A B-29A Superfortress centers an outdoor display at the Georgia Veterans State Park in Cordele, Georgia, helping to tell the stories of the young men and women who served their country and died for freedom.

A rare survivor, the plane — with ties to Carbon County — inspired a book, reunited its crew in a hero’s welcome decades after World War II, and empowered a son to take an emotional journey, walking in his father’s footsteps.

The plane, The City of Lansford, was named by the late Staff Sgt. Alfred “Fredo” Baldwin, a Lansford native who served as a tail gunner aboard her for 14 of his 22 missions during the war.

His son, Blair, a Panther Valley High School alumni who now lives in Cascade, Idaho, said his dad got to name the aircraft for his hometown for a couple of reasons.

“He was the tail gunner, the most dangerous position,” Blair said. “And he was, by far, the eldest crew member at the ripe age of 27.”

The rest of the crew — barely in their 20s — jokingly nicknamed their tail gunner “Pops,” or more usually called him, “Baldy,” his son said.

“Combat was a game for young men,” Blair reflected, “too many of whom never got any older.”

War stories

His dad, who told few stories of his time in the service, was almost one of those causalities of the war in April 1945 on a photo reconnaissance mission over the Japanese main island of Honshu.

The elder Baldwin lost oxygen at 30,000 feet as he crawled through a tunnel to his position at the rear of the plane.

“When he didn’t respond to radio calls, the pilot put the plane in a dive, down to 14,000 feet in about three minutes so other crew could drag him into a pressurized compartment,” Blair said.

They gave him oxygen all the way back to Guam, Blair said, saving his life.

“But, due to the lack of oxygen, the frigid temperatures and the rapid descent, he had frostbite and a ruptured ear drum,” Blair said. “For years after he returned home, he had nightmares of being caught in a vicious blizzard with swirling snow.”

His late mother, Beatrice. had told him about how she was pummeled in bed, as her husband flailed to dig himself out of the snow, and in other dreams how he shouted the positions of incoming fighters during combat.

“It was a while before he was able to reconstruct that during his semiconscious state, he had released his parachute and was wrapped up in white silk when the crew drug him to safety,” Blair said.

In June 1945, just months after the elder Baldwin lost oxygen, the plane’s crew earned the Distinguished Flying Cross for flying weather reconnaissance through a typhoon after losing two engines due to mechanical issues, staying in the air on two engines.

Blair said that after they mustered out, those young men learned that they were the only crew in their squadron to survive intact.

Following the war, the plane returned stateside to its current home in Georgia, where a very young John Wood, now a retired Army colonel, played as a youngster, wandering through the stripped down bomber.

Wood, when inspired to write his novel, “Scattered Blossoms,” recalled being inside The City of Lansford as child and learned more about the small town that lent its name to the plane.

“I think my hometown and Lansford have a special connection — B-29s and the men who flew them,” he said shortly after his book came out this year.

Wood’s book, which is available on Amazon and through Barnes & Noble, draws on real life experiences of crews who flew the planes in combat.

He gives a nod to Lansford in his Author’s Afterward and the crew of The City of Lansford for earning the Distinguished Flying Cross, which is given for acts of heroism or extraordinary achievement.

Heroes

In the 1980s, Blair’s father and his crew learned their B-29 survived and sat on display in Cordele, and planned a reunion.

“My dad was very excited about the prospect,” he said. “They expected to get together, along with their wives, and just enjoy themselves.

“Cordele had a different idea and treated them like the heroes they were, including a small parade and giving them the key to the city.”

Blair put visiting Cordele and seeing his dad’s plane on his own bucket list following his father’s death in 2006.

Last year, he made the journey with close friends Vic Koshuta and Richard Danchak, both formerly of Summit Hill.

Contacting the park director, Blair learned the plane was no longer open for internal tours and that was OK with him — he explained he just wanted to view the bomber.

“Driving to it on our arrival, you could not help but see this huge aircraft that was the centerpiece of the static display,” he said.

Checking in at the military museum, the park director told them that she wanted to go with them to the plane but had some business to take care of first and let them explore the museum.

“Little did we know, the ‘business’ she needed to take care of was to get us permission to enter the B-29,” Blair said.

The unexpected gesture, he said, had him shaking with excitement.

He couldn’t believe how small and cramped the interior of the largest bomber of World War II was inside.

“Certainly not a widebody commercial aircraft; all business of combat,” Blair said. “The inside was in pretty bad shape and lots of pieces were missing.”

He speculated that souvenir hunters grabbed what they could when the plane was open to the public.

“Nevertheless, I crawled through the same tunnel my dad crawled through back to the tail gun position,” Blair said. “It must have been lonely sitting in a ‘glass barrel’ for 16, 18, sometimes 20 hours for a mission.”

He believes his father was able to stay forward for some of the time in the air, though.

“Only after we climbed out did I break down and cry like a baby,” Blair said, adding that he was thankful his friends were with him.

“I can understand why vets don’t talk much,” he said. “I just was there long after the fact with no personal wartime experience and the emotions are overwhelming.

“To be in that very place my dad occupied for so many hours for 14 missions was very special. I will be forever grateful to the people of Georgia for allowing me that experience.”