I got phone call from a fellow who flew on a B-29 in WWII that was named the City of Miles City and had a map painted on the side of the earth showing where Miles City was. He has always wondered who named it. He wasn't on the original crew and assumed the pilot of the original crew was from Miles City.

I know zip about this but was wondering if anyone hereabouts knew anything or could direct me to a web site or something. The local VFW didn't know anything and he haven't had any luck at the library, either. I plan to go through some WWII stuff I have at work but can't for a few days because I have a commission meeting on Wednesday and need to get some stuff done for that.

Amorette

Here's a site where they have the serial number of the plane. Maybe someone knows how to get info from the number?

http://www.usaaf-noseart....ityof2.htm

During World War 2 there were many War Bond Drives held in the towns around here and the amount of sales gave the area the right to have a ship, tank, airplane,etc. named after the town. Perhaps this was one way the plane was named. Ted Schmidt

Hmmm. Maybe the bond drive thing. I know Miles City was always at beat its quota back in the old Savings Bond days, when the government still thought savings bonds were a GOOD thing. Thanks for the help!

Amorette

This is what the Air Force sent me relating to the B-29 Spirit of Miles City:
B-29, s/n 44-69962 "Spirit of Miles City"

Manufactured by Boeing Aircraft, Wichita KS and delivered to the USAAF on 22 Mar 1945.
Mar 1945 To Birmingham Modification Center AL
Apr 1945 To Kearney AAF NE
May 1945 Departed the US for Twentieth Air Force, Pacific Air Force
Mar 1946 Return to US
Apr 1946 To 4135th AAF Base Unit (Air Materiel Command), Hill AAF UT (storage)
Jun 1949 To Boeing Aircraft, Wichita
Sep 1949 To 509th Bombardment (Medium) Wing (Strategic Air Command), Walker AFB NM (to KB-29M deployment to RAF Mildenhall UK)
Dec 1951 To 9th Aerial Refueling (M) Squadron (SAC), Davis-Monthan AFB AZ
Jul 1953 To 9th Bombardment (M) Wing (SAC), Mountain Home AFB ID
Jul 1954 To 3040th Aircraft Storage Squadron (AMC), Davis-Monthan AFB
Feb 1957 Dropped from inventory as surplus

There is a huge AF bomber "graveyard" outside of Davis-Monthan in Tucson, AZ. Wonder if it is still there?

Fred,

Thanks for tracking down that information. Interesting stuff.

I did a quick search in the plane's serial number and found that initially the "Spirit of Miles City" was assigned to the 314th Bombardment Wing, US Army Air Corps. The 314th was known as. the "City of Wing" because of the common theme of the Wing's nose art.
http://community-2.webtv....Resources/

Here's a list of planes in the "City of Wing":
http://community-2.webtv....nes39thBg/

Based on that, I found a bit of background info on the 314th Bombardment Wing:
http://39thbombgroup.org/...inpage.htm

It looks to me like it shouldn't be too hard to track down detailed information on the 314th's history - a lot of people seem to be working on providing such information.

Thanks again.