This may have been taken on 16 April 1945, when this crew served as "Cowboy Scouter."
Rear, standing, left-to-right: William E "Pop" Dolan; Col. Theodore R Milton, Pilot; 1st Lt. Henry Dolson, Navigator.
Front, left-to-right: unidentified; Major Thomas D Hutchinson, Copilot; 1Lt Herbert H Schaaf, Observer.
If this picture was taken on 16 April 1945, the two crewmen not pictured are T/Sgt William H Cawthon, Radio Operator, and S/Sgt Donald E White, Engineer.
Aircraft is a 545th B-17G, serial 42-102430, squadron code JD*O, "SPAM-O-LINER". Note the turrets have been removed and faired over with sheet metal.
Per the 443rd Sub-Depot Unit History of January 1945:
"At the request of Colonel Milton, Station Commander, aircraft 42-102430 is being converted, by the Sub-Depot, to a transport. By removing all turrets guns and putting false floors in waist, bomb bay and nose, seats for eighteen (18) men can be conveniently placed. This aircraft renamed Spam-O-Liner will completed within a few days".
Source: Robert Bletscher, 2011.
Bletscher: "I had sent someone to copy the records, but unfortunately they were too big to be copied on a regular scanner. The Agency Chief at the Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell AFB, in Alabama, decided that they were records that should be preserved, and as a result had his department take care of them."
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