Live Wire B24 44-41235

[Jmcelfresh]

My Grandfathers brother was the pilot of the Live Wire B24. Sam Bowers. He was lost at sea in 1945. I know that some of his crew survived. I have some of his personal items including his flight school books, but little other information. I’m glad to see some photos of the live wire nose art on your site. I’ve attached some photos I have of him. I would appreciate if anyone has any other information. Thank you for this site

[Nigel]

I don't know if you have seen the MACR (Missing Air Crew Report): https://catalog.archives.gov/id/91160672

[Mark Glanville]

Here's my model of LIVE WIRE. It's a 1/12th scale flying Radio Control model with 70 flights so far. I thought the color of the pillow was brown but I saw a painting of LIVE WIRE recently and the Pillow was blue and her suit was red. Does anyone know which colors are correct?

[Jmcelfresh]

Nigel,
Thank you for the link.

[Jmcelfresh]

Mark
That looks awesome. I don’t have any color photos, so I can’t help you there. I’m curious why you chose the live wire. I’d appreciate more pictures or info on your plane. Thanks.

[Jaframe]

To the family of Sam Bowers / “Live Wire” / 90th Bomb Squadron

My name is Jack Frame. I’ve recently completed a family history book regarding my Dad’s service in WW II.
My father Mark Frame was a co-pilot on a PBY. His crew rescued the survivors from the incident when “Live Wire” ran out of fuel.
This incident began with the ditching on July 15th,1945. The 5 survivors were in the water for 25 hours in two rafts. My Dad and crew searched for them all day finally getting in the right spot after a fighter helped direct the PBY to the survivors in the rafts. When the PBY landed they had trouble getting the men close enough to the plane so one of the PBY crew members tied a rope around his waist and dove in the water to help the injured & dehydrated men. The navigator held onto the rope inside the PBY as they pulled each man to safety. What no one realized was, that there were sharks circling all around the rafts and under the PBY. The rescuers kept bumping up against something they thought was debris but turned out to be sharks. I have the names of all of the crew from the MACR. The names of the rescued men were also recently found in the diary of the PBY navigator who helped pull these men out of the water on July 16th, 1945.

I've posted pictures from the rescue that my father had in his photo album along with the PBY and crew photo.

[Jmcelfresh]

Jack
Thank you for the information and pictures. I appreciate them and your fathers service. Do you know where the PBY was based out of at the time?

[Jaframe]

Thank you for your response and sorry for the loss of your family member, Samuel Bowers.

My father's PBY crew was stationed 50 miles north of Manila on the day of the rescue, July 16, 1945. They eventually landed up on IE Shima and Okinawa toward the end of the war.
They were part of the 6th Emergency Rescue Squadron.

The unique aspect to this is that the PBY navigator kept a diary. When he passed away last year his daughter came into possession of all his WW II memorabilia. I recently visited her and we were able to match the names in the MACR with the names he had written down in his diary! The MACRs never mention who actually rescued any surviving airmen, that was something that was overlooked or deemed unnecessary ? So being able to absolutely confirm who they picked up that day is remarkable information.

I would love to share with any families the full written accounts of this rescue as told by the radar observer and the navigator.

Any "Live Wire" crew info or crew pictures would be much appreciated.

Are you in contact with any family members? I've had little luck trying to contact any other crew member families...You're the first.

[Mark Glanville]

Mark
That looks awesome. I don’t have any color photos, so I can’t help you there. I’m curious why you chose the live wire. I’d appreciate more pictures or info on your plane. Thanks.

My apologies for the very late response as to why I chose Live Wire for my model.
Years ago I built a similar Radio Control B-24 of 053 Old Iron Sides and read a story about Live Wire's crash and that the crew were supposed to fly Old Iron Sides on the mission but the normally reliable Old Iron Sides had a problem so they were assigned to Live Wire. With that link I had to select Live Wire as the aircraft to model and as of this writing the model Live Wire has successfully flown 123 times.

Mark

[Jmcelfresh]

Thank you for your response and sorry for the loss of your family member, Samuel Bowers.

My father's PBY crew was stationed 50 miles north of Manila on the day of the rescue, July 16, 1945. They eventually landed up on IE Shima and Okinawa toward the end of the war.
They were part of the 6th Emergency Rescue Squadron.

The unique aspect to this is that the PBY navigator kept a diary. When he passed away last year his daughter came into possession of all his WW II memorabilia. I recently visited her and we were able to match the names in the MACR with the names he had written down in his diary! The MACRs never mention who actually rescued any surviving airmen, that was something that was overlooked or deemed unnecessary ? So being able to absolutely confirm who they picked up that day is remarkable information.

I would love to share with any families the full written accounts of this rescue as told by the radar observer and the navigator.

Any "Live Wire" crew info or crew pictures would be much appreciated.

Are you in contact with any family members? I've had little luck trying to contact any other crew member families...You're the first.

Jack

I was able to get in contact with Ron Worley through linkedin, who is the son of AC Worley who was on the live wire. I sent him a link to this site.