The best crew for the most dangerous jobs. While it is absolutely heartbreaking that they didn't all make it back, the fact any of them at all made it back is a testament to their skills and cohesion as a team.

jay zeamer lived to be 88 not dying till 2007 of natural causes in a nursing home. he lived in maine at the later years of his life and upon his death the governor ordered the flags to half-staff the day of his funeral. he was the last living medal of honor recipient from the Army Air Corps which became the US Air Force

Ember the footage they got from their last mission...

allowed my great-uncle to land on Bougainville

he was a Navajo Code Talker.

when he talked about it we listened.

oh finally she gets to this one, pre-watch predictions: She cries at least twice, once at the flight of the geishas, and once at the end with joe

The turrets on the B-17 rotate 360. The upper turret disables firing at certain angles when pointed rearward to keep from shooting the vertical stabilizer off of the plane.

You're the first reactor to compare old 666 to the A10 and you reference the Last star fighter, you are a special type of awesome Ember. I'm glad to have found your channel.

In regards to the medics at the end…yea that’s not the only time they’ll look at a guy that’s still alive and say “yep he’s dead” just because of how wounded they are.

Exact same thing happened during the Vietnam War, with the real-life Rambo himself, Roy Benavidez. Medics looked at him, saw just how many wounds he had, said “yep he’s dead,” and started zipping him into a body bag before he spat at the guy zipping it up, proving he was still alive.

I've been waiting for forever for you to react/check Lucy, Ember! She doesn't deserve that unceremonious end, it's just so tragic she should have a place in the war museums.
Anyway so glad you're able to know about Old 666 now!

The B-17 is called the "Flying Fortress" and the crew of Old 666 took that as a challenge.

As a partially disabled combat veteran of the United States Navy, I can honestly tell you that old 666 are one of many absolute legends. Even though the American people today have forgotten them, the veterans remember their own.

FYI (and I'm Certain it's already been said Somewhere in the Comments), the Top Gunner could Turn 360, and Angle Up about 45°, but Only the "Flex Guns" were able to Target something Dead Ahead. The Ball and Top Turrets couldn't Hit Anything Below their Height due to Safety Concerns, so That is why they needed the Guns on the Later Models.

There's one detail Nick gets wrong: in that final flight of the Eager Beavers, it was more than Zeroes chasing them - there was at least one twin-engine Nakajima J1N1 Gekkō (reporting name "Irving"), which was what actually had the 20mm cannon that mortally wounded Joe Sarnoski, and injured Jay Zeamer, Johnny Able, and Ruby Johnston (who was filling in for two malaria-stricken members of the Eager Beavers' core group).
To get an idea of just how much of a badass Joseph Sarnoski was, he held on with his fatal 20mm wounds just long enough to get back on his machine gun to drive off the J1N1 before it could do more damage before collapsing from his wounds.

The fact that Jay lived, and Joe died, is dumb unluck and luck. However they managed to single-handedly save the marines

I have never cried when watching the Fat Electrician with this video before. Somehow, your sadness spread to me and made me cry too.

1:00:41 I recently visited the Smithsonian air and space museum in DC and experienced the fighter simulation, flying a p-51 for the red tails. There was no real elevation, no real g forces, but the cockpit could do 360 rolls and a near 90 degree pitch. My wife, God bless her, was the only thing keeping me in the fight I was so easily disoriented.

I can only imagine how insane this last fight was pulling maneuvers wildly more intense than my own ideas, while being shot at with real bullets and bleeding out on top of it. I left that game with shaking legs, an amazing memory and more respect than ever before for the brave men and women both before and now who did so much more than I did.


To our service members who read this:
You flew through fire, smoke, and rain,
Through screaming skies and burning pain.
You faced the bullets, stood your ground,
So peace and hope could still be found.

Though some came home and some gave more,
Your names will live forevermore.
For hearts like yours do not just fade,
They live in every life you've saved.

Ol 666 is a plane after my own heart. I too like the idea of making big slow aircraft move fast, or do maneuvers it shouldn't. I did it all the time in Elite Dangerous, and STO.

I've had a lazy left eye for my whole life so I'm glad you talked about training eyesight

Poor Ember. At 18.28 she states that the top gunner position can't fire forward . It is a rotating turret...it goes 360 and can fire forward. The trouble may be that it can't lower the guns low enough to shoot enemy planes that are attacking from the front lower aspect (if the guns could go lower they probably hit the nose of the bomber is my guess). That is why later models of the B-17 hd a chin mounted gun turret to cover the front from attacks.

10:56 not a a problem at all.  I enjoyed it, one because i knew what was coming and how, just defeated, you would feel.   But you also spontaneously put more thought into the concept then that doctor did.

I'm amazed you hadn't seen this one before this, honestly. One of my favorites.
Way late edit because I'm rewatching this for some reason (because that's where my life is at right now): 9:08 "Right, right. I feel you." 10:08 "Nevermind, I don't feel you."