Returning to the Pack

"My grandfather, William Arnold Van Steenwyk, was a veteran of the 94th Bomb Group, which flew B-17s in the air war against Germany in World War II. He was a photographer/gunner, and flew a number of combat missions over occupied Europe in 1943. His job was to take photographs of the mission, including bomb damage assessment photographs, which the G-2 section used to determine if the target was sufficiently destroyed or a follow-up mission was called for.

One of the missions he flew on was the Regensburg/Schweinfurt shuttle. He was assigned to a plane called the Dear Mom, piloted by a Lt. Nayovitch. But when he arrived on the flightline before dawn on August 17th, 1943, the crew of the Dear Mom informed him that they didn't have enough oxygen aboard for a photographer. So my grandfather grabbed what gear he could and climbed aboard the next plane down, Little Minnie II, piloted by Captain James Kirk. And that's no shit!"
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