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1st Lt. Carl Rizer - Pilot |
323rd Bomb Squadron, 91st Bomb Group |
A Distinguished Veteran |
| Carl Rizer joined the Army Air Corp on July 13, 1942, and completed flight training on November 3, 1943. He was assigned to the 91st Bomb Group at Bassingbourn, and reported for duty on June 4, 1944, two days before D-Day. On June 24, 1944, he flew “Outhouse Mouse” to Distre to bomb a railroad bridge. On June 25th, he again flew “Outhouse Mouse” to Toulouse to bomb enemy airfields. “The thing I remember about ‘Outhouse Mouse’, besides being a battle worn ship, was the extra 600 pounds of sheet metal in the cockpit. Most of it was around the pilot’s seat, as well as the control panel. On take off, I had to throttle the engines to full power in order to get it off the ground, and it took most of the runway. It was obvious that one of the previous pilots was concerned about his body parts getting hit by flak”. He flew a total of 26 combat missions in twelve different B-17s (specifications), including “Ramblin’ Rebel”, “Priority Girl”, and “Old Battle Axe”. His primary B-17 was “Sweet 17”, 297276 (OR-S), named after the “Spirit of St. Louis”, which featured nose art done by Tony Starcer. Sweet 17 finished the war with more than 84 combat missions. For his service in the 8th Air Force, he received the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters, the Presidential Unit Citation, and the ETO with two stars. He retired from the Air Force Reserves in June 1976, with the rank of Lt. Colonel. He became a special agent for the US Treasury Department, working on cases involving the casinos in Las Vegas. His work was instrumental in the Armand Hammer case, and he served three years on the Watergate case. |
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| Carl Rizer signing "Full House - Aces High" |
| Special Delivery |
 “My first mission was to Hamburg, Germany, on June 18, 1944, in ‘Qualified Quail’ (LL-R), which was a 401st Bomb Squadron B-17. Our primary target was the Hamburg ship docks. My second mission on June 20th is one I will never forget. Again, our mission was to Hamburg, with our primary target this time being the oil refineries. I was quite surprised to find out our bomb load was not the standard 500-pound bombs, but special bomb canisters filled with propaganda leaflets called ‘Sternenbanner’. I was able to grab a couple of the leaflets, some of which I still have in my possession. The leaflets were written in German, announcing the allied invasion at Normandy only 14 days earlier. On the front was a photo of General Eisenhower and Field Marshal Montgomery, and the message to the German people was ‘Here we come’, calling for them to surrender. After take off, we joined up and headed for Hamburg. I was flying ‘Tail End Charlie’, the last B-17 bomber to go over the target. It was a position I was not fond of flying. After the group released their bombs over the target, we were to fly over the target and release the leaflets. As we approached the target, we encountered more and more flak. ‘Black’ flak was one thing, but when you saw ‘red’ flak, that was serious. ‘Red’ flak meant it was close and peppered the plane with shrapnel. It sure shook the plane. When we arrived over the target and prepared for ‘bombs away’, the darn canisters would not release out of the bomb bay. One of our crewmen had to climb into the bomb bay and kick each one of the canisters in order to get it to release and fall out. I would have preferred to drop real bombs. Many years later, I donated one of the original propaganda sheets to the museum located in the Bassingbourn airfield tower, which honors the 91st Bomb Group. It is now on display in the museum.” |
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| Carl Rizer is one of our Rogue's Gallery members. | |
| (Thanks are due Carl for providing photos and stories) | |
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