812th Fighter-Bomber Squadron and its troop carrier assets were transferred to the 700th Troop Carrier Squadron, which was simultaneously activated at Dobbins. 812th Fighter-Bomber Squadron The 812th Fighter-Bomber Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with 482d Fighter-Bomber Group stationed at Dobbins Air Force Base, Georgia. During World War II, the squadron was activated in England as the 812th Bombardment Squadron (Pathfinder). Its Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft were equipped with first generation radars to guide other bombardment units to targets obscured by cloud cover over Occupied Europe and Nazi Germany, earning a Distinguished Unit Citation in
Alan Magee Alan Magee Alan Eugene Magee (January 13, 1919 – December 20, 2003) was an American airman during World War II who survived a 22,000-foot (6,700 m) fall from his damaged B-17 Flying Fortress. He was featured in "Smithsonian Magazine" as one of the 10 most amazing survival stories of World War II. Immediately after the Pearl Harbor attack, Magee joined the United States Army Air Forces and was assigned as a ball turret gunner on a B-17 bomber. On January 3, 1943, his Flying Fortress—B-17F-27-BO, "41-24620", nicknamed "snap! crackle! pop!"—part of the 360th Bomb Squadron, 303rd Bomb Group, was on