Clarence “Bully” Beevers was apart of the 61st Bomber Squadron, 39th Bomber Group. He served as a flight engineer for the 31st Crew. This means his job was to inspect the air crafts and perform special in-craft duties. Beevers flew on the P-31 aircraft, but was training to fly the B-29. Although he was in the 39th Crew, he flew one mission with the 26th Crew where he flew his last mission. He was replaced by Rube F "Chic" Scheider, Jr. in the 31st Crew after he was killed in action.
The 39th Bomber group was activated on April 12th, 1944 and began training at Smoky Hill Army Air Field, Salina, Kansas. This group was labeled a very heavy bombardment unit and they were selected to participate in the new B-29 Superfortress Program. This was the project consisting of producing 3,895 planes that have a top speed of 365 miles per hour, 12 machine guns, and a bomb capacity of 20,000 pounds. On May 15th, the organization was ordered to move from Salina to Dalhart, Texas for formal training, however the 499th held the field for training, the 39th Crew was not able to start formally training until August 1944. The final phase of training for the 39th began on January 15th 1945. Beevers was assigned to the 31st Replacement Crew, but died before he ever got to fly with his crew. The 31st Crew did not fly their first mission until May 11th, 1945; Beevers flew a mission with the 26th Crew on April 28th, 1945 for his orientation flight and was killed in action.
A picture of the B-29 aircraft
This is the Smoky Hill Army Air Field where Beevers originally began training.