Conley Edward Culpepper served as flight engineer and top turret gunner of a B-17
"Flying Fortress" in the 8th Army Air Force; 13th Combat Wing; 100th Bomb Group
(H); 349th Bombardment Squadron. After graduating from Sheridan (Grant County, Arkansas)
High School in 1942, he went to work as an airplane mechanic at Grider Field in Pine
Bluff, Arkansas where the Army was training pilots for the war effort.
His unit, the 100th Bomb Group, was nicknamed "The Bloody Hundredth" and
served as the inspiration for the novel and later movie "Twelve O'Clock High."
The novel was written by a former member of the 100th, and decribed life inside a
"hard-luck outfit" notorious for its high combat casualty rates.
The real 100th Bomb Group which was based out of Diss, England, did suffer from
terribly high losses during its daytime bombing raids over Germany.
The crew in which Conley E. Culpepper served successfully completed 35 missions. The
average life-expectancy of a B-17 crew was merely 12 missions.
Upon his return to the United States aboard the troop transport ship USS ROBIN on May
13, 1945, Conley E. Culpepper was stationed in Frederick, Oklahoma where he was training
for reassignment on B-29 "Superfortresses" for action in the Pacific Theater
when two other B-29s, "Bockscar" and "Enola Gay," dropped atomic bombs
effectively ending World War II.
By October 11, 1945 Conley was honorably discharged from the Army. On October 26, 1945
he enrolled with his G.I. Bill benefits in the forestry program at Arkansas Agricultural
& Mechanical College (now Univeristy of Arkansas-Monticello) at Monticello, Arkansas.
