Recollections of an RB-29 Crew in Japan

Mission Statement &
News Notes Regarding This Web Site

The mission of this web site is threefold:

1) Sharing, in some detail, the experiences of our own RB-29 crew,
assigned to the 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron, Yokota
Air Base, Japan from October 1953 through June 1954.

2) Collecting and sharing first-hand stories of other individuals
and crews involved in related mission activities using a variety of
recon aircraft types. The scope of our interests involves maintenance,
operations, staff and crew-related activities and experiences. Our
goal is to document stories and biographical information,
illustrated where possible, that will provide valuable and
intimate records regarding the USAF reconnaissance
mission, as it was carried out, within our
time frame, for generations to come.

3) Serve as a collecting and publishing resource for other
relatively unpublished stories, biographical narratives and seemingly
newsworthy related commentary and events that are associated
with WW II, the Korean War and early Cold War period and
our subsequent National efforts to promote and protect
peace and freedom in the wider world.

This site is operated strictly as a public service at developer’s expense.

Chuck Stone, Web Site Developer/Manager]

This web site has continued to expand in size and audience
considerably beyond our original concept for it. It has evolved to
become more than a repository for stories and photos relating to our
own RB-29 crew’s experiences during the early Cold War period.
It has also become a home for the stories and images of a growing
variety of air and ground crews of similar experience. Further, it
has become a communications link where men, women and
families, with common historical connections, can
attempt to locate and communicate with each other.

These issues have caused me to search for a method to insure that
these stories and photographs, and the accompanying communications
options, remain available on the Internet, with or without my being
at the helm. Recent events have offered a solution. Francis Gary
Powers, Jr., Founder, The Cold War Museum, has accepted
my offer to eventually — when I am unable to continue — incorporate
this web site in with their own wider-focused, ever expanding, Cold War
Museum concept. This assurance of continuity will influence the
manner in which we move forward with this web site. It should
also provide additional incentive to many of you out there with
common interests and experience to help us document and
illustrate your own stories and biographical data.

On March 8, 2001, Gary Powers made a presentation to the
Subcommittee on National Parks, Recreation and Public Lands,
Washington D. C., that offered recommendations relating to
commemoration and interpretation of the Cold War. His presentation
is available for your review, in full, on this web site. Please take time
to review this information and, if you haven’t done so, take time
to become familiar with the Cold War Museum web site and better
realize the broad scope of the historical documentation process
of which we have become an important part.

The URL address is: http://www.coldwar.org/index.html

Finally, I should say that CDs, which encompass the entire content
of this web site will be provided to the USAF Museum at Wright
Patterson AFB and the USAF Archive at Maxwell AFB
when the time seems appropriate.

Chuck Stone, Web Site Developer and Manager

To Go To — Introduction & Table of Contents for “RB-29 Crew Operations”

To Go To — Additional Korean War and early Cold War
Recollections and Stories

To Go To — “Impressions From Hiking Rural Japan”

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