The Most Highly Decorated Air Crew in U.S. History

For 80 years,

myth and mistakes have defined the story of the Eager Beavers, who on June 16, 1943, became the most highly decorated air crew in American history.

In that surreal alternative history, pilot Jay Zeamer is a renegade daredevil who no one is willing to fly with, so must put together a crew from a Dirty Dozen-style collection of "misfits and screw-offs," who then help him rebuild a picked-over B-17 carcass from the bomber graveyard just to have a plane of their own to fly. Only the dirtiest, roughest missions ensue, until their fateful and suicidal last mission together, in which they are jumped by anywhere from fifteen to a couple dozen Japanese Zeros, but miraculously and courageously survive and complete the mission.

There are indeed aspects of the real, and incredible, truth in there, but it's either bent or plain broken in the rest, most of which was a surprise, and in fact a bit of an insult, though well-intentioned, to the actual Eager Beavers—who certainly didn't consider themselves screw-offs and misfits—and to the truth.

For 30 years, 

I've been researching and writing about this historic crew, first in a feature screenplay, followed by a website dedicated to the crew and a full miniseries breakdown.

All in an effort to make the real story of the crew as real as possible, and better known.

That goes just as much for their equally unknown part of World War II. Part Gilligan's Island, part Road Warrior, it was a war of nomadic Civil War-style tent camps, where dust and disease were as much an enemy as the Japanese, and a handful of old bombers patched with flattened tin cans flew 12 to 18-hour missions through some of the most violent storms on Earth to bomb the most fortified harbor in the Pacific. And still, even with the Empire at its doorstep, and all of the Pacific above it now under the Imperial flag—they saved Australia from Japan. That story alone deserves to be as well known as that of Masters of the Air.

So far, though, my only visibly public efforts to do that have been confined to my website and my article on Zeamer and Sarnoski for the National Medal of Honor Museum which opens next year.

Starting this year,

I've begun a multi-faceted effort to change that, and in a big way. Not only am I adapting my website material to multiple book formats, I aim to make a video that will be the last word on the crew and their last mission, in a way no one else can do, and more realistically than even the History Channel could do in 2007 (though, again, with the legend, not the actual story):

 

That's B-17E #41-2666, known to the crew as "Old 666," or "Lucy," by that time, en route to Bougainville Island on that fateful Wednesday morning of the crew's final mission together. That uniquely armed B-17 deserves to be as famous as the Memphis Belle.

And now, unlike the History Channel or anyone else has done, Piotr can put us at that quality in the plane. Here's a taste from some concept footage:

I plan to create at least a dozen more clips like that, with the quality of the teaser video, to help illustrate what actually happened on that mission, to the best we can know from my thirty years of accumulated knowledge, as realistically as can be done short of a movie or miniseries, thanks to Piotr. It will be the cornerstone of much more video content I have planned about the crew and their war.

Which is why I need your help.

My GoFundMe goal represents only what I feel is needed to ensure Piotr is paid his due for his amazing CGI work for the video. But anything more is appreciated, and will help me get one of the greatest war stories never told—the TRUE version—the public recognition it deserves.

My profound thanks—and I know the families' as well, who've waited a lifetime to see that happen—to everyone moved to help me do that. And remember: even if you can't donate, which I definitely understand, just sharing this is a help.