During World War II, Boeing’s Wichita plant produced more than 1,600 B-29 Superfortress bombers. One of those planes — now known as “Doc” — spent decades rusting in the Mojave Desert before being brought back to Wichita to be fully restored. Now it’s one of only two airworthy B-29s in the world.
KMUW’s Dan Dillon talked with Josh Wells, head of the nonprofit that supports the plane, about Doc’s legacy and the busy summer air show season.
The interview was edited for length and clarity.
DAN DILLON: What does the CEO of Doc do?
JOSH WELLS: I like to say that I've got the greatest job on the planet, because I get to hang out with war heroes and tell their stories, to make sure that we don't forget those legacies, and more importantly that we educate future generations about the greatest generation and about history. Because if we're not teaching history, history unfortunately will repeat itself.
I didn't serve in the military myself, but my grandfathers did during World War II, and I get to help tell those stories. I get to help tell the stories of the men and women who worked here in Wichita, that really put Wichita on the map as Air Capital of the World I get to reunite people with their past, teach people about what their grandpa or grandma did during the war.
And then I get to work with an amazing group of volunteers that really deserve the credit for what we do. It's a 100% volunteer team.
DILLON: How do you get members of the crew like that? Do people call you and say that they would like to volunteer?
WELLS: They do. Everybody wants to be involved, whether it's polishing the airplane, wiping oil or bugs, turning wrenches, going out on tour to tell the story. We have a great team, and every day, we're rotating new people in. I always tell our team that has been around since 2000, when the airplane came back to Wichita for restoration, we still have some of those volunteers, and I always remind them, ‘You're the lifeblood of this organization. We've got to take all the knowledge that you've got, and we've got to transfer it, because your legacy needs to continue.’
DILLON: Speaking of legacy, not too long ago you gave someone an award. Tell us who that person is.
WELLS: A few weeks ago, we lost 101-year-old Connie Palacioz. She was our ‘Rosie the Riveter.’ She was 17 years old when she went to work for the Boeing Company in 1942 and was one of the riveters who worked to build B-29s here in Wichita.
She came back in 2000 when the airplane came back for restoration, and she said, ‘I'd like to help.’ At that time, she was 80-plus, and boy, she was a spitfire. She passed away here just a few weeks ago, and we wanted to honor her legacy. In the United States military, every airplane that you see will have a crew chief — someone who watches the airplane like it's their child. So my director of maintenance said, 'You know, I think we need a crew chief label on the side of the airplane,’ And he hardly got it out of his mouth that it should be Connie Palacioz, and I said, ‘One hundred percent, let’s do it.’ And so we put her name on the side of the airplane, and we unveiled that to her family, and they were touched, very moved.
DILLON: I would imagine that you have heard stories from people, where Doc has visited, and they've got stories to tell you. It’s probably an emotional thing for them to see this B-29 there.
WELLS: Many of our World War II heroes went off to war, and a lot of times, they came back and didn’t talk about it. They went right back into the factory. The women went right back home.
And then fast forward to today. We still run into World War II veterans from time to time, and many of them don't move fast. Some are in wheelchairs, some are using canes, but they reach out and touch the skin of Doc. And pardon the cliche, but it's almost like a Disney movie, where you see the pixie dust come back over them, and all of a sudden they're 17, 18, 19, years old. They're starting to tell stories, and the family's there, and that's when we've learned to just be quiet, just let that veteran just share that story with their family. And then usually there's not a dry eye.
Other times when we are out on tour, that veteran may not be there, but maybe a descendant of a B-29 crewman or pilot will come and say, ‘You know, my dad was a tail gunner,’ or ‘My dad was a pilot.’ And we look at them and say, ‘Well would you like to sit in grandpa's seat,’ or ‘Would you like to climb inside and sit down where your mom bucked those rivets?’ And we put them in the seat, and then we just get out of the way, and you can just see the magic.
That's really our mission, to make sure that we carry on those legacies, connect people to what their mom or dad or grandpa or grandma did, We're just trying to make those connections.
