Landing a B-17

If readers of this column ever stop calling or writing me about East Texas history, I suppose someone will have to put me out to pasture.

And speaking of pastures, long-time reader Ray Jayroe called me recently to tell me about a day in the l940s when the pilot of a B-17 plane ran out of gas and decided to land on a dirt road at the McQueen farm at Keltys, a sawmill town near Lufkin.

As it coasted down the road, the plane nosed into a pond.

But the men in the neighborhood somehow pulled the plane from the pond, filled it with gas, and the pilot prepared to take off.

However, at the other end of the road stood a cluster of trees. The pilot’s new-found friends soon cut down the trees and the pilot revved up his engines and took off to the cheers of Keltys onlookers.

The B-17, a valued addition to the U.S. Air Force family, was the product of World War II.

It had leak-proof gas tanks, a “stinger” turret in the tail to fight off attacks from the rear, and other features seldom found on other planes.

With firepower on the front, back and top, the B-17 was dubbed “the flying fortress” and could take enemy planes in stride without protective escorts. It could also lay its bombs, known as “eggs,” from eight miles up and then get back to its home base safely.

Often called ”the bomber with a fighter’s zip,” the B-17 contributed immensely to the U.S. Air Force’s air superiority during World War II.

Ray Jayroe was only ten years old at the time and had the mumps. But the B-17’s landing at Keltys impressed him so much that he remembers the Keltys event with the clarity of a good spring of water.

Ray went on to become a long-time employee at Southland Paper Mills, Inc. at Herty, another small town near Lufkin. Southland also made history, too. In the l940s, it became the first mill to make newsprint from southern pine wood fibers.

But that’s another story.