Original Item: One-of-a-kind. 2nd Lieutenant Kenneth O Blair Army serial number 12046803 was born in New Jersey in 1923 and enlisted in March, 1942 in Trenton at the age of 19. He trained as a pilot and became a Co-Pilot in crews captained by 1st Lt Norman H. Scott and 1st Lt Kenneth I. Menzie in the 350th Bomb Squadron, 100th Bomb Group, 8th Air Force during WWII. Research shows that he was a member of the Co-Pilot class 43-B and suffered an unknown fate on the Regensburg shuttle mission to North Africa on August 17, 1943.

The following was found on the 100 Bomb Group website.

Original 100th Co-Pilots

When Col. Darr "Pappy" Alkire, Commander of the 100th Bomb Group, had to notify his air crews in late January, 1943 that they were not certified as "combat ready" and therefore would not embark for overseas duty as anticipated, a number of repercussions were about to be felt. Not only were the crew members sadly disappointed, but were also being threatened with the prospect of being split up as a Group and parceled out as replacement crews in other outfits. Losses were beginning to mount in Groups which were already operational with the newly commissioned Eight Air Force in England. At this time the 100th B.G. was divided up and the crews sent to various locations for additional training to overcome their apparent deficiencies. Not only was the future of the 100th becoming in doubt, but morale was beginning to take a precipitous dive. Assigned the duty of checking out other crews for combat readiness, while not recognized as such themselves, began to take its toll.

It was at about this point that Higher Authority began to realize that the co-pilots of the 100th were accumulating considerably more time in the B-17 than many First Pilots who were being certified for combat. Consequently, the conventional wisdom was to replace ALL of the original co-pilots with recent twin-engine pilot school graduates. And so it was that nearly 40 members of the Class of 43-B at Moody Field in Valdosta, Ga.  were shipped to the 100th at Kearney, Neb. in early March, 1943, having just been declared multi-engine pilots on February 18th. However, as these new recruits began to fill the right-hand seats of the four engine giant of the Group, some of the crews readily accepted the inevitable while others developed and almost instant resentment that these new interlopers had broken up original crews While still smarting from not having been sent overseas immediately after finishing "phase" training some crews were determined to make life miserable for the latest additions to the crew rosters.

As the urgency for bomber crews escalated in the Eight Air Force, the decision to withhold the 100th from combat was finally reversed and, for better or for worse, in late May, 1943 the Group was released for embarkation. With scarcely 80 days in B-17s, these newly integrated co-pilots found themselves spanning the North Atlantic, combat bound. Many of us had precious little time at the controls of the aircraft and were sorely lacking in vital formation techniques and emergency procedures., particularly under fully loaded flight conditions. Confronted with these negatives, not to say the smoldering animosity of some of the other crew members, just managing to get to the combat zone presented some rather formidable risks!

In my own case, crew resentment at having to accept a green co-pilot in place of a favorite buddy who had been through the training phases. proved quite contentious. But as we reached out intermediate point at Gander Lake, Newfoundland, Lt Glenn W. Dye, the First Pilot, became hospitalized while we were awaiting favorable tailwinds to enable the 12-hour crossing of the Atlantic. When finally released from the hospital nearly two weeks later, the rest of the Group had already departed and he was actually so weal form sulfa treatments he had to be loaded into the airplane. The stark realization by the crew that the new co-pilot was going to have to get us to the combat zone, finally sunk in and the crew reluctantly began to function as a team.

Upon arrival at Thorpe Abbotts on June 15th, we were already two weeks behind the Group in becoming operational. As a result, Lt Dye became determined that he was going to complete his required 25 combat missions and return to the States as quickly as possible. From June 25th, 1943 to September 16, 1943 the 100th Bomb Group completed some 30 or more combat missions, of which Dye and his crew, with the exception of myself and S/Sgt Elder Dickerson, completed their tour of 25 combat missions. To my knowledge, this record of completing a combat tour in less than 11 weeks was never surpassed in the Eighth Air Force. Sgt Dickerson, a waist gunner, was flying with Tom Murphy in "Picadilly Lily" which was lost on the Bremen raid, October 8, 1943. It was Dickerson's 25th mission.

As combat experience increased and losses of original crews were sustained, the co-pilots of the Group were checked out as First Pilots as fast as possible and assigned replacement crews.

In all, this class of pilots actually sustained approximately a 90% loss factor within the first four months the Group was operational. While many of the myths about the overall losses of the Hundredth are not supportable, it would certainly be interesting to compare the loss ratio of the Class of 43-B with any other group during a like period of combat.

350TH SQDN.. ACCORDING TO "THEY NEVER HAD IT SO GOOD" " PAGE 81; DESCRIBING ACTION ABOARD A B-17 FLOWN ON THE 17 AUG 43 REGENSBURG MISSION SAYS, "BULLETS WERE EVERYWHERE, SOME PASSED CLOSE TO LT MENZIE'S POSITION WHERE HE STOOPED, FIRING WITHOUT PAUSE."  (that action took place in the nose section on Phartzac.  On that day, Major Gale "Buck Cleven rode in the Left seat, Capt. Scott in the Right, and Maj Cleven moved the CP that day, Lt Menzie down into the nose of the plane where he manned one of the 50 cal, cheek guns.  This was confirmed by Gale Cleven in a telephone conversation in Dec 2005.    HE WAS ON THE SCOTT/ CLEVEN AIRCRAFT FOR THE REGENSBURG MISSION. 

CREW  1ST LT NORMAN H. SCOTT      P NOC
2ND LT KENNETH O. BLAIR     CP CPT
1ST LT DONALD L. STROUT   NAV NOC
1ST LT NORRIS G. NORMAN    BOM CPT 18 MAR 44 LANDSBURG
T/SGT JAMES E. PARKS         TTE CPT 18 MAR 44 LANDSBURG
T/SGT NORMAN M. SMITH      ROG KIA 17 AUG 43 REGENSBURG
S/SGT LEWIS D. MILLER          BTG CPT
S/SGT BLAZIER PADDY             TG CPT 18 MAR 44 LANDSBURG
PVT BRITTON I. SMITH            WG CPT 18 MAR 44 LANDSBURG
CPL JEROME E. FERROGGIARO   WG POW 8 OCT 43 BREMEN

350TH SQDN.. THIS WAS AN ORIGINAL 100TH CREW.   CREW FLEW A/C "Phartzac" 42-30358.

This visor cap, in winter OD green issue color, was made by Dunlap which is well marked in the crown. Size US 7 in worn but good condition with the iconic "crush" shape. The sweatband is embossed in gold DUNLAP. This peaked cap features a gold tone WWII Army Overseas insignia over a leather visor. The liner also bears a totally original paper name tag under celluloid window that reads:

Also included with this cap is a copy of Blair with his crew.

This is the classic "bomber pilot" headgear, worn by USAAF pilots in Europe and the Pacific. Actually, this was the standard Army/AAF officer dress cap, worn by pilots and non-pilots alike, but pilots gave this cap their own unique twist. Normally, this cap had stiffeners -- a support piece behind the cap device and a wire around the inside top perimeter to maintain the cap's round shape. These kept the cap in its proper, regulation military shape and angle. However, since bomber pilots wore headsets over their caps during flights, they would remove the wire stiffener to make headset wear more comfortable, causing the sides of the caps to become crushed. Eventually, the caps retained their floppy "crushed" look, giving the pilot who wore it the look of a seasoned veteran.

The crush cap identified its wearer as an experienced pro, and was as much a part of his identity as his leather flight jacket. The crush cap look quickly became popular with ground army officers and general officers.