It is a rainy May 22nd,
2003. Dave and Chris are ready to conduct their interview with Donald
Tauro. After they get to the
house, Donald welcomes them in. After testing the tape recorder one more time
to make sure it works, they sit down in the cozy living room and begin their
interview.
Chris: What was your branch of service? Did you serve in the army?
Donald Tauro: I served in the Air Force.
Chris: The Air Force. What was your rank?
Donald Tauro: Staff Sergeant.
Chris: What was your training like?
Donald
Tauro: In 1949, I went to Lorey Air Force base and took photography and
that’s what my branch was. I did nothing but photography. I have a lot of
different things I did in photography. Such as a photographer, I was a camera
repairman, I flew over Korea for experimental purposes, and I just had a little
of everything. But most of it was experimental when I was over there in Korea.
Chris: So you just flew planes in Korea? [Note: Donald Tauro was
not the pilot]
Donald
Tauro: Yes I flew with what they call the RB-26’s and they were night
reconnaissance. Everything was night reconnaissance with us, and they were
called "The Blackbirds". And our patch was a crow carrying a
photoflash bomb and a camera and it said, "Alone, Unarmed, and
Unafraid". Because we were not armed. None whatsoever. Nothing but two
oblate cameras in the back of the aircraft.
Chris: So the photoflash bomb, what did that do?
Donald
Tauro: Well, as they dropped them, they would go down in a certain way and
explode and light up the whole area, and the cameras would start kicking in.
And they had also what they called cartridges that came later on and they used
to shoot out little cartridges in pulses. It would flash and the camera would
take a picture. But the photoflash bombs used to light up the whole area and
the camera would take 4 or 5 pictures at a time. As far as I recall we had one
big problem up there. I was flying with our captain Spawn and we were on a test
over the Yellow Sea. They added another bomb rack in the airplane, trying to
get more photoflash bombs. And we went up and I was taking movies of it through
the bomb bay, in the back of the aircraft. And as the bombs dropped out one of
them got hung up nose down, which pulls the pin and starts the time. But they
were set for maximum, and it didn’t want to go out, so I hollered to the
captain. I says, "Bomb stuck! Salvo!" Which means everything comes
out in one shot and it just cleared the airplane when it exploded.
First of all I lost my movie camera cause it went out the bomb bay. It ripped out both cameras in the back of the aircraft. Tore them up right out of the aircraft. The aircraft, well, first of all he called "mayday", which is to make sure they get us on radar. I heard all this going on and he called "mayday", I heard him call back, "We got you" on the radar, and he kept calling back to me to check what damage was back there. The door on the side, which was only a little door, sprung open, and I had to hold it shut all the time, cause I couldn’t shut it, cause it just sprung. And he kept hollering to me and hollering to me. And all of a sudden I realize my throat mic, I didn’t have it on, it fell off. I finally picked it up, and I talked to him and told him that I checked everything and I was fine. The cables all seemed to be working pretty well. He tried all different maneuvers to make sure.
So finally, he landed after probably a good hour. And we got down, he got out of the plane and kissed the ground. And the funny part of it was that we had a new navigator who was black and the comment that Captain Spawn made was, "I never thought I’d ever see a black man turn white."
He was a
nervous wreck, which the rest of us were, too. Believe me. we were all scared.
Either we had to get out over the Yellow Sea or land, and he landed the
aircraft, and there was a lot of shrapnel from the photoflash bomb throughout
the aircraft. The tops of the rivets on the wings were popped in a lot of
places. He brought it all back. So that was my big experience over there,
really.
I did go on
one mission where we experimented during the night taking pictures with the new
things that came out with cartridges which were that long and that big around
[2 feet by 1 foot]. And I think they could hold about 30, and there was an
interferometer in the back where the cameraman would sit, and he used to set
that for certain times, each one of these that would go out. And each one, as
they went out, they would flash. Each flash would start the cameras going, and
this is where they take pictures.
Chris: That’s amazing.
Dave: Wow.
Donald
Tauro: So like I said most of the things I did was experimental. I did go
to Japan for 30 days on a new type of camera that came out. Now I stop and look
at the cameras they use today and look at the ones we used. It’s just
unbelievable what they do today.
Chris: Were they really big back then?
Donald
Tauro: Yes. They used to stand this high [2.5 feet] and the body on them
was like this [1.5 feet] and the film was 9 inches by 9 inches. It was on a
200-foot roll. The lens was at least that big around [1 foot diameter] and
probably about that long. They were a good size. There was one thing – I
don’t have a picture of them at all!
Dave: When was this?
Donald Tauro: I was there from 1951-1952. I got there in
August of 1951 and I left at the end of July in 1952. You had to serve over
there.
Dave: So what were you using these pictures for? Mapping, or
spying?
Donald
Tauro: Well, every night they would check to see where the movement of the
troops were from North Korea, and that’s when they used to move a lot -
at night. And as soon as they came back, they processed the pictures, or should
I say the negatives of the film. Once they got that, they had special fellows
and then they’d send
the B-29’s over to the same area.
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