History lived within that World War II-era bomber

Props spin on the "Nine-O-Nine," a World War II-era bomber operated by the Collings Foundation, during a stopover at the Crestview, Florida airport. Image by Del Stone Jr.

12 O’Clock High: There she sat, the “Nine-O-Nine,” perched on the apron at the Crestview Airport, looking like a thousand B-17 Flying Fortresses I’d seen in a thousand movies about Eighth Air Force raids into Hitler’s Germany.

Except this was no movie.

She was smaller than I expected, and in this age of missiles and lasers she looked forlornly vulnerable with a few .50-calibers drooping from her fuselage.

I climbed inside. It was a claustrophobe’s horror, dark and full of sharp, metal corners. A narrow catwalk divided the bomb bay into two parts. I could barely make it through. The kids had no problem.

I stepped around the ball turret and thought of the Randall Jarrel poem. The dreams of black flak. What they did with the hose.

How did those kids tiptoe through these narrow bays filled with bombs? I thought. How did they fly and fight in these tiny, freezing machines? How did they lean out open hatches at 12,000 feet and aim machine guns at fighters that were filling their slender bombers with holes?

My dad flew in one of these. It was during the filming of the movie “12 O’Clock High,” starring Gregory Peck. I have the black-and-white photos Dad took and printed himself. I don’t know why he was there. Dad wasn’t a bomber pilot. He flew Mustangs and Lightnings.

As I walked around the “Nine-O-Nine,” I was filled with melancholy. This was an artifact from an era that was gone now, an era that seemed more honest and heroic than our own. These men defined their worth through deeds, not cell phones, fancy clothes and cocktail parties.

I snapped photo after photo of the old bomber. I didn’t know if I’d ever see one again. Especially one that could fly.

Maybe the folks who inherit my photographs will marvel that they knew someone who had seen firsthand the spinning propellers of a B-17. Maybe their children will marvel that their parents knew somebody who had witnessed that sight.

Perhaps the memory will be passed along, a little diminished each time but never gone entirely, so that in our way we live forever.

This week’s wire weirdness: From The Associated Press: Two women are publicly quarreling about whose bare breasts graced the pages of a Norwegian magazine. Aud Sto of Flekkefjord is angry about the alleged exposure, which was snapped in the Canary Islands, and is suing the magazine Se og Hoer for $22,000. The other woman, Inger Marie Maylam of Kristiansand, sees things differently: “The breasts are mine and they are for free,” she declared recently in a newspaper interview. The sit has been frozen pending resolution of the claims.

This week’s good read: “Acts of Conscience” by William Barton, a trade paperback from Warner Books. A high-flying science fiction adventure about a man who goes to an alien planet and discovers more about mankind, and himself, than he could ever know.

Words that should be words: This week’s selection is “Ecnalubma,” as in a rescue vehicle that can only be seen in the rearview mirror.

This column was originally published in the Wednesday, March 12, 1997 edition of the Northwest Florida Daily News and is used with permission.

About the author:

Del Stone Jr. is a professional fiction writer. He is known primarily for his work in the contemporary dark fiction field, but has also published science fiction and contemporary fantasy. Stone’s stories, poetry and scripts have appeared in publications such as Amazing Stories, Eldritch Tales, and Bantam-Spectra’s Full Spectrum. His short fiction has been published in The Year’s Best Horror Stories XXII; Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine; the Pocket Books anthology More Phobias; the Barnes & Noble anthologies 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories, Horrors! 365 Scary Stories, and 100 Astounding Little Alien Stories; the HWA anthology Psychos; and other short fiction venues, like Blood Muse, Live Without a Net, Zombiesque and Sex Macabre. Stone’s comic book debut was in the Clive Barker series of books, Hellraiser, published by Marvel/Epic and reprinted in The Best of Hellraiser anthology. He has also published stories in Penthouse Comix, and worked with artist Dave Dorman on many projects, including the illustrated novella “Roadkill,” a short story for the Andrew Vachss anthology Underground from Dark Horse, an ashcan titled “December” for Hero Illustrated, and several of Dorman’s Wasted Lands novellas and comics, such as Rail from Image and “The Uninvited.” Stone’s novel, Dead Heat, won the 1996 International Horror Guild’s award for best first novel and was a runner-up for the Bram Stoker Award. Stone has also been a finalist for the IHG award for short fiction, the British Fantasy Award for best novella, and a semifinalist for the Nebula and Writers of the Future awards. His stories have appeared in anthologies that have won the Bram Stoker Award and the World Fantasy Award. Two of his works were optioned for film, the novella “Black Tide” and short story “Crisis Line.”

Stone recently retired after a 41-year career in journalism. He won numerous awards for his work, and in 1986 was named Florida’s best columnist in his circulation division by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors. In 2001 he received an honorable mention from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for his essay “When Freedom of Speech Ends” and in 2003 he was voted Best of the Best in the category of columnists by Emerald Coast Magazine. He participated in book signings and awareness campaigns, and was a guest on local television and radio programs.

As an addendum, Stone is single, kills tomatoes and morning glories with ruthless efficiency, once tied the stem of a cocktail cherry in a knot with his tongue, and carries a permanent scar on his chest after having been shot with a paintball gun. He’s in his 60s as of this writing but doesn’t look a day over 94.

Contact Del at [email protected]. He is also on Facebook, twitter, Pinterest, tumblr, TikTok, and Instagram. Visit his website at delstonejr.com .