Here's a picture of my father, Lt Edward Brant , and his copilot, William Smokovitz, at the controls of their brand new B-29 somewhere over Nebraska in July of 1945. The war ended the next month without them deploying to the Pacific.
Lt Smokovitz stayed in the military following the end of the war. He became a B-29 aircraft commander. Unfortunately on the 1 Oct 1946 the aircraft (44-87627) he was flying from Nebraska to California crashed near Buffalo Valley, NV after being hit by lightening in a thunderstorm. All eleven people on board were killed in the crash.
