One of those WWII warbird museums brought a couple of planes here to Corpus Christi. My dad was a tail gunner in a B-17 during the war. Here's some pics of what was his home for a few years.

Click on any of the pics to get a full-size, suitable (sort of) for getting a printable version.

Here's the B-17 taxiing up to the ramp.

and a look at the nose of the plane. The pilot, co-pilot and front gunner stay up there.

The tail and the tail gunners "home away from home".

This pic gives an idea of how big the plane is. You see the tail wheel. If the plane landed with that tire flat or knocked off by enemy fire it would be a really bumpy landing for the tail gunner.

Here's the inside view toward the tail of the plane and the tail-gunner's seat. They wouldn't let us tourists go back there. It's pretty cramped and a lot of the people who came to look at the planes were really old guys who actually flew these planes in combat. It would be hard enough to turn around in this close quarters for a young guy. Those yellow canisters held oxygen for breathing when they were flying really high.

No creature comforts in these warbirds. Not much room for anything but a small crew and plenty of bombs and ammo. My dad told me once that he liked to look down at the ground and how pretty the forests were in Europe and then all of a sudden it's "RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT" and he would look up to see a German fighter plane right on his tail shooting at him. Said you move around pretty fast in that little cubby-hole back there trying to get in position to shoot him down.

The cockpit. Nothing here that you don't need to fly to the target and back. No fancy leather high-back bucket seats here.

Pop never talked about the war. That little story about watching the scenery while a German fighter snuck up on him was about it. When I was about to get drafted he made sure that I knew that war was no place for anyone to be. As it turned out, I spent two years in Germany myself, but safely on the ground following the Formula One racers around Europe. Well, in the Army as a truck mechanic, but that was just my job.