The Most Highly Decorated Air Crew in U.S. History
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For 80 years,
myth and mistakes have defined the story of the Eager Beavers, who on June 16, 1943, became the most highly decorated air crew in American history.
In that version of the story, pilot Jay Zeamer is a renegade daredevil who no one is willing to fly with, so must put together a crew from a Dirty Dozen-style collection of "misfits and screw-offs," who then help him rebuild a picked-over B-17 carcass from the bomber graveyard just to have a plane of their own to fly. Only the dirtiest, roughest missions ensue, until their fateful and suicidal last mission together, in which they are jumped by anywhere from fifteen to a couple dozen Japanese Zeros, but miraculously and courageously survive and complete the mission.
There are aspects of the real, and incredible, story in there, but much of it comes from highly embellished accounts passed down for decades, and which came as a surprise to the crew themselves, who certainly didn't consider themselves screw-offs and misfits. How do I know that?
For 30 years,
I've been researching and writing about this historic crew, for both a feature screenplay and limited series breakdown, a website dedicated to the crew, and most recently a book, Zeamer's Eager Beavers: The Incredible True Story, now available in both paperback and e-book on Amazon. That research has includes:
- Interviews of the surviving original crew members, their squadron mates, and by now almost thirty family members, who've generously given me their personal insights into the men as well as letters, photos, combat diaries, and more.
- Years of correspondence with numerous experts and authorities on everything about the war during that period, no matter how trivial, from the evolution of the air bases to Japanese squadron movements to the type of vegetation at different seasons.
- Collecting, either personally or through others, over a thousand pages of the archival documents and digital records—squadron morning reports and histories, individual flight records, official orders, newspaper and magazine articles, school records, city maps, you name it—that are absolutely essential to filling in the holes of memory, or correcting it.
All in an effort to make the real story of the crew as real as possible, and better known.
That goes just as much for their equally unknown part of World War II. Part Gilligan's Island, part Road Warrior, it was a war of nomadic Civil War-style tent camps, where dust and disease were as much an enemy as the Japanese, and a handful of old bombers patched with flattened tin cans flew 12 to 18-hour missions through some of the most violent storms on Earth to bomb the most fortified harbor in the Pacific. And still, even with the Empire at its doorstep, and all of the Pacific above it now under the Imperial flag—they saved Australia from Japan. That story alone deserves to be as well known as that of Masters of the Air.
Starting last year,
I began a multi-faceted effort to change that, and in a big way. Not only did I adapt my website material to the book, I set out to make a video that would be the last word on the crew and their last mission, in a way no one else could do, and more realistically than even the History Channel could do in 2007 (though, again, with the legend, not the actual story). Other videos about the crew on YouTube that mean well but all suffer from the same mistakes have amassed, combined, over ten million views. I decided it's high time for me to do my own, and do it right. Not just tell the real story, but to tell it in a way no one has done since the History Channel over fifteen years ago.
To do that, I teamed up with the incomparable aviation artist Piotr Forkasciewicz. Using every photo of '666 currently available, other B-17s with similar camera and gun complements, and every personal testimony available, we put together the most authoritative reconstruction possible of the crew's famous B-17. You can see the result of those efforts in this teaser for the eventual video:
We plan to create at least several more clips like that to help illustrate what actually happened on that mission, to the best we can currently know, and as realistically as can be done short of a movie or miniseries. It will be the cornerstone of much more video content I have planned about the crew and their war.
Which is why we need your help.
We're not the History Channel. We're two guys working from two desktops to recreate one of the most historic bombers in history down to the smallest detail, and scenes from the most highly decorated solo combat mission in history. Doing that to the standard we've set for ourselves takes time and money.
My GoFundMe goal represents only what I feel is needed to ensure Piotr is paid his due for his amazing CGI work for the video, and for the render farm necessary to make it happen. But anything more is appreciated, and will help me devote more time and money to getting one of the greatest war stories never told—the TRUE version—the public recognition it deserves.
My profound thanks—and I know the families' as well, who've waited a lifetime to see that happen—to everyone moved to help me do that. And remember: even if you can't donate, which I definitely understand, just sharing this GoFundMe, and even just the YouTube channel, is a help.
Organizer
Clint Hayes
Organizer
Wolfe City, TX