5 Grand

All photos and text copyright Boeing Company, reprinted by permission.

(Photos provided by Tony Guercia)

THIS IS THE STORY Of a bomber--your bomber. You helped build it, and probably you wrote your name on it to prove it was yours. As this ship, "Boeing Five Grand"-the 5,000th Flying Fortress built at Boeing since Pearl Harbor--was christened Saturday in a jubilant celebration on the apron, the Army announced it will carry into service the thousands of workers' autographs that gave it so gay and reckless a coat. The Army's announcement said the ship will pass Modification Center without change. That apparently leaves it up to the crew that will take it into combat whether or not the brightly painted names will stay on the ship. And you know what that crew of American boys will decide, with a chance to take such a plane into battle.

Mrs Gertrude Aldrich of Dept. 208 smashed a bottle of champagne against the piece of armor plate that had been fitted between the chin guns. Alezena Palmer of Dept 433 placed the transportation department's floral wreath on those guns as a good luck charm. All this while thousands of workers, who had put their best into Five Grand, cheered and wished their plane good luck.

The skip was wheeled out onto the apron Friday night as a feature of the ceremony on the second shift where the name selection was announced.

Boeing employees feel "Five Grand" is a plane to be feared by the enemy, not only for its firepower and stamina, but because it carries with it so many unmistakable symbols of the spirit of freedom-loving Americans. The spontaneous painting of names on this plane's parts as they passed through the shops and branch plants was really a demonstration of the unity of American workers and American fighting men.

The thousands of signatures are the high sign to the crew who will fly "Five Grand" and other crews who will see it in action overseas that "we're all in this together.

A lot of Boeing workers are even willing to bet that any Nazi fighter who bores in on "Five Grand" will really be hexed. They feel every name on the Fort will be saying, "I'm here too, and I'm taking a crack at you."

As parts of this Fortress flowed through the shops, cards were attached, you remember, for autographs. You know what happened. Everybody wrote their name on the plane. To heck with the cards. It was the Army's plane, but everybody signed it anyway, and the Army accepted the inevitable. Fortress builders have some definite feelings about Nazis and Japs-and this plane, more than any other, is going to carry them into battle.

The plane's christener, Mrs Aldrich, is the mother of a boy whose Fortress was blown up over Germany. All the crew parachuted to safety and are now in a prison camp. This plane will replace that one, and it seemed fitting to the crowd Saturday that Mrs. Aldrich christen the plane on the eve of Mother's Day.

Captain Ben Locke, Army public relations officer, told the crowd of a message from Maj. Gen. Charles E. Branshaw, commanding officer of the Materiel Command, Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, stating the Army will accept the ship with the names. Nick Carter, superintendent of final assembly, spoke of the employees' work on the ship. Don McQuade, Dept 560, was master of ceremonies.

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