Here’s a story of two members of the Greatest Generation, and a B-29 bomber. During World War Two, she built them, he flew them. Retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col Bob Vaucher —  was just 24 years old when he delivered one of the first B-29 bombers in 1943. For the next two years he flew many missions as America and her allies pressed for an end of the war.

When that end came — on September 2nd, 1945, he organized and led a massive Super-fortress flyover of the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay during the the World War Two surrender signing ceremony.

He died at age 102 at his New Jersey home in 2021, but months before, took his last B-29 flight aboard one of two still flying B-29’s.  Doc was pulled from the desert and rebuilt in Wichita, Kansas. Lt. Col. Vaucher and Connie Palacioz flew aboard Doc in 2020 at the Arsenal of Democracy – in Washington D.C, marking the 75th anniversary of the end of the war.

Connie — now in her 90’s actually helped build Doc and many other B-29’s at the Boeing plant in Wichita, Kansas. She was one of the original “Rosie the Riveters.”  When efforts began to restore Doc, she volunteered. They are part of our Big Story “Boneyard Bomber: Flying Again.” Here is a brief video preview: “”Heroes of the B-29.” As we said — she built em, he flew em.

Photographs courtesy David Tellus, AOPA Photographer, Brett Schauf, Visual Media Group