By Chris Reber

Long before he joined the military, Ret. Col. Johnny Wood roamed the flight deck of a B-29 bomber.

The bomber was stripped of many of its crucial components, and had paint over the windows. Wood was just a Georgia kid who grew up a few miles from the park where it was displayed.

“We would crawl through the tunnels, over the bomb bays. We were always afraid we were going to run into a rattlesnake,” he said.

The experience inside the bomber had an impact on Wood. He developed a lifelong interest in the planes, which were used in the Pacific during World War II, including dropping both atomic bombs.

Now retired from his military career and living in North Carolina, Wood recently decided to write a book about a B-29 pilot. “Scattered Blossoms” tells the story of an American who grew up in Tokyo as part of a missionary family. Later, he is sent on a mission to bomb the city where he once lived.

When he set out to research the book, Wood was inspired partly by the bomber he explored so many years ago.

When he began his research, he learned that its name came from a small town in Pennsylvania: “The City of Lansford”

The odds of a war plane being named for a town that never topped 10,000 population are pretty small. But it makes more sense when you consider that one of its crew happened to be a native.

Alfred “Fredo” Baldwin was born in and raised in Lansford. He had what was one of the most dangerous jobs on the airplane, tail gunner. He was crammed into a small, exposed compartment at the rear of the plane for missions that could last more than 12 hours. According to a profile of Baldwin published in 2000, that risk entitled him to name the plane - and he chose his hometown.

The City of Lansford wasn’t equipped with bombs, it flew weather and photo reconnaissance missions over Japan. But its crew was still very much in harm’s way, particularly Baldwin.

The 2000 profile recounts one mission, Baldwin’s oxygen supply failed and he lost consciousness. The pilot dove from 30,000 feet to 14,000 feet, where air was more breathable. The profile quoted a crew member who said of the dive, “That, and God, is all that saved him!”

Another harrowing mission came on June 29, 1945. The crew took off from a base in the Marianas, obtaining data for weather forecasts in the area of Okinawa and Kyushu, roughly the distance from New York to Denver. Near Okinawa, which Marines had taken just a week before, they encountered a tropical cyclone. While flying through the storm, one of their engines failed. They continued on to their destination. As they began to return home, a second engine failed. Despite the loss of two engines, they were able to land in Iwo Jima. The mission earned the crew a Distinguished Flying Cross.

After the war, Baldwin returned to Lansford. He retired from the military. Judging by his obituary, Baldwin was a model citizen - a 50-year Mason, a member of the AMVETS, Legion and Joint UVO. He was a caretaker for two churches in the town, and a secretary of the Mahoning Valley Country Club. He died in 2006. His wife, Beatrice, died in 2009.

There are so many veterans from the Panther Valley whose stories include incredible bravery. But Baldwin’s is notable because he enshrined the name of the town on the bomber.

Without the “City of Lansford,” Wood may have never developed his love for the planes. Wood says he would someday like to take a flight in one of the two B-29s that are still in operating condition. And he would also like to visit the town which lent its name to the bomber which inspired him so many years ago. “It was very interesting to know the airplane had a heritage and a history,” he said.