The extended mission of Stardust Four Zero

It gives me special pleasure to add this book-length story to our growing web site, whose mission it is to find, record, publish and preserve stories from WW II, the Korean War and the early Cold War. The author of this story, Bill Baumer, has lived a most remarkable collection of experiences stemming from his service as Operations Officer and Aircrew Member of the 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron, flying out of Yokota Air Base, Japan. To me, his story reflects the underlying connections that the Korean War had with the early evolution of the Cold War as the Soviet Union began to cloak their plans for world domination through the spread of Communism in ever-growing secrecy and deception. In January of 1953, Bill had orders in his pocket to return to the States after completing his assignment with the 91st SRS. He agreed to fly one last mission to help out his squadron at a time when their regular recon crews were over-scheduled with important missions. His duty was to give a check flight to an experienced B-29 crew that had recently been placed on TDY duty with the squadron to reduce the mission load on the individual 91st SRS crews. Little did he know that he would not get to use those orders that would take him back home. The Chinese Communists had other plans that would delay his return until August 1955.