Assembly bombers aka "Judas Goats"

40 Amazing Images of the Colorful "Assembly" Bombers

 

Most interesting, there is, somewhere, a book with them drawn in color, obviously "eye-catching" I use to wonder if they had been "retired" and if crews with their 25 missions done flew them. An aspect of air warfare often not seen. Thanks.
Gaines

 

I really doubt it would be counted as a combat mission.

 

My apologies, I did not write clearly. My wonder was if the planes themselves ( the assembly planes) had been retired from combat service due to having been damaged or simply too many missions to be reliable for combat. My second question was might they be flown by a minimal crew that had already completed their required 25 combat missions. It never crossed my mind they flying an assembly bomber would count against one's combat obligations.

While on the subject some pilots and crew seemed to have taken a stand down then started a second 25. Was that voluntary? Which I thought, or expected, or mandatory in the US Army AF?

 

Assembly ships were those that had been declared "war weary", and had been withdrawn from frontline service. Occasionaly, they were "problem" aircraft that had more than their share of gremlins.

As to the crews, AFAIK, they simply drew the duty, similar to drawing KP duty. For instance, the Assembly ship "Spotted Ass Ape" aka "Spotted Ape" aka "Wonderbread", had some 59 pilots that flew her during her time as an assembly ship.

 

I wondered about how they picked planes to do assembly duty. Thanks for sharing.