Fiske Hanley IILess than twelve hours after receiving a degree in aeronautical engineering from Texas Tech University, Fiske Hanley was on a train bound for Boca Raton, Florida, and basic training as an Air Force Aviation Cadet. Nine months later he was commissione as a Second Lieutenant. Assigned as a B-29 flight engineer, he was attached to the 504th Bombardment Group (VH). The eleven men of his crew became fast friends as they received combat training at Fairmont Army Air Field, Nebraska. In January 1945, they flew their new B-29 to Tinian Island in the Pacific and began bombing missions over Japan. On the seventh mission their plane was shot down. Lt. Hanley arrived on Japanese soil via parachute and thus began his harrowing experience as an accused American war criminal. On August 29, 1945, Lt. Hanley was liberated by a Navy-Marine task force led by Commander Harold E. Stassen, Deputy Chief of Staff to Adm. Halsey. Returning to Fort Worth, Texas, Hanley remained an Air Force Reservist and pursued a forty-three year aeronautical engineering career with Convair/General Dynamics. He checked out the first Air Force crews in the B-36 Peacemaker bomber and helped engineer the B-36, YC-131, B-58, F-111, and the F-16. As historian for the 504th Bomb Group (VH), Hanley researched, compiled, and published History of the 504th Bomb Group (VH). Read More Read Less