BLUE ASH — A lot of guys have had a love affair with Sal.

        From the Blue Ash executive who has made it his quest to bring her back to life, to the U.S. Army Air Corps veteran from Dayton who was with her on her first date, they love the gal.

My Gal Sal restoration volunteers Bill Thompson of Silverton and Don Frank of Loveland work on the bomber at the Blue Ash Airport. (Glenn Hartong photos) | ZOOM |

        My Gal Sal is a B-17E — an early model of World War II's famed “Flying Fortress” and the only one left in the world. En route to England in 1942, Sal was lost in a storm, never to take part in the air war that helped defeat Adolf Hitler.

        Now, she's on course for a new mission.

        Bob Ready, founder of LSI Industries in Blue Ash, plans to make Sal the centerpiece of anational memorial in Blue Ash to those who served in the Air Corps, and the crew members who died in bombing missions throughout the war.

        “We're going to call it the Ultimate Sacrifice Memorial to remember them,” Mr. Ready said. Supportive city officials believe it will attract thousands of visitors each year from around the world.

        For now, Sal sits in pieces in an airplane hangar here. With painstaking attention to detail, a team of General Electric Aircraft Engines engineers and other volunteers are working to reassemble the bomber. Toting rivet guns, acetylene torches and power drills, they are mending her wounds and restoring her glory, lost nearly 60 years ago when she skidded on her belly onto the ice of Greenland.

        As they work on Sal, memories of those dark days, flying through flak-filled skies over Europe, wash over the men.

My Gal Sal rests on the ice in Greenland after its crew was forced to ditch the B-17E bomber during a mission in 1942. | ZOOM |

        “This is an airplane that was dear to my heart,” said Bob Beringhaus, 79, of Anderson Township, who piloted B-17s on 35 missions. “When I heard about it, I had to get involved. Does it bring back those days? You bet it does.”
       

Something unique

        Mr. Ready, who also operates Exec Aviation Inc. at the Blue Ash Airport, loves aviation history.

        In 1997, he realized there was no tribute anywhere to the Army Air Corps. He talked with City Manager Marvin Thompson “about doing something at the Blue Ash Airport to benefit the Greater Cincinnati community and honor our history. Not a museum, but something unique.”

        He envisions two hangars connected by another building with My Gal Sal in the center: on a re-created ice cap in Greenland as she appears in her only remaining photograph, her crew posed on her wings and fuselage.

        About the only obstacle to Mr. Ready's plans for the memorial is the ownership of the Blue Ash Airport. Cincinnati, which owns it, and Blue Ash are negotiating a sale, but the talks have made little progress. Mr. Ready says he'll wait until the sale is complete before building the memorial.
       

Landing on ice

        Bob Patrick's memories of My Gal Sal's first mission are as bright as the ice field where she ditched.

Bob Patrick (left), who was the crew chief on My Gal Sal when it crash-landed in Greenland in 1942, looks at the B-17E's restored engine with Bob Ready. | ZOOM |

        At 5 p.m. on June 24, 1942, Sgt. Patrick lugged his flight bag onto Sal at the military airfield at Presque Isle, Maine.

        Mr. Patrick, now 80 and living near Dayton, was Sal's crew chief, responsible for keeping B-17s airworthy between flights. He was one of 13 men aboard that day.

        Sal, and the 12 other bombers in “Operation Bolero,” set off for England with refueling stops planned at Goose Bay, Labrador; Greenland and Iceland. They did not fly formation for fear that Nazi U-boats in the North Atlantic would spot them. Each B-17 was on its own, flying several minutes apart.

        After departing Goose Bay, “the weather turned bad. We had to make it to Bluie West 1, an airfield on the southwest tip of Greenland at the end of a cliff-lined fiord,” Mr. Patrick said.

        Three landing attempts were aborted for lack of visibility, and Sal's fuel ran low. They tried to reach an alternate landing site, Bluie West 8, but could not find it in a snowstorm. Their only choice was to ditch the plane — wheels up — on the ice.

        It was a rough landing, but everyone survived.

        After checking out the plane, the crew realized they had another problem: Sal's propellers had gouged the ice and bent as they landed. Without the engines, there was no power to operate the radio and call for help.

        So Sgt. Patrick and Command Pilot Ralf Stinson decided to try to cut one of the bent propellers, using a hacksaw. It took a full day to cut the three tips, but the plan worked. Food and survival equipment were airlifted to the men, and about a week later, rescue pilots were able to land on a lake about 26 miles from the stranded bomber crew. The crewmen hiked to the lake and were flown out.

Bob Patrick looks inside the rear section of My Gal Sal's fuselage | ZOOM |

        Of the 13 bombers to leave Presque Isle on June 26, three ditched in Greenland. Two, the Sooner and Alabama Exterminator, were lost in fiords. Sal remained on the ice. No one saw her again for decades.
       

Finding Sal

        As Mr. Ready began looking for a B-17 to display here, he found that only a few dozen remained worldwide. No one wanted to sell.

        In 1998, he put together a salvage team and went to Greenland to find Sooner. What pieces remained of her were in 120 to 300 feet of frigid water. The team soon found that huge icebergs had torn her to shreds.

        But Mr. Ready knew that in 1995, Gary Larkins, a renown salvager of vintage military aircraft, had gone to Greenland and brought back My Gal Sal. She was sitting in pieces in a hangar at an Air Naval Station museum in Tillamook, Ore.

        Mr. Ready purchased Sal in March 2000 for the undisclosed price of the 1995 salvage expedition. Sal's fuselage was taken to Auburn, Calif., and the rest of her, including her engines and wings, came to Blue Ash.
       In April 2000, Mr. Ready discreetly contacted some friends at General Electric Aircraft Engines in Evendale for help with restoration of the engines. He also knew of some pilots and crewmen of B-17s, including a group of veterans who were airplane model hobbyists.

Secret mission

        About 25 volunteers from the two groups began the restoration, sworn to secrecy.

ABOUT THE B-17E

• Builder: Boeing Co., Seattle    • Number of planes built: 12,731, of which 512 were early E-models.    • Engines: Four Wright Cyclone built by the Wright Aeronautical Corp., Evendale, predecessor to GE Aircraft Engines.    • Number in crew: 9 or 10    • Bomb capacity: varied based on type of bomb.    • Armaments: Ten machine guns (nine .50-caliber and one .30-caliber)    • Wingspan: 103 feet, 9 inches    • Length: 73 feet, 10 inches    • Cruising speed: 210 mph    • Fuel capacity: 2,520 gallons    • Range: About 2,500 miles

WAR RECORD

The B-17E was the first bomber used for combat flights in World War II. A series of prototype models preceded the E-model which was followed by the more common B-17F (3,405 built) and B-17G (8,680 built). There were 4,790 Flying Fortresses lost in World War II combat flights. The lost bombers carried 47,920 men of the U.S. Army Air Corps. Overall, the Air Corps lost about 90,000 airmen in World War II.

        “We have kept a tight lid on this,” Mr. Ready said, fearing that public curiousity would inhibit the project. “I did not want anyone to know what we were doing, until now.”

        At the hangar where volunteers are reassembling Sal, memories mix with the flash of acetylene and the din of rivet guns.

        Mike Matre, 80, of Sharonville, has been driving rivets in Sal's wings. He piloted B-17s in combat over Europe.

        “If we don't do this, we will lose something for the next generation,” Mr. Matre explained.

Living history

        Although My Gal Sal never completed her combat mission, serving as a memorial is a fitting destiny, Mr. Ready said.

        “Our school systems are really failing to teach our children what those veterans did to save this country,” he said. “I feel we need to keep the memory alive.”

        The memorial will be created as a non-profit foundation, and will be open to school groups, with computers and other technology to teach the lessons of war.

        Plans include an “Honor Wall” bearing the names of all 90,000 U.S. Army Air Corps World War II casualties. There will be a wall of 4,790 die-cast miniature B-17s, each representing a plane lost in the war. Each may be sponsored by a tax deductible $250 gift.

        Next month, My Gal Sal — 60 percent restored by then — will make her debut when the men of her 97th Bomb Group come to Cincinnati for a reunion. Her public unveiling will come after restoration is complete.
       

"Meant to be'

        Mr. Ready marvels at the fates that have preserved My Gal Sal, and the workers who are bringing her back to life.

        “It is amazing when you think that Sal sat on that ice field since 1942.”

        A reconnaissance plane spotted the hulk — flipped over on the ice, the tail broken off — in 1964. But it wasn't until 1995 that her wreckage was recovered.

        “Why is it she wasn't buried in snow or totally ripped apart by the elements after all of that time, 53 years on an icecap above the Arctic Circle in one of the most unforgiving places in the world? How in the world do things like this happen?” Mr. Ready asked.

        “I call it fate. It was meant to be.”
       

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