In most military services, there are units that stand out as unlucky or destined for unfortunate consequences. Either by mission, assignment, or fate, such hapless organizations often achieve legendary status. The U.S. Air Force’s 100th Bomb Group was one such group. By early 1943, the unit prepared for movement overseas. Finally consolidated at Kearney Field, Nebraska, on April 20, 1943, 21 crews of the 100th were supposed to fly some 1,300 miles from their home base to Hamilton Field near Novato, Calif. However, given their ill-disciplined nature and patchwork training, the exercise was a fiasco, and the unit scattered across the western United States. While some bombers made it to California, three ended up in Las Vegas. One bomber went in the opposite direction and landed instead at Smyrna, Tennessee. Given that the pilot’s wife just happened to be in Smyrna, the crew’s wrong-way journey was probably not a gross navigation error. As a result of the failed exercise, Colonel Darr Alkire was fired for incompetence and replaced by Colonel Howard M. Turner. Despite this change of command, such antics and a relaxed attitude would still be part of the unit’s culture. In fact, one navigator confessed, “We were all conceited and quite impossible. We were undertrained and not as good as we thought we were.” Given its poor showing, the unit received remedial training at Wendover Field, Utah, where it conducted intense navigation, bombing, gunnery, and formation exercises. The group was eventually put on the list of operational units. While the 100th was given the reputation as a hard-luck unit, it didn't suffer statistically any more than other units, and in some missions they actually came away unscathed. The collection of missions, actions, and personalities created a synergy that made the 100th Bomb Group one of the most storied units of World War II.
