A Physical & Mental Strain
The bomber boys came from every corner of America with many never even having seen or set foot in an airplane before the war. With just about a year of training between enlistment to deployment in Framlingham and then their first combat flights, the tasks they faced were monumental and the odds were not in their favor.
1. Average Age of 19
390th veteran Colonel Richard Bushong has pointed out, their youth was actually a good thing; if they had really understood the danger, they might never have boarded the planes at all!
2. Death or Imprisonment
The boys knew that their chances of being killed or becoming a POW were greater than their chances of coming home. In the first months the 390th was active, the survival rate for missions was just 50%.
3. Physical Tolls
The B-17’s cabins were not pressurized and temperatures were colder than 30 degrees below zero. Wearing imperfect equipment exposed bombers boys to frostbite, electric shock and hypoxia.