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Air Force Museum
Strawberry Bitch –
HauntedHouses.com
Haunted
Place — Strawberry Bitch — Air Force
Museum
ADDRESS:
1100 Spaatz Street
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
Dayton, Ohio 45433
(937) 255-3286
USAF Museum web site
LOCATION:
The "Strawberry Bitch" B-24 Liberator can be
found in the Air Power Gallery, which is the home of lots of WW 2
planes, photos and exhibits of a variety of occurrences,
including the The story of the Philippine Death March, life in a
POW camp, The Flying Tigers story, uniforms of all the services,
heroes, and campaigns, and other artifacts too numerous to
mention.
DESCRIPTION:
B-24 Liberator
— The "Strawberry Bitch" — Served with the
512nd Bomb Squadron, 376th Bomb Group of the 15th Air Force based
in Libya and Italy. It had interesting nose art. Some say that the
red-headed babe painted on the side had not a stitch of clothing
on, when the plane was serving in action.
The B-24 Liberator bomber had a number of virtues: It was fast (300 mph at 30,000 feet), capable of
carrying 8000 LB of bombs, and had an operational range of
approximately 2290 miles.
HISTORY OF MANIFESTATIONS:
With planes involved with life-threatening
dramas like war, people have died, but it seems aren't ready to
continue on to the other side.
WW2 — B-24
Liberator heavy bomber, The Strawberry Bitch
"The Strawberry Bitch" was a B-24 assigned
to the 512 BS of the 376 BG. Belly gunners on the B24 were in a
risky position, being especially easy targets for enemy fire or
becoming unintended casualties if the landing gear was damaged in a
raid. Other gunners also may have been shot in the course of
defending their position on the plane by enemy fire.
MANIFESTATIONS:
The old Air Force relics and planes on
display at the museum attract the spirits of crew members killed in
action or accidents, which liven up the lives of janitors and
guards, who have reported paranormal occurrences such as moving
objects, unexplainable voices, actual apparitions and eerie sounds.
In one story I read, a janitor was actually decked by an apparition
out of control. Pilots and crew who loved their planes while alive,
are still attracted to them even when dead.
B-24, The Strawberry
Bitch — Haunted by unknown entities
Strange lights are seen moving around the
airplane. Someone it seems is still serving on board, not letting
death get in the way.
The Belly guns are known to rattle by
themselves, which perhaps is caused by the apparition of an unlucky
gunner who was killed on a mission.
STILL HAUNTED?
Yes indeed.
Whether young men die suddenly in battle or
suffer a slow death, they sometimes go to the other side with great
difficulty. They still had much to do on earth — or were so
traumatized in death they had a great need to remain close to
things which were familiar, looking for answers, unable to
rest.
SOURCES INCLUDE:
Fiddler's Green.net paper models – B-24 Liberator * Paranormal Travel Guide (Ohio) on Haunted-Places.com * The USAF Museum on Forgotten-Ohio.com * Consolidated B-24 Liberator on Warbirdalley.com * USAF Museum web site
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