More than 12,000 B-17 Flying Fortresses were built to take the fight to Nazi Germany, and nearly 5,000 of them never came home. In his documentary 10 Good Men, Trent Jones tracks down the men who flew them and honors them this Veterans Day, so they can tell their story before their voices fade.
At the beginning of World War II, most of these men were regular guys living normal American lives and only hearing about a war overseas. After the war came to American soil at Pearl Harbor, a lot of them signed up, and many wanted to be fighter pilots. The Army Air Forces had other plans. Demand for bomber crews was huge, so these wannabes were shipped off to fly the B-17 Flying Fortress, a slow, steady plane that was easy to fly but also a sitting duck. Each bomber carried a crew of ten: four officers and six enlisted men serving as gunners. These ten strangers were thrown together by chance and quickly became brothers. Now, Dan Nachtrab narrates as ten of the last surviving B-17 veterans tell their stories. They include pilots Roland Martin, George Parker, and Richard Nelms; co-pilot Richard Bushong; bombardiers Paul “Bud” Haedike and Ralph Goldsticker; navigator Harvey Horn; radio operator Walter Ram; waist gunner Casey Bukowski; and tail gunner Bob Buckler.
Richard Bushong, a 390th Bomb Group co-pilot, in a restored wartime photo from 10 Good Men.
“Like clockwork, new U.S. recruits landed in England as replacements for the men who had died on the mission before.”
Like clockwork, new U.S. recruits landed in England as replacements for the men who had died on the mission before. Each B-17 was a flying bomb that could go off at any time. Each one carried 3,600 gallons of fuel, twelve 500-pound bombs, and .50-caliber machine guns pointing in every direction. Crews gave their planes cocky names like Pandora’s Box for some swagger, but it was mostly bravado.
There were so many ways to die on a mission. Many never reached the target. Some were lost in mid-air collisions in bad weather, and others when their oxygen systems failed. The bombers had to stay locked in formation while German fighter pilots in faster, more agile planes picked them off with ease. Then there was the anti-aircraft fire. Crews also had to fly straight through flak, clouds of exploding shrapnel hanging in the air.
Huge losses were normal from mission to mission, and nobody bothered making friends with other crews. Looking out the windows, these men watched the bomber next to them go down in flames, and the lucky ones limped home in planes full of holes or running on broken engines. Several of the ten were shot down and spent the rest of the war as prisoners of war. If a crew made it through six or eight missions, they figured they were living on borrowed time. Tail gunner Buckler said that to keep morale from completely falling apart, no one told them they were losing more than 10% of the planes on every mission. For many, every mission felt like a suicide run, and the same question hung over all of them: how would they ever beat the Germans?
“The men’s stories weave together with great clarity and a solid understanding of what happened in the air.”
After watching Trent Jones’ 10 Good Men, it’s clear that bomber crews flew the most dangerous missions. You were lucky to make it back alive, only to go out and risk it again. Jones brings in some of the last remaining airmen to tell their stories. Though most of them never knew one another, their experiences were the same. They went in with the courage to defend the world against the Axis powers and, by the end, were shell-shocked and lucky to survive.
In 10 Good Men, the editor is the star. The testimony feels comprehensive, giving us as complete a picture as possible in its 88-minute runtime. The men’s stories weave together with great clarity and a solid understanding of what happened in the air. These men’s stories are why we thank all servicemen for their service.
Jones pulls from a great library of archival footage. Though no AI was used, the old photos were color-corrected, restored, and animated to bring them to cinematic life. Is it cheesy? Debatable.
Trent Jones’ 10 Good Men is a clear, well-edited history that weaves ten separate lives into one story of courage, loss, and survival in the skies over Europe. You’ll never forget these last airmen’s own words, and they’re worth hearing while we still can.
"…For many, every mission felt like a suicide run..."
