Lou Chicquette
Lou Chicquette enlisted in the Army Air Corps Cadet Program in the summer of 1942. Lou along with 16 others asked for B29 engine and gunnery school and training. The B29 was the first operational pressurized military aircraft. Lou was designated a tail gunner and also trained to be a flight engineer.

Lou and his crew were assigned to airplane number 53 and they named her “Flak Alley Sally. “They left for the Pacific in 1945. “During the first phase of our tour we constantly bombed the larger Japanese cities, dropping general purpose and incendiary clusters on Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Kobe and Yawatta. Later we laid mines in the straits to impede Japanese shipping. We dropped them at night by radar and I should add, they had to be in a precise location, as we might later be navigating that same area.” Lou remembered.

“In six months of combat, the Sixth had flown 64 major combat missions. Combat losses of group personnel showed the best record of any B29 group in the 20th Air Force. They had 22 men killed in action, 33 prisoners of war who were liberated after V-J Day and 55 enlisted men listed as missing in action. “We found our MIA men’s names inscribed on the white granite slabs at the beautiful Punch Bowl Cemetery on a hill above the city of Honolulu. On our visits there in past years, is was indeed a sobering moment to know that their remains were never found,” Lou added.

Now, thinking back on his military service, Lou said, “It’s hard for me to explain how I felt about flying combat. It was so exciting at the age of 20 and 21. I was doing what I wanted to do. We functioned as a well-trained team.” A light mist comes to his eyes as he continued, “Besides the campaign ribbons and DFC (Distinguished Flying Cross), I have the Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters. I carry a piece of flak in my right arm, probably from scrap iron shipped to Japan from the U.S. before the war. I have purposely ignored the scary times and actions while in the target areas. I do not consider myself the hero type. The real heroes are the fellows who did not come back.”!