The incredible transformation of a young Kansan from civilian aircraft worker to elite bombardier in America’s most iconic wartime bomber
Richard R. Ayesh, Edward M. Sion’s uncle, was a young man from Wichita whose dreams of flying would take him from the aircraft factories of Kansas to the skies over Nazi Germany as a B-17 Flying Fortress bombardier. This is the story of how an ordinary American became a bombardier in the Army Air Corps, part of the greatest generation that answered their country’s call during World War II.
From Factory Floor to Flight Training
In the years before World War II, Wichita’s aircraft industry flourished. Companies like Cessna, Beech, Stearman, and Boeing produced both military and commercial aircraft, providing employment opportunities throughout the city. Richard R. Ayesh graduated from Wichita North High School in 1940 and, unable to afford college, found work first at a grocery store and then at Cessna Aircraft in April 1941. He began in the machine shop before moving to final assembly, where he built trainer aircraft for the Royal Canadian Air Force.
The Day That Changed Everything
December 7, 1941, transformed America overnight. The attack on Pearl Harbor galvanized a nation that had been deeply divided about entering the European conflict. Before the attack, polling showed 80% of Americans opposed war with Germany, and prominent figures, including Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh, advocated against involvement. However, Pearl Harbor united the country in determination to fight both the Axis powers in Europe and Japan in the Pacific.
Richard Ayesh was nineteen when he learned of the attack after leaving the Palace Theater that Sunday afternoon. Like millions of Americans, he was shocked and angered by the news.
The Long Road to Service
Despite his eagerness to enlist, Ayesh initially faced obstacles. The Army Air Corps required two years of college education, and defense workers were discouraged from leaving their posts. When the college requirement was dropped in April 1942, he attempted to enlist in Wichita but was turned away due to his defense job status. His father had to sign his application for parental consent, as he was only nineteen.
Ayesh recalled the process: “In May, Kansas City accepted my application and ordered me up there for my entrance exam. It was sort of like a college entrance exam—you had to have some level of intelligence, or you couldn’t get in.”
After passing the exam and a rigorous physical at Fort Leavenworth, he received a postcard confirming his acceptance. In January 1943, he reported to Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis for basic training. The facility earned the nickname “Pneumonia Gulch” due to the severe winter conditions and high illness rates among trainees housed in wooden huts.
Intensive Training Pipeline
Following basic training, Ayesh was sent to Oshkosh State Teachers College in Wisconsin for the College Training Detachment program, which compressed two years of college coursework—including physics, mathematics, trigonometry, and geometry—into three intensive months.
In May 1943, he arrived at the Aviation Cadet Training Center in Santa Ana, California, for classification. Despite qualifying for pilot, navigator, and bombardier positions, he was assigned as a bombardier due to pilot quotas. Rejecting the assignment meant washing out of the program entirely. Though disappointed, he accepted, holding onto the promise of possible pilot training after completing an overseas tour.
The training at Santa Ana was comprehensive and demanding. Cadets developed skills in gunnery, bombing, survival, parachute jumping, navigation, and radio operation. Qualification tests assessed both cognitive and physical abilities through exercises testing manual dexterity, coordination, and split-second decision-making.
Specialized Bombardier Training
Ayesh’s training continued at gunnery school in Kingman, Arizona, where he learned to operate .50-caliber machine guns from every bomber position. During air-to-air gunnery practice, each trainee received color-coded shells to track accuracy. Ayesh’s assigned color was blue, and he took pride in the number of blue marks registering hits on the towed targets.
At Deming, New Mexico, he completed bombardier training in AT-11 trainers manufactured by Beechcraft. There, he mastered the highly classified Norden bombsight and practiced formation bombing runs. On his first practice run, he hit the 20-by-20-foot target structure dead center—an achievement he compared to scoring a hole-in-one in golf.
Upon graduation, Ayesh took the Bombardier’s Oath, swearing to protect the secrecy of the American bombsight and uphold the honor of the Army Air Forces “if need be, with my life itself.”
The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress
Ayesh would serve aboard the B-17G Flying Fortress, a four-engine heavy bomber with a ten-person crew. Boeing oversaw production of 12,730 B-17s, predominantly used in strategic bombing missions over Europe. The aircraft had a maximum loaded weight of 65,000 pounds and was powered by four 1,200-horsepower Wright radial engines. With a wingspan exceeding 103 feet and a theoretical ceiling of 35,000 feet, the B-17 could carry bomb loads ranging from 2,200 to 8,000 pounds.
The B-17G earned its “Flying Fortress” nickname honestly, bristling with thirteen .50-caliber machine guns mounted in power-operated turrets throughout the fuselage, including a chin turret beneath the nose where the bombardier could operate twin guns during head-on attacks.
For Ayesh and countless other airmen, the B-17 represented both beauty and power—a formidable weapon in the air war over Europe and a testament to American industrial might.
Richard R. Ayesh’s journey from the factory floors of Wichita to the bombardier’s position in a Flying Fortress exemplifies the transformation of countless young Americans during World War II—from civilian workers to highly trained combat airmen ready to take the war to the enemy.
Click here to purchase “Through Blue Skies to Hell: America’s ‘Bloody 100th’ in the Air War over Germany” by Edward M. Sion
