s father was a 54-year old school teacher when Bill was born, “He made $60 per month and made me promise: don’t swim in the river; don’t play in the old coal mine; don’t hop freight trains; and don’t marry a school teacher.”

In addition to his livelihood, McKenzie found his life’s mate at US Steel – the former Carol Newcome and Bill McKenzie have been married 57 years.  According to Carol McKenzie, “We have three children -- a son and daughter in the Triad -- another daughter in Texas.  At the moment, all our grandchildren are in Texas – one in high school and three in college.”

The McKenzies are pleasant and enthusiastic folks, but most pleasant and enthusiastic when sharing about their grands, “Our twin grandsons are at Southern Methodist University – one is a kicker on the football team, the other is earning two engineering degrees.  Our other grandson is a Sam Houston State University senior and hopes to become a professional golfer.  Our only granddaughter is a high school junior who is a competitive dancer.

BILL AND CAROL MCKENZIE -- 2017
(UNFORTUNATELY, BILL PASSED AWAY JUST WEEKS AFTER THIS PHOTO)

After two of their three children settled in the Triad, and after extensive travel around the world, it isn’t surprising that the McKenzies found Greensboro in 2007.  They are members of Fellowship Presbyterian Church and relatively new residents at Friends Home Guilford.