Ford Motor Company ad inviting the public to come to Willow Run, MI in the summer of 1945 to view over 400 "Battle-Battered War Weary Liberator Bombers" The a/c pictured in the ad was the 466th Bomb Group's B-24J-140-CO #42-110157 "What's Cookin' Doc" one of the longest serving Liberators flying with the 466th BG at the end of the war. Even though approximately half of the B-24's that served with the 466th BG were built at Willow Run by Ford, "What's Cookin' Doc" ironically was not one of them. She was built in San Diego by Consolidated. So it was going to be old "What's Cookin Doc." After the initial disappointment wore off, we realized that we were not that bad off. "Doc" was a fine old airplane and had good flight characteristics. The next day we went down to the flight line and met Bob Raley, the ground crew chief. We volunteered our services to do whatever he needed us to do to get the aircraft ready for the long flight back to the states. Everybody went to work. Our guys scrubbed the plane from one end to theother. We were shooting for a target departure date of 1 June 1945. It was decided that we wouldn't need the big slabs of additional armor on either side of the cockpit for the trip home. They were removed, which left us a blank space under the window, which our guys decided to do something about. We happened to have a former sign painter on the crew and he found some paint and went to work. On the co-pilot's side he painted on all the air crew and ground crew names. On the pilot's side he painted the mission "scoreboard," Since we couldn't get an accurate count of missions flown by the aircraft (it was rumored to have been transferred from another group), we decided to paint a generous amount. When the painter was finished there were 117 bomb markers painted on the aircraft. (Historical note: There isn't a record of this a/c being transferred from another group, however 117 missions was probably not far off the mark. "What's Cookin' Doc" had been with the 466th BG since June 1944 and over that span the group had flown 180 combat missions. It's reasonable to expect that "Doc" flew at least 117 of those.) The 1 June date was changed to 9 June 1945. The journey home consisted of four flights. The first landed at Valley, Wales where we spent the night. The next night was spent at Meeks Field in Iceland. The third night we stayed in Goose Bay, Labrador. After getting weathered in for a 2nd night at Goose Bay, we finally made it to Bradley AAF, CT on 13 June 1945. Later on at Sioux Falls, SD when we were waiting with some other 466th'ers for our next assignment, a pilot from Detroit handed me a newspaper clipping. The Ford Motor Company had gathered over 400 "war weary" bombers at Willow Run, MI for public viewing. The a/c in the clipping was none other than our "What's Cookin' Doc!" - John J. Horan