In 1950, the 22nd Bombardment Group was stationed at March Air Force Base. Due to the historical Mission Inn of Riverside, California, one of the B-29's had been given the nose art of "Mission Inn". And, due to the Korean War, the 22nd BW was deployed from March AFB to Kadena AB, Okinawa between July and October 1950. The museum had a photo, shown below, of the "Mission Inn" B-29 in flight over Korea.
On 12 July 1999, the museum received from Judy G. Endicott, Organizational Histories Branch, Air Force Historical Research Agency (internet homepage: http://www.au.af.mil/au/afhra/) the following information: during July-October 1950, of the 30 aircraft of the 22nd Bombardment Group, only two had a serial number that ended in "3", and that was #44-61693 (in the 2nd Bombardment Squadron) and #44-27263 (in the 33rd Bombardment Squadron) and one of those 30 aircraft had the nickname "Mission Inn". The records did not indicate which of the 30 aircraft was the "Mission Inn".
However, in the museum's photo of the "Mission Inn" B-29 in flight over Korea during the Korean War, an enlargement of the photo clearly shows a "3" at the top of the tail, a fairly clear "6" and part of a "2", giving us #44-27263 as the Mission Inn B-29. Pictures of 22nd Bomb Grroup B-29's while they were still at March AFB show the "I" within a triangle marking on the tail, while pictures after the Group arrived in Okinawa and before September 1950 show they had changed the tail flash to an "E" within a circle. The photo of the Mission Inn B-29 over Korea showed the "I" within a triangle marking. It is interesting to note that during WWII, some B-29 tail numbers were based on organization, not serial numbers, while by the time of the Korean War, the tail numbers were based on aircraft serial numbers. At this time, the museum does not have any more information on the history of #44-27263.
