I knew Walter Geyer quite well; he was an approachable man who lived most of his life in the Sheldon area. Quiet and unassuming, you’d never guess he carried much of a story inside him, but with a little digging, a big story developed. What I did know was that he worked a little farm and milked cows for a time. He had a college education, worked as a school counselor in a northern Minnesota school system, and spent a couple of years in Africa with the Peace Corps.
The facts of his life that developed beyond my personal knowledge did so with some research and a lot of luck. I knew he had been in the military service and had served aboard a bomber. Specifics of his military career started revealing themselves with a chance find of a biography written by the commanding pilot of the B-17 Super Fortress bomber crew of the 360th Squadron that I discovered Walter flew with as a waist gunner. He also served as a togellier (TOG) on the plane’s bomb runs, simply meaning he would be the one to open the bombay doors and drop the bombs.
The main job of a waist gunner was to fight off enemy fighter planes with twin .50 caliber Browning machine guns. To do that they stood by open windows and experienced -50 degree temperatures. In general, they suffered high casualty rates due to open exposure to enemy fire and flak directed their way.
The B-17 earned a strong reputation for its ability to absorb heavy combat damage and still return home. The pilot added that on one mission their plane got shot up pretty badly. It rattled him, but he looked around and saw the crew was calm and collected. He thought he’d better shape up and said, “Well, shit, if they can stay calm, I sure as hell can.” When landing, they scrambled out and inspected the flak damage. All the plexiglass on one side of the plane was gone, and the stabilizer and rudder contained numerous holes.
Walter became a member of that crew in Lincoln, Nebraska in the Cornhusker Hotel that was known as the local watering hole for pilots. From there the young crew trained in Des Moines, Iowa, for three months. Sent overseas in January, 1944 on a ship to a place called Molesworth, England, where they settled in to stay for the duration of the war. Captain Smith spoke with some pride when he said, “I flew with the same guys the whole time and brought all of them home.” In May, 1945, after 24 missions, they returned to the States to form a nucleus in the Air Force for the invasion of Japan.
While all of their wartime history is interesting, I found this bit particularly so. I remember my dad reminiscing about something Walter had told him. Since there had probably been a few
beers that day, I didn’t know what to believe of the statement Walter had made about shooting at German jet fighters. Really? Jets? It became clearly defined and verified with the pilot’s statement. On one bombing run he said, “we were suddenly attacked by 15 or 20 Me-262 jet fighters. We were startled by the speed of these aircraft…” He added his gunners hit one of the jets and it exploded into two pieces. A German pilot said of the B-17’s firepower when attacking them, “all your past sins flash before your eyes.”
We’ll leave Walter’s story buried under his stone with an almost humorous anecdote. The captain reminisced, “One evening Shawnie, Walt, and I decided that we would visit the local pub for a few beers.” Then they walked over to a carnival in the area where a crew member came running up to tell them Mike was in a fight with a sailor. When they got there, they found a crowd egging them on, but they grabbed Mike and got him out of there. Walter and another went to find a jeep to haul him away. Commandeer is the term, I believe, and sure enough they found one. We don’t know how they found it parked so handily for their use, but later on someone else surely wondered where it could be.
SAMUEL W. SMITH CREW - 360th BS
(crew assigned 360BS: 06 Feb 1945 - photo: 02 Apr 1945)
(Back L-R) 1Lt Samuel W. Smith (P), 2Lt Arthur S.C. Shanafelt, Jr. (CP),
F/O Russell A. Knudson (N), S/Sgt Earl K. Lawson (WG)
(Front L-R) S/Sgt Walter A. Geyer (TOG - holding "Tailspin"),
T/Sgt Robert A. Bridgman (R), S/Sgt Jens C. Jensen (TG),
Sgt Michael J. Kucab (BTG), T/Sgt Thomas E. Zenick (E)
