Maynard David grew up on a farm west of Topeka, Kansas. He went to high school in Silver Lake, Kansas and graduated in May 1942. On 7 December 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, David was visiting his uncle on his dairy farm. His uncle heard the news on the radio then passed it along to him. David married his high school sweet heart, Dorothy, shortly after they graduated from high school. By that time, David's three older brothers were already serving in the military. One of them was serving in India as a mechanic in the Army Air Corps and another who had just completed cadet training and was preparing to be a copilot on B-17 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] bombers. His oldest brother was a flight instructor in the Navy and later ferried personnel around the Pacific. All four of the brothers served on active duty and all four made it back safely. After high school, David went to work for the Santa Fe Railroad in Topeka until September 1943 when he enlisted in the Army Air Corps and became a cadet. He had chosen the Army Air Corps because his brothers were in the Air Corps and he wanted to be a pilot. He took his basic training at Sheppard Field, Texas then went to college in Shreveport, Louisiana. From there, he was sent to San Antonio, Texas for cadet training to determine what he would be [Annotator's Note: this portion of cadet training is the Classification phase]. David was chosen for bombardier training. From classification he was sent to Laredo, Texas for gunnery school. There, he became familiar with the guns used on aircraft like the .50 caliber. After gunnery school he went to Big Spring, Texas for bombardier school. He was assigned to class 44-B and graduated in October 1944 with the rank of flight officer.

In addition to class learning, such as communication and radio navigation, Maynard David and the other cadets learned the Norden bomb site. At the time, the Norden bomb site was a very secret piece of equipment. They had to swear to protect it, with their lives if need be. They trained in a hangar using a movable machine that moved across the floor and they had to attack targets on the floor. From there, they moved on to dropping bombs. They trained with the AT-11 twin engine Beech from which they would drop ten 100 pound sand bombs. Two students would go up with a pilot and an instructor at a time. While one student would practice dropping bombs, the other would hold a camera and photograph the bombs hitting or missing the target. Most of the bombs David dropped hit the bull's eye. Upon graduation he got a certificate. After graduating in October [Annotator's Note: October 1944], David was assigned to Lincoln, Nebraska which was the base where people awaiting assignment were sent. After waiting there for about a month, David was assigned to B-29s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] and sent to Clovis, New Mexico on 17 January 1945. That is where he joined his crew. His aircraft commander's name was Terrence Jenkins. The crewmen came from all walks of life. All 11 crewmen became a fighting unit by the time they completed their training at Clovis. Although they were all important, the three most important crewmen were the pilot, engineer and navigator. Jenkins was from Summerville, North Carolina. He was one of the older men on the crew but he was calm and steady. The engineer, Wilson Constable of Goodland, Indiana, was the oldest man on the crew. He really knew his engines. They finished their training in Clovis then were given a short leave, after which they were sent to Forbes Air Force Base in Topeka, Kansas. There, they picked up a brand new B-29. They got all of their equipment and shots and got ready to leave. Before they left, his parents invited the whole crew out to the farm for a home cooked meal before they shipped out. David and the rest of his crew received their orders to leave Topeka. They left on 8 May [Annotator's Note: 8 May 1945] and flew to Sacramento. The following day they flew to Honolulu then continued on to Kwajalein two days later. When they arrived on Kwajalein they were given live ammunition for the first time. The guns were loaded because from that point on the possibility of enemy attack was very real. David arrived on Saipan on 16 May and were assigned to the 313th Air Force [Annotator's Note: 313th Bombardment Wing], 504th Bomb Group, 421st Squadron the following day.

[Annotator's Note: Maynard David served in the USAAF as a bombardier on Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bombers in the 421st Bombardment Squadron, 504th Bombardment Group, 313th Bomb Wing, 20th Air Force based on Tinian.] Their training out of Tinian was mainly composed of dropping 100 pound bombs on some of the smaller islands. When they were sent from Saipan to Tinian their new B-29 was taken away from them and given to an older crew and they ended up with an older plane. It was a good plane that took them to Japan on many occasions and got them back safely. On 23 May [Annotator's Note: 23 May 1945] their aircraft commander, Lieutenant Jenkins, was assigned to fly as an observer on an aircraft along with Major Hale, the commander of the 421st Squadron. Their engineer, Wilson Constable, was assigned to fly as an observer on another aircraft. This was a nighttime maximum effort incendiary raid on Tokyo. The results were excellent. It was the third time Tokyo had been bombed. The city had been hit by B-29s from Tinian on 9 March with incendiaries which turned out to be an extremely destructive raid. The city was hit again in April and then for the third time on 23 May. David flew his first mission to Tokyo on 24 and 25 May. It was an incendiary mission. During the briefing before the mission, they were given their target assignment, altitude assignment and time over the target. Every group had a specific time to be over the target. As the time progressed the altitude increased going from 7,500 feet to 18,000 feet. David's crew went in at 8,500 feet. Prior to the mission they checked the plane to make sure everything was ready. They were to take off around five in the evening. Those who desired to do so were able to go to mass. David and two of the other crewmen always went. When they took off it was David's responsibility to call out the air speed. When they took off, their total load was about 135,000 pounds so it took a lot of runway. At between 100 and 135 miles per hour they lifted off. After allowing the engines to cool down a bit they would climb to their cruising altitude. Their next check point would be over Iwo Jima then, from there, they continued on to Japan. While passing through a front, their plane was stuck by lightening. The strike took out all of their navigational systems, LORAN [Annotator's Note: long range navigation], radio and radar systems. They were not sure if they would have power to open the bomb bay doors and release the bombs. They tested the bomb bay doors and they worked so they decided to continue on to the target. Their navigator got them to the Japanese coastline then directed them to the initial point [Annotator's Note: the initial point, or IP, is the place at which bombers begin their bomb run]. Long before they even reached Japan they were able to see the red glow coming up from Tokyo. After reaching the initial point they were picked up by a search light then were peppered with flak. On the final leg of the run, Maynard was given control of the plane. As the bombardier controlled the bomb site he also controlled the plane. The pilot maintained the altitude and air speed. Maynard was able to see the target and dropped the bombs. As soon as he released the bombs the plane was hit by heat thermals which bounced the plane around. They headed out to sea to clear the area. They were attacked by fighters on the way out but managed to fight them off. Before they had managed to get the bomb bay doors closed the aircraft filled with smoke. The odor was horrible. Once they got out to sea they checked the plane and crew. Everyone and everything was in good shape. From that point it was the engineers job to determine whether or not they could make it back to Tinian or if they would need to land at Iwo [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima] to refuel. They had enough fuel to get back to Tinian. After landing the ground crew discovered that the plane had been hit a number of times. There were about 474 planes that went over the target on that mission. Each of them carried 110 incendiary bombs. Of the 474 planes, 26 did not return. After returning to Tinian the crews were debriefed as to what they encountered during the mission.

[Annotator's Note: Maynard David served in the USAAF as a bombardier on Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bombers in the 421st Bombardment Squadron, 504th Bombardment Group, 313th Bomb Wing, 20th Air Force based on Tinian. His fist combat mission was the 24 and 25 May 1945 incendiary raid on Tokyo.] One thing that went through his mind was if they were going to get their bombs on the target. They also did not want to abort because, if they did, they each felt as if they had not done their job. The crew discussed whether or not they should continue on and decided that they should. Between the IP, the initial point [Annotator's Note: the initial point is the place at which bombers begin their bomb run], and the target David was busy. In addition to looking through the bomb site and controlling the plane he also had control of six .50 caliber machine guns and was responsible for watching out for enemy fighters. The flak was so thick it looked like a carpet. Occasionally they would see a tremendous flash in the target area which he believes was one of their own blowing up. On night bombing raids there was no formation. Each aircraft went on its own. On daylight raids they flew in formation. The decision had been made by General Curtis LeMay that the planes were using up too much fuel while forming up so he ordered that night missions were to be flown individually and not in formation. Even though they were not in formation the planes still got close together. They could see the other aircraft when they went in. On another raid, David looked up and saw a plane right above them. He informed the pilot who then moved their plane over. One B-29 was damaged when a plane above it dropped its bombs and hit the lower plane in the tail. Sometime after their first raid they were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

[Annotator's Note: Maynard David served in the USAAF as a bombardier on Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bombers in the 421st Bombardment Squadron, 504th Bombardment Group, 313th Bomb Wing, 20th Air Force based on Tinian.] Their second mission was just as rough as the first one. It was a daylight raid on the industrial center of Yokohama. They flew in formation and went in at 18,000 feet. The plane to the right of them was shot down. When they got back they were able to report that all 11 men had gotten out of the plane. All 11 survived the war. The mission was a maximum effort [Annotator's Note: maximum effort meant that every bombardment group was to send every available aircraft out on that mission] and a lot of damage was done to Yokohama. During that mission they encountered severe fighter attacks and very heavy flak. On this mission David was credited with a probable [Annotator's Note: he probably shot down an enemy aircraft]. He did not see the plane crash but did see it going down in flames. For this mission the 504th Bombardment Group was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation. By the time David arrived and started flying missions over Japan, fighter opposition was starting to diminish. The daylight raid he flew to Osaka was opposed by heavy fighter activity. He also flew a daylight raid to Kobe in which there was heavy fighter activity. David wrote to his brother, who was a B-17 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] pilot in Europe, and told him that he thought the Japanese fighter planes were good looking. His brother had been shot down over Holland and escaped. He replied to David that he did not think enemy fighter planes were good looking at all. During nighttime raids they did not experience much fighter opposition. Another of the 504th Bombardment Group's missions turned out to be a key factor in Japan's surrender. That was the mining of enemy harbors. The 504th was the only group to fly these missions. They worked with the Navy, which supplied the mines. The Navy also loaded and armed the mines and decided which types of mines would be used. In July [Annotator's Note: July 1945], the 421st Group [Annotator's Note: 421st Bombardment Squadron, 504th Bombardment Group] took on the assignment of flying the mining missions. They dropped mines in all of the seaports in Japan. They mined the Shimonoseki Straits and even had two minefields up along Manchuria. One of the Manchuria missions was their longest mission. It lasted more than 20 hours. They stopped at Iwo [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima] to take on food and fuel then continued on to the target. They dropped their mines then flew back to Iwo to refuel. Some 1,500 planes took part in the mining mission and only 15 of them were lost. The mining missions were responsible for sinking more Japanese tonnage than the Navy did. After the war ended they were not far from the Shimonoseki Straits on a mission to drop food by parachute to a prisoner of war camp. After dropping their cargo they decided to go on a sightseeing tour. They flew down the Shimonoseki Straits and saw that the harbor they flew over was full of sunken ships. The mining missions came under an operation named Operation Starvation. For Operation Starvation, the 504th was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation. The mines were dropped by parachute. They would carry eight 2,000 pound mines which armed when they hit the water. The mines were very sophisticated and the mission was very successful. David flew about eight mining missions.

[Annotator's Note: Maynard David served in the USAAF as a bombardier on Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bombers in the 421st Bombardment Squadron, 504th Bombardment Group, 313th Bomb Wing, 20th Air Force based on Tinian.] A lot of times when commercial airliners crash it is caused by pilot error. That almost happened to David. They had landed at Iwo [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima] to refuel and when they were taking off for the return flight to Tinian the copilot made a mistake which prevented the plane from lifting off. Once the pilot realized the problem he corrected it and they lifted off at the very end of the runway. David flew about 12 fire bombing missions. One reason so many of their missions were firebombing missions is that the Japanese spread out their manufacturing which necessitated hitting an entire city. The only other mission that really stands out to David [Annotator's Note: other than his first mission] was the daylight raid on Kobe. There was a lot of fighter opposition and heavy flak. Not much of the enemy fire was aimed at David but he watched as other areas of the group were hit. As a result of forming up, they had used up a lot of fuel. They did not know if they would make it to Iwo or if they would have to crash in the sea. Planes that were low on fuel would pair up with another aircraft that had fuel. That way the escort plane could notify air sea rescue if the plane ran out of fuel and crashed and submarines could be sent to the crash location. When they got to Iwo they discovered that they had taken some damage to their wing that they were not aware of which had caused them to lose fuel. On other occasions they had P-51 [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] fighters escorting them from Iwo to Japan. Sometimes they would have to escort the fighters back.

[Annotator's Note: Maynard David served in the USAAF as a bombardier on Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bombers in the 421st Bombardment Squadron, 504th Bombardment Group, 313th Bomb Wing, 20th Air Force based on Tinian.] Tokyo Rose was an interesting person and was known to everyone in the Pacific. They could pick her up on missions between Iwo [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima] and Japan. She would make discouraging statements but between them she played good music. David found out later on that Tokyo Rose was an American citizen who was Japanese and that her father was a businessman from Chicago. They were in Japan when the war started and the Japanese would not let them return. She was forced by the Japanese military to do the broadcasts. After the war she was tried by the military, found guilty and did time in prison. Years after she was released she was exonerated. During her trial there were former POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] who worked with her who testified that she was acting under duress but the military tribunal did not take that into account. The United States had a lot of airmen who were prisoners of war in various cities around Japan. Many of them were in Tokyo. During two firebombing raids on Tokyo, 62 American prisoners were killed. Toward the end of the war David was assigned to air-sea rescue. They were given the option of flying these missions to complete their 30 mission tour. They decided to do so. The day the atomic bomb was dropped, they were off the coast of Japan circling a submarine. If someone had to ditch they could direct the submarine to their location. The next morning they learned of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. None of them knew what an atomic bomb was.

The last mission Maynard David flew was on 30 August [Annotator's Note: 30 August 1945]. It was an air-sea rescue mission. They were looking for a general who was flying from the Philippines to Honolulu and had disappeared. No sign of the general's plane was ever found. They were still flying out of Tinian at the time. When they were flying some of the air-sea rescue missions in conjunction with the submarines they flew out of Iwo Jima. Iwo Jima was not a nice place. What David remembers the most about Iwo is the line of white crosses he saw marking the graves of those who gave their lives to take the island. A lot of men died but a lot of lives were saved as well. If the Allies would have had to invade Japan the casualties on both sides would have been catastrophic. Plans for the invasion were already being made. Tinian had been selected as an evacuation point and two large buildings were constructed to house the nurses who would be based there. Many of those nurses were already there when the war ended. David was on Tinian when he learned that the Japanese had surrendered. He was asleep and heard someone running around outside yelling the news. With all of the gunfire outside David's crew decided to do their celebrating inside their Quonset hut. After the surrender, the aircrews no longer needed bombardiers. His crew flew home but he had to wait until he had enough points. In December he left Tinian on a ship. Aboard ship he was responsible for overseeing 100 other men who were soldiers and Marines who had served on Iwo Jima. During the trip they hit some very rough weather which caused the ship to list 39 degrees. There were a lot of sick people but no one was hurt. They landed in Los Angeles then David continued on to Fort Logan, Colorado where he was discharged as a flight officer.

When Maynard David went home for the first time his wife kept it to herself. She wanted to have time alone with him first. Leaving them to go overseas was very hard. When he was at Forbes Air Force Base in Topeka the pilot of David's plane flew over the David family farm and he was able to see his mother, wife and child one last time before they went overseas. War is hell. There is no glamour in it. Combatants on both sides are given orders that need to be carried out. Still, there are good people on both sides. The fighting happening now [Annotator's Note: at the time this interview was recorded in February 2010] is different than what took place during World War 2. David's brother in law was a P-51 [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] fighter pilot and was shot down over France. He escaped and got back to his unit. Years after the war the German people were able to locate him and the guy who shot him down. He was invited to a reunion which he attended. David has the utmost respect for the Japanese despite of the way the war started and was fought. The Japanese did a tremendous job of recovering after the war. The United States gave them a lot of help. David would have loved to have gone back to Japan after the war but never did. Some of his crew men did. The company David worked for had a business in Japan and there were Japanese representatives who came to see them in the United States. David believes that museums like The National WWII Museum are very important as well as teaching young people about what happened back then. The country came together for the cause. One of the key factors for victory was unity. Nearly everybody did what they needed to do. During World War 2 there was rationing and there were food shortages but they accepted it. Museums are important because they show not just the fighting but what happened back home. David did not talk about the war much after he got home. It has only been recently that he has spoken about his experiences. The smell over Tokyo during that night bombing mission [Annotator's Note: the 24 and 25 May 1945 fire bombing mission] consisted of burning fuel, burning wood and burning flesh.

The smell over Tokyo during that night bombing mission [Annotator's Note: the 24 and 25 May 1945 fire bombing mission] consisted of burning fuel, burning wood and burning flesh. After the war, Maynard David stayed in touch with the men on his crew. They all survived and came back and found their place in society. The pilot and airplane commander, Terrence Jenkins, came from Summerville, South Carolina. He had four boys and was active in his community. He was a salesman for a food company. Harley Stevens, the CFC [Annotator's Note: Central Fire Control] gunner, finished his education at the Citadel then went to work for Sears, attaining a high position there. Another crew member was Kenneth Hamilton. Hamilton had four children of his own and later took in three of his neighbor's children when their parents died. He is a wonderful person. The navigator, Kelton Shaw [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling], went on to be a big factor in a farming community in west Texas. Their radar operator was a guy named Parsley from Indiana. Parsley was a college teacher. When the Korean War started he went back into the service. The engineer, Wilson Constable, went back to the family farm in Goodland [Annotator's Note: Goodland, Indiana] and took it over when his parents died. Reed, the radio operator, was from Colorado. He went back to school and contributed to his community. Sorenson, the tail gunner, was learning to fly after the war and was killed when his plane crashed in Minnesota. Evan Black, the copilot, from Birmingham, Alabama, was a meat cutter. He went back to the meat cutting business after the war then later got into the furniture warehouse business. Stalkoff [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling] was another one of the gunners. He was a devout Christian and had a problem with what they were doing. He requested a transfer off of the crew which was granted. He went on to become a Baptist preacher and the head of one of the Baptist seminary colleges. They were a great group. They all did their jobs and were rewarded for it by getting home. During one of their training missions out of Clovis, New Mexico they were to take off from Clovis and fly down to Shreveport, Louisiana. There, David was supposed to make a photographic run on the locomotive roundhouse. After that, they were to fly to Southern Louisiana and drop ten bombs at the Barksdale Bombing Range. They were to continue on to the Phoenix, Arizona area and drop ten more bombs on another range, and then they were to return to Clovis. They made it to Shreveport and did their photo run then continued on to Southern Louisiana but when they got there they could not find the bombing range so they continued on to Phoenix. They dropped their bombs then went back to Clovis. When they got off the plane the tail gunner, Kenneth Hamilton, asked why David did not drop any bombs in Louisiana. David said that he could not find the range. Hamilton had seen it but did not tell them.