Lieutenant Colonel Linden Owings Bricker, retired, was a B-29 captain with over 457 combat flight hours (41 total combat missions: 31 World War II and 10 Korean War) and the recipient of the Honorary United States Navy Submariners Combat Badge in addition to two Distinguished Flying Crosses, a Bronze Star, and Purple Heart. On his first combat mission, December 18, 1944, after a successful strike against the Mitsubishi Aircraft Engine Factory Nagoya, Japan, his aircraft's fuel transfer pumps failed and he was forced to ditch Z-1 "Pee Wee" near Kita Iwo Jima in rough Pacific seas: four crew members perished (2LT Jack O. Mueller, CPL Emory A. Forrest, CPL John C. Estes, and CPL William F. Frank).  The seven survivors (CPT Linden O. Bricker, 2LT Kenneth R. Chidester, 2LT Jay L. Meikle, 2LT Clifford B. Smith, SSG Richard J. Grinstead, SGT Edmund G. Smith, and CPL Stephen J. Darienzo) deployed two life rafts and were rescued the following day by the USS Spearfish, the first rescue of B-29 crewmen by a submarine.  They spent the next 26 days aboard, to include Christmas Day:  “We took the day off just 60 miles from Tokyo. We lay underwater and the cooks outdid themselves.  It was turkey, dressing, strawberry shortcake, and all the rest. Still remember the meal after these 44 years.  Then after the meal we had a movie, 'Tarzan in New York' (from the recollections of 2LT Clifford B. Smith, Flight Engineer Z-1 “Pee Wee“ - 1989).
United States Army Air Forces
Julia Anna Bricker