As a squadron commander, Morgan went on to fly with many different crews, racking up mission after mission. On April 14, General O’Donnell suggested that it was about time for him to quit risking his life, saying: Don’t you think it’s time to retire from combat? You’ve been extraordinarily lucky to complete 50 missions, and I think it’s time for you to go home.After he arrived back in the States, Morgan continued to serve in the U.S. Air Force, retiring in 1965 as an eagle colonel. Dauntless Dotty flew 53 combat missions but failed to survive the war. On her return flight to the States, she plunged into the Pacific.

Divorced from Dorothy in 1958, Morgan later remarried — in a venue befitting a former Flying Fortress pilot. He and Linda Dickerson, herself a pilot, were married in a red-carpet ceremony in 1992 on Mud Island, near Memphis, with Memphis Belle serving as the backdrop for the ceremony. Dickerson, an airshow producer, was given away by retired General Paul Tibbets, the man who dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Morgan’s co-pilot on Belle, James Verinis, served as best man.

After her public relations tour, Belle had been assigned for a time to a training command. But in 1945 she ended up in the aircraft boneyard in Altus, Okla., waiting to be scrapped. An enterprising reporter saw her, wrote a story on her plight and contacted the mayor of Memphis — who engineered her purchase for $340.

For a time the famous B-17 rested outside Memphis’ National Guard armory, mounted on a concrete base. Belle was eventually moved near the Memphis International Airport, where she remained on display in the open, unprotected from the elements, for many years.

Then Hugh Downs, host of the ABC News TV show 20/20, flew to Memphis in May 1986 to narrate a special segment on Belle . Downs, who had served as a pilot in World War II, interviewed both Morgan and Colonel Richard Uppstrom, director of the Air Force Museum near Dayton, Ohio. Uppstrom delivered an ultimatum to the city of Memphis: If they continued to force Belle to live like some of its street people, he said, she was going to be reclaimed by the Air Force.

After the show aired, Frank Donofrio, chairman of the Memphis Belle Memorial Association, found that he had some fresh recruits. One of the most enthusiastic was Memphis advertising executive Ward Archer Jr., who would found the Save the Belle Fundraising Drive. Contributions rolled in from the city of Memphis, Boeing Aircraft Company, local corporations and thousands of private citizens — $552,000 in six months.

In May 1987, Memphis celebrated Memphis Belle’s homecoming to Mud Island. Thousands of city residents flocked to the island to see the largest formation of B-17s assembled since World War II roar across the sky in tribute. Among those present on the stage were Polk, Morgan, Donofrio and Archer. Other Belle crew members on hand were navigator Charles Leighton; James Verinis (who recently died); Casimar A. Tony Nastal and Clarence E. Bill Winchell, both waist gunners; and Robert J. Hanson, radio operator. For all, it was a memorable occasion. Belle had come home, destined for refurbishment and an exciting new career in the public eye.

Now in his mid-80s, Robert Morgan still makes personal appearances and speaks at airshows, collectibles shows and universities. Few know more about real aerial combat than Morgan — although moviegoers are pretty well versed about Morgan’s career with Memphis Belle, thanks to a spate of films and documentaries that immortalized the famous B-17’s story.

Filmmaker William Wyler created his The Memphis Belle documentary during the war. In postwar interviews, Morgan recalled that working with Wyler gave him his first taste of cinema. He told an interviewer that Wyler gave out 16mm cameras to crew members. He said, ‘If you’re not busy shooting your guns, stick these cameras out the window and get some footage.’ Wyler stayed back by the waist gunners, because the angles he’d have gotten from the front would have been terrible. He flew five missions with us. We thought he was making a training film.

The postwar movie 12 O’Clock High was partially based on Belle’s history, as was the 1990 film Memphis Belle . While the latter was fictional (it borrowed exploits of many bombers), that and other movies have brought renewed attention to an aircraft that deserves a permanent spot in the hearts of Americans.

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George T. Wilson hails from Memphis. For more on Belle’s exploits, try: The Man Who Flew the Memphis Belle, by Colonel Robert Morgan, with Ron Powers; The Memphis Belle: Home at Last, by Menno Duerkson; and Biography of a B-17, by Brent Perkins.

This article originally appeared in the October 2003 issue of Aviation History magazine.

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