![]() ![]() When the base closed in the mid-1990s, the National Museum of the United States Air Force gave the aircraft on a long-term loan to the Museum of Flight. Three decades later, T-Square 54 was sent - in pieces - to Lowry Air Force Base in Colorado, where a team of volunteers did initial preservation work. After the war, T-Square 54 was converted into an aerial refueling tanker and used as a weather observation aircraft before being mothballed in the desert, along with hundreds of unwanted warplanes in the late 1950s. That’s the only flying I did after the war,” except as a passenger on a commercial flight, he said.įew of the nearly 4,000 B-29 Superfortresses built have survived. Van Eaton has only flown one time since leaving the military. Maurine died in 2013, shortly after her 94th birthday. ![]() Eventually, they moved to Yakima, where Van Eaton worked as a chiropractor and the couple raised their daughter and two boys. The plane flew 37 combat missions, including the five flown by Van Eaton’s crew.Īfter the war, he finished college and moved to San Antonio, Texas, where he met Maurine Webb. Its name refers to the identification insignia on its tail: a giant T and a square for its bomb group, and the number 54. That meant it was never named or given distinctive nose artwork. T-Square 54 was used as a backup plane, so it never was assigned to a specific crew. It took several days and stops to reach the island. ![]() The plane they picked up was T-Square 54. Van Eaton’s crew went to Boeing’s plant in Wichita, Kansas, to pick up a new Superfortress, which they would fly to Saipan. ![]() B-29s on the island and its neighbor, Tinian, flew bombing missions against Japan’s home islands. The crew was assigned to the 875th Bombardment Squadron of the 498th Bombardment Group, which was stationed on Saipan. After flight school and additional training, Wallace Van Eaton was sent to a B-29 replacement crew as co-pilot. ![]()
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