WORLD WAR II: COMING IN ON A PRAYER, HELPING HAND.Byline: Dana Bartholomew Staff Writer Al Olivari clung with his arms and legs to the six-inch catwalk in the open bomb bay of his B-17 Flying Fortress, certain he'd let go and follow 10,000 pounds of high explosives streaming toward Nazi Germany. The nose gunner had one mission: free two stuck bombs jeopardizing the nine-man crew. But he had run out of oxygen. Frigid frig·id adj. 1. Extremely cold. 2. Persistently averse to sexual intercourse. air blasted through the belly of the bomber. And as Olivari lost consciousness, he could feel his legs also losing their tenacious te·na·cious adj. 1. Clinging to another object or surface; adhesive. 2. Holding together firmly; cohesive. tenacious viscid; adhesive. grip. It was five miles to the rail yards of Hamm - straight down without a parachute. ``The flashing thought entered my mind: God, I need some help,'' recalled Olivari, 86, of Calabasas. ``I was losing it fast, ... going into the hereafter In the future. The term hereafter is always used to indicate a future time—to the exclusion of both the past and present—in legal documents, statutes, and other similar papers. .'' Until the hand of a turret gunner suddenly pulled him to safety. The 23-year-old nose gunner from Long Island would go on to complete 26 daylight bombing missions in one of the riskiest theaters of World War II. For Olivari avoiding the fickle fick·le adj. Characterized by erratic changeableness or instability, especially with regard to affections or attachments; capricious. [Middle English fikel, from Old English ficol, finger of fate, the men of two B-17 crews of the 8th Air Force, 94th Bomb Group, 331st Bomb Squad, would enroll him in The Lucky Bastard Club. His older brother William - a B-17 ball-turret gunner who'd won the nation's highest military distinction, the Medal of Honor Medal of Honor highest American military decoration for wartime gallantry. [Am. Hist.: Misc.] See : Bravery , for shooting down two ME-109 German fighters while hanging wounded beneath his plane - had advised him not to enlist. ``Don't go crazy,'' William had told him. ``Mom and Pop Mom and Pop An adjective denoting a small-scale and family-like atmosphere, often used to describe these types of businesses and investors. Notes: A mom-and-pop business is typically a small family-run business. need you. They're not well. I hate to see you going over. It's hell over there.'' In 34 months of combat experience over Europe, ``The Mighty 8th'' suffered more than 47,000 casualties, including 26,000 deaths. On some missions as many as 60 bombers failed to return. Yet the young Al Olivari was bent on Adj. 1. bent on - fixed in your purpose; "bent on going to the theater"; "dead set against intervening"; "out to win every event" bent, dead set, out to flying at the front. His job: sitting in the exposed plexiglass nose with a pair of .50-caliber machine guns looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. Luftwaffe fighters. He was also charged with toggling the bomb-bay switch to release tons of bombs over strategic targets. Each mission reverberated with the roar of four 1,200-horsepower Cyclone cyclone, atmospheric pressure distribution in which there is a low central pressure relative to the surrounding pressure. The resulting pressure gradient, combined with the Coriolis effect, causes air to circulate about the core of lowest pressure in a engines during sorties that lasted up to 10 hours over such cities as Berlin, Dresden and Nuremburg. Before each mission, crewmen ate like kings. ``Whatever you wanted. It could be your last breakfast,'' said Olivari, a soft-spoken veteran with an easy smile. ``You could be in a German camp that night. Generally, you didn't make your beds because that was a sign you might not come home.'' On each mission, Luftwaffe fighter planes circled like schools of hungry fish. Flak burst like popcorn. And B-17s, wings ablaze, spiraled toward destruction. But come home he did. Olivari, whose daughter and three grandsons live in Woodland Hills, would administer 11 medical clinics for the Veterans Administration. Today, he is a member of the B-17 Combat Crewmen & Wingmen. ``We had holes in the plane, with fragments of a 20 mm round that hit the end of the wing,'' he said. ``I think the Guy Upstairs took care of me and my crewmen. ``God, I owe you one.'' Dana Bartholomew, (818) 713-3730 dana.bartholomew(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1 -- 2) At home in Calabasas, World War II veteran Al Olivari, 86, is as patriotic now as he was as the 23-year-old aviator plucked pluck v. plucked, pluck·ing, plucks v.tr. 1. To remove or detach by grasping and pulling abruptly with the fingers; pick: pluck a flower; pluck feathers from a chicken. from death over Nazi Germany. Phil McCarten/Staff Photographer |
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