B-24D - Lt. Russell W. Polivka, photo left, navigator, and SSgt. Eugene R. Garner, gunner, on the right. Both escaped the fatal crash of the B-24D, Kickapoo, badly burned, but recovered. This fatal crash was the first crash with the first casualties of the Ploesti mission. The B-24D, Kickapoo, was Lt. John S. Young's regular airplane until the mission to Ploesti when he and his crew were reassigned to fly with Col. John Kane and Kane's lead B-24D, Hail Columbia. Kickapoo, crashed in flames on takeoff for the Ploesti mission at Lete Air Base, Benghazi, Libya, killing the entire replacement crew, except Lt. Russell Polivka, and Sgt. Eugene Garner, one of the gunners, both badly burned in the flames of the crashed and burning aircraft. Aug 1 1943