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USAF Captain J.B. Baronowsky
The Berlin Airlift was a joint British/American effort in which the Americans carried the lion's share of the tonnage. Although Cold War is told largely from the perspective of Europeans (British, Germans and Ukrainians), an American story line was absolutely essential. Captain J.B. Baronowky, a veteran of the 8th Air Force, was the right man for the job.
J.B. is the son of Polish immigrants, whose his father works in an auto factory near Detroit. The first in his family to go to college, J.B. leaves his studies shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor to volunteer for the army air corps. He eventually earns his pilot's wings and in due time finds himself in at the controls of a B-17 "Flying Fortress" stationed in the UK. He flies a full tour of duty, bombing strategic targets in Germany during one on the most dangerous and deadly periods of the air war in Europe. J.B. returns to the U.S. after the war and takes advantage of the "G.I. Bill" to resume and complete his university education. He earns an aeronautical engineering degree from the University of Michigan, and gets engaged to the pretty and popular theater student, Patty O'Brien. His plans for a career designing and developing aircraft are rapidly vetoed by Patty, however, who doesn't like the 'low" salaries in research institutes and refuses to move away from Detroit. Instead, Patty's father gets J.B. a high-paying job at General Motors. J.B.'s future looks bright in the summer of 1948. Here is an excerpt featuring J.B.:
Both of J.B.’s sisters had beeninvited to a bridal shower hosted by Patty’s maid-of-honour in Ann Arbor. Theevent finished at four pm, and J.B. picked his sisters and Patty up to takethem to dinner at his mom’s. The plan was for him to drive Patty home afterwards.
By the way the girls werechatting and laughing, J.B. gathered that the event had been a success. Settlinginto the backseat, Barb asked, “Do you have many more showers, Patty?”
“Just two, one next week and onethe week after. Then it will be the Big Week itself.” Patty soundedjubilant.
“It feels just like the build-upto D-Day,” J.B. groused under his breath as he turned the key in the ignition.
Patty leaned forward to switchon the car radio. She turned the dial until she found music she liked and thentwisted around to talk to Barb over the back of the seat. They were talkingfashion and J.B. tuned them out. The music on the radio had given way to thenews. “…General Lucius D Clay arrived in Washington this morning forconsultations with President Truman and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Meanwhile,in Berlin, the situation remains tense, with major pro-Communist demonstrationsin the Eastern Sector of the city. The American Commandant, Colonel Howley,warned—”
Patty turned the dial in searchof music again.
“I was listening to that,” J.B.snapped annoyed. The situation in Berlin interested him. He hoped the Alliesweren’t going to just back down. His father was outraged over the Sovietannexation of much of Poland and kept saying it was time to teach Stalin alesson.
“Oh, sorry, honey,” Pattyreplied, and deftly changed the subject by asking, “Don’t you want to stop andpick up some flowers for your mom?”
J.B. liked the thought, but hiswallet was getting awfully thin these days. “Naw, we don’t have time,” he toldPatty and kept driving. He supposed everything would be OK once he startedworking, but the wedding and all these pre-wedding events were financially andemotionally draining. J.B. was tired of smiling at everyone, giving a thousandpeople the same resume of his future job while listening to inane chatter andgirls giggling. He wanted to get on with his life.
Just after six, they pulled intothe drive of his parents’ home. J.B. knew Patty disliked the entireneighborhood because all the houses looked like trailers and sat on identicallittle plots of land. She’d be in a hurry to leave tonight — and probably therest of their lives, too. He sighed in anticipation of lifelong tension betweenPatty and his parents as he flung the car door open to get out.
His brother Stan burst out of thefront door and jumped off the porch without using the steps. “J.B.! You’ve gota telegram!”
“What?”
“A telegram! It was deliveredwhile you were in Ann Arbor!” Stan shoved it at him.
It was addressed to Captain J.B.Baronowsky, Jr. and J.B..’s heart started pounding. He ripped it open onlyvaguely aware of Stan, Patty and his mother watching him.
CAPT J B BARONOWSKY JR. TOREPORT ASAP BUT NOT NLT 0800 FRIDAY 23 JULY AT SELFRIDGE AFB FOR IMMEDIATE ANDINDEFINITE OVERSEAS DEPLOYMENT STOP ADJ GEN USAF.
“What the f—” he cut himself offjust before he offended his mom and Patty. “They can’t do this to me!” heprotested as he read the text again and again. Yet even as he protested, heknew they could and had done it to him.
“What is it, J.B.?” Patty asked.
“What does it say?” Stan echoed.
“Jesus Christ!” J.B. swore, andhis mother reproached him sharply.
“Mom! You don’t understand!These are orders to report to Selfridge AF Base by 8 am tomorrow morning.”
“For your reserve duty? Ithought you couldn’t be called up until—”
“They can call me up anytimethey please! And it’s not reserve duty — it’s an overseas deployment.”
Exclamations of disbelieferupted on all sides. Patty snatched the telegram out of his hand to read itfor herself. As soon as she'd absorbed the text, she started protestinghysterically. "This can't be! It's insane! That’s less than 24 hours away!And what do they mean by ‘overseas’ and ‘indefinite’? There has to besome mistake!" Patty's tone rose in key and volume with each sentence.“You have to call someone and get things straightened out!” she ordered her fiancée.“If you explain to them about our wedding —”
J.B. cut her off. “The Air Forcecouldn’t care less about my wedding or my job! If they want Capt. Baronowskyback in uniform and flying some gosh-darn airplane, then nothing else mattersto them.”
“But you can’t possiblygo!” Patty wailed.
“You want me to be in jail onour wedding day?” J.B. shot back at her, then turned away clenching andunclenching his fists.
“I’m gonna call my dad,” Pattydeclared. “I’m sure he’ll know some way to get you out of this.” She ran up thesteps and into the Baronowsky house, brushing past J.B.’s mother.
But Patty’s call didn’t changeanything. Her Dad said he’d “see what he could do” but nothing could be donebefore 8 am tomorrow. With Patty getting increasingly hysterical and ventingher anger on everyone else, Barb agreed to take her home in J.B.’s car, so J.B.would have time to pack. His dad insisted he was well enough to drive him toSelfridge AFB, although it meant getting up at 4 a.m. and leaving the housebefore dawn.
J.B.’s mom spent most of thenight ironing his uniform shirts and trousers and then got up at 3 to make abatch of chocolate chip cookies that she wrapped in aluminum foil. In theeerie artificial light of the kitchen, J.B. hugged her goodbye while his fatherbacked the car out of the garage. His mother was teary-eyed. “I don’t see howthey can just yank you out of the middle of your life and send you overseaswhen there’s not even a war on. It just doesn’t seem right,” she complained.
“That’s the army way, Mom,” J.B.told her with resignation. “Duty comes first. Things are pretty tense inEurope, and my guess is we’re deploying a couple of bomber squadrons to Englandto remind the Reds we can hit them if we want. I’ll send a cable as soon as Iknow for sure, but meanwhile, don’t worry too much. This is justsabre-rattling. No one is going to be shooting at me.”
J.B. is Introduced in the second Volume of the Bridge to Tomorrow Trilogy
Berlin is under siege. More than twomillion civilians must be supplied by air -- or surrender to Stalin's oppression.
USAF Captain J.B. Baronowsky and RAF FlightLieutenant Kit Moran once risked their lives to drop high explosives on Berlin.They are about to deliver milk, flour and children’s shoes instead. Meanwhile,two women pilots are flying an air ambulance that carries malnourished andabandoned children to freedom in the West. Until General Winter deploys on theside of Russia. Buy now!
Based on historical events, award-winning and best-selling novelistHelena P. Schrader delivers an insightful, exciting and moving tale about howformer enemies became friends in the face of Russian aggression — and how closethe Berlin Airlift came to failing.
Winning a war with milk, coal and candy!
